Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Slava Solodkiy founded Life.SREDA, a fintech-focused VC fund, in 2012 and has been running it ever since. Life.SREDA 1, which was focused on A-rounds in the US and Europe, invested $40m in 13 companies including Fidor, Moven, Simple, Anthemis, SumUp and Rocketbank. In November 2014, Life.SREDA launched its second fund, a $100m fund focused on B-rounds in Asia. So far, fund 2 has invested in companies including Fastacash, Mobikon, Lenddo, Ayannah and SoftPay. Life.SREDA also runs a $100m global blockchain fund. Slava and his team at Life.SREDA also regularly produce amazing fintech reports, including Money of the Future, which I'd highly recommend anyone with an interest in the space check out.

Alex Tapscott is a globally recognized thought-leader, advocate, speaker and writer focused on the impact of emerging technologies on business, society and government. Alex is the co-author of the critically acclaimed best-seller, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World. He is the author of dozens of articles featured in publications such as TIME, Harvard Business Review, The McKinsey Quarterly, Forbes, Fortune, Quartz, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and The Huffington Post. Alex is the Founder and CEO of Northwest Passage Ventures, a consulting firm focused on early-stage high growth companies. Alex is a passionate and vocal advocate for innovation, entrepreneurship and civic engagement.

Faisal Khan, a veritable payments & remittances guru, joins us for the show today. Faisal is a banking and payments consultant providing advisory services to banks, financial services companies and startups. He specializes is cross-border money transfer and all aspects of the value-chain associated with it, across B2B, B2C and C2C. Faisal has extensive knowledge in the design, integration & operation of payment networks and systems for international money transmission. Two things set Faisal apart in this space in my mind: his practical knowledge, based on extensive, on-the-ground research across the developed and developing worlds, and the depth of his knowledge around licensing, regulatory frameworks, and compliance. Faisal is extremely active on Quora as well at his own content-rich website faisalkhan.com. He is also on Twitter @babushka99.

Chris Skinner is one of the world's most authoritative voices on the future of banking. Chris is a writer, speaker, analyst and commentator covering all things digital banking. Chris has published multiple books on the future of banking and fintech, including most recently ValueWeb, which in Chris's own words explores "the open-sourcing of financial services using apps, analytics, APIs...and blockchain." Chris is on the Advisory Boards of a number of companies including Innovate Finance, Moven and Meniga. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand, Next Bank, City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance. The Wall Street Journal named Chris one of "The Top 40 Fintech Influencers Globally." If that wasn't enough, Seth Wheeler, Brookings Guest Scholar and Former Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House, called Chris "one of the most authoritative voices on Fintech anywhere."

This week, we're joined by Jason Bates, co-founder of 11:FS and the bank formerly known as Mondo. Banking is becoming digital. In the UK, four digital-only retail banks are poised for roll-out, and the trend extends to Europe, the US, Canada, and much of the rest of the world. Jason has extensive experience in digital transformation in banking, including co-founding not one but two digital challenger banks, Mondo and Starling. Join us for a deep dive into the problems digital banks are trying to solve and where banking is likely to go from here.

Data science is fundamentally reshaping the way businesses operate and customers experience interactions. In Episode 2, we take a look at what's going on in the world of data science, where recent and coming developments are likely to have a huge impact on customer experience across industries and in turn shape customer expectations for banking and financial services. Skylar Lyon, Senior Data Scientist at Accenture, breaks it down for us.

Jeff Tijssen is Managing Principal and Head of Fintech at CAPCO, a fintech consultancy. Where better to start our fintech journey than with the current state of the banking industry? Jeff's experience working for and with numerous incumbent banks in Europe and the UK shapes his views on the current landscape and where we're going.