Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Manuel Silva is the Head of Investments for Santander InnoVentures, Santander's Corporate Venture Capital arm and a leading fintech investor. InnoVentures' investment portfolio includes companies like Kabbage, Ripple, SigFig, Tradeshift, Curve, Payjoy, Roostify, Trulioo, Klar and Upgrade. In this conversation, Manuel and I discuss advice for founders in a recession, potential for COVID-driven consolidation in fintech, opportunities in LATAM and thoughts on the digital banking business model.

Robo 1.0 success Personal Capital was acquired for nearly $1 billion by Empower, a major retirement savings manager. Softbank-backed insurtech darling Lemonade IPOed at less than $2 billion, in a successful fundraise and listing, and has since seen its market cap rise to over $4 billion. The IPO is a landmark for an insurtech industry in desperate need of successes. And PayPal announces the impending launch of crypto trading to its 325 million uses. The move isn't overly interesting in its own right, but the implications for the crypto space are worth exploring. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex's amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com.

Stuart Sopp is the Founder and CEO of Current, a leading US digital bank. Current has over a million users, with a focus on young, financially excluded Americans. In this conversation, we discuss how Current achieves profitable unit economics, what differentiates Current from competitors, key differences between the US and European digital banking markets and more. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Stuart Sopp.

Mike Packer, Partner at QED, and Michael Sidgmore, Partner at Broadhaven Ventures, are active investors in Latin America, with collective portfolio companies including Credijusto, Loft, Nubank and many more. In this conversation, we discuss market dynamics, nuances and opportunities in Latin American fintech and much more. For all of our past episodes and to sign up for our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Mike Packer and Michael Sidgmore.

Today, we're joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of what's important in fintech right now. And boy, is there a lot to talk about. WhatsApp launches payments in Brazil and is unceremoniously shut down by the central bank a week later, MasterCard buys Finicity to protect itself against Visa's recent acquisition of Plaid, Checkout.com continues its largely silent meteoric rise in payments, Softbank-backed, DAX 30 index component Wirecard "loses" $2 billion from its balance sheet and files for insolvency, Upgrade raises $40 million at a $1 billion valuation to extend its personal credit offering. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex's amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Lex Sokolin.

Andy Rachleff is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wealthfront, one of the world's leading investments and personal finance companies. Building around a core investments offering for young professionals, Wealthfront has added checking, savings and debit functionality plus automation, with the ultimate vision of delivering self-driving money, where personal finance is fully automated by software. Today, Wealthfront is announcing the launch of checking account features in a significant extension of its existing offering. Prior to founding Wealthfront, Andy co-founded Benchmark, one of the most respected venture capital firms on the planet. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Andy Rachleff.

Oliver Hughes is the CEO of Tinkoff Group, one of the world's most successful digital banking groups with over ten million customers. Tinkoff is publicly listed, which brings clarity to its operating model in a time when many noteworthy consumer digital banks are pursuing customer acquisition at the expense of profitability. Oliver has led Tinkoff through three financial crises, so brings experience and perspective to the current COVID crisis. This is a fascinating discussion about unit economics in digital banking and winning business models with a CEO with thirteen years of experience in this game. For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex's amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Oliver Hughes and Lex Sokolin.

We're joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of what's important in fintech right now. Varo raised $241 million in preparation to start operating under its own banking license later this year. Is a banking license an asset or a liability if you're a digital bank? Marqeta is reportedly now valued at $4.3 billion, as banking-as-a-service continues its mature. And LA-based fintech Stackin' raised $13 million to scale its messaging-based offering designed to help Gen Z find the right fintech. What should we make of this? For all of our past episodes, and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. To subscribe to Lex's amazing newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com.

Eric Poirier is the CEO of Addepar, a leading investment technology company with a ten-year track record serving institutional clients. With more than 400 institutional investor clients with approximately $2 trillion in assets on Addepar's platform, Eric has a fantastic view into how the smart money responded during the COVID crash and where funds are likely to flow during recession and recovery. Addepar has raised $245 million since inception to build and scale its platform and recently launched primary and secondary market investments in alternative assets to its clients. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Eric Poirier.

Today, we're joined by Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin. Max is a fintech analyst a ARK Invest, a public markets investment manager focused on disruptive technologies including autonomous tech, robotics, fintech, genomics and next generation internet. Max recently published a report on digital wallets, including Venmo and Square's Cash App, which is available for download on ARK's website. I loved this conversation, which could have been twice as long as it was, and hope to continue exploring this topic in the future. We're also joined by Lex Sokolin, author of the Fintech Blueprint. For all of our past episodes and to sign up to our newsletter, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Max Friedrich and Lex Sokolin.