Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Lawrence Wintermeyer (@LWintermeyer) is the CEO of Innovate Finance, an independent membership association that represents the UK's global FinTech community. Founded in 2014, Innovate Finance looks to accelerate the UK's leading position in the global financial services sector by supporting the next era of technology-led financial services innovators. During our conversation, Lawrence references Innovate Finance's recent sandbox paper, which is available at industrysandbox.org. Innovate Finance itself is very active online at innovatefinance.com, and also supports the global fintech hubs federation, which has a great website at thegfhf.org. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lawrence Wintermeyer.

Peeling back the banking stack, layer by layer. This week, we've put together a special show looking at a couple of the biggest topics in fintech. Rebank is lucky to host some of the most noteworthy figures in fintech. The perspective and insight they provide is often an indicator of where things are going. One of the trends we've discussed on the show in the past is the move to component front, middle and backend layers to replace proprietary pieces of the financial services technology stack. Today, we start by taking a closer look at that trend before digging into data analytics, AI and machine learning. We wrap up by looking at the potential for quantum computing to change the way we think about processing for different types of tasks. If you enjoy today's show, reach out. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. For more on the topics covered today, check out the full episodes on our website, iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice.

Nigel Verdon is the co-founder and CEO of Railsbank, an API-layer connecting fintechs to a wide range of banking and payments services in five lines of code. Nigel is a pillar of the London fintech community. Prior to starting Railsbank, he founded and ran CurrencyCloud, an API-based FX and payments solution, invested as a venture capitalist at Orange Growth Ventures, advised startups in the UK and Europe and traded FX at Nomura and Swiss Bank. Banking-as-a-platform is regularly cited as the next phase of financial services evolution, and Railsbank is operating at the cutting edge of that trend. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Nigel Verdon.

Google Ventures invested $25m in CurrencyCloud earlier this year, buying into one of the most powerful fintech solutions in the payments space. Today we're joined by Steve Lemon, co-Founder of CurrencyCloud, to discuss the investment, the company and the payments space in general. CurrencyCloud's API-based payments engine automates B2B payments and FX, powering an impressive range of fintechs, including Klarna, Travelex, Revolut, Azimo, Fidor Bank and, previously, Payoneer, Kantox and TransferWise. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Steve Lemon.

The Omidyar Network is a high-impact, social investment fund set up by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Today, we're joined by Ameya Upadhyay, a Principal at Omidyar. Ameya focuses on the firm's Fintech and Financial Inclusion efforts, investing in organizations that have the potential to create economic opportunity for individuals in Africa, Europe, Myanmar and India. His portfolio includes first movers in India across micro-enterprise lending, digital retail lending, merchant cash advance, and online brokerage. He has been active in Myanmar for the last two years and is closely following the emerging mobile money ecosystem, in addition to making grants to non-profit organizations which are creating sector-wide public goods. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Ameya Upadhyay.

Scott Crowder is the CTO of IBM's Quantum Computing business. In March, IBM announced the construction of a 50-qubit quantum computer as part of its IBM Q program, an industry-first initiative to build commercially available universal quantum computing systems. IBM Q enables customers to access quantum systems and services via the cloud. The technology sits alongside classical computing solutions, like Watson, IBM's artificial intelligence engine. IBM's progress in quantum computing mirrors advances by other institutions, all of which will no doubt contribute to quantum computing having a meaningful impact on businesses and consumers in the coming years. If you like today's show, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Scott Crowder.

UX is a make-or-break component in mobile gaming, and many of the same learnings are being brought to fintech. Today, we're joined by two fintech venture capitalists for an update on investment trends in our industry. Alvaro Alvarez del Rio is Principal at Initial Capital, a mobile gaming and fintech focused venture capital fund. Prior to joining Initial Capital, Alvaro worked in investment banking and private equity. Aman Ghei is Principal at Orange Growth Capital, a London- and Amsterdam-based venture capital firm focused on high growth fintech and mobile gaming companies. Prior to joining Orange Growth Capital, Aman worked at Facebook and Accel Partners. Interestingly, both Aman and Alvaro have experience in mobile gaming (video games, not gambling). In this conversation, we explore how fintech can learn from customer experience best practices developed in other industries. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Alvaro Alvarez del Rio and Aman Ghei.

Penta and Crunch are reinventing banking and accounting for startups and sole traders. Darren Fell is the Founder and CEO of Crunch, one of the original cloud-based accounting platforms, launched in 2009. Crunch serves thousands of sole traders and small businesses in the UK with an ever-increasing range of accounting and financial services products. Lav Odorovic is Co-Founder and CEO of Penta, a Berlin-based neobank offering banking services to early-stage technology companies. Today's conversation explores the convergence of banking and accounting, two closely related and until now separate services for SMEs. If you enjoy today's show, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or www.bankingthefuture.com.

Brett King, acclaimed author, speaker, futurist and host of the Breaking Banks radio show joins us to discuss quantum computing and AI following the Innovate Finance Global Summit event in London on April 10th, 2017.

Michael Kent is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Azimo, one of Europe's most successful fintechs of recent years. Michael is also co-founder and a non-executive director of Tandem, a new digital-only bank in the UK. Previously, Michael co-founded Small World Financial Services, a money transmission provider, which he grew to $4.5bn in annual transaction volumes. Michael is also a startup investor and advisor, working with companies including Curve, a smarter credit card, and ComplyAdvantage, an digital KYC & compliance solution. As always, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or on our website at bankingthefuture.com. If you like today's show, please subscribe on iTunes, or your podcast platform of choice, and leave us a review. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Michael Kent.