Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Clay Wilkes is the founder and CEO of Galileo, one of the leading digital banking and payments platforms in North America. Galileo provides much of the technology that powers banking and payments for companies including Chime, Robinhood and Varo, plus the US operations of Monzo, N26, Revolut and many, many more. In April, SoFi, one of the absolute leading US fintechs and an increasingly full service financial institution, announced the acquisition of Galileo for $1.2 billion. The tie up will deliver, among other things, SoFi's full suite of lending products and balance sheet into Galileo's API platform, making them available to all of the customers Galileo supports. Already a dominant player in the US, Galileo is expanding into Latin America, where Clay sees a rich emerging fintech market. 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, Clay Wilkes.

Today, we're joined by Lex Sokolin to talk through a few recent events that are indicative of the fintech world right now. Brex raised an additional $150 million at a slightly improved valuation vs. its last round just as Monzo is reportedly looking at a 40% down round. Why? Shopify launched bank accounts for its merchants and an Amazon competitor plus Klarna, just as it worked with Facebook to support the launch of Facebook Shops and joined the Libra Association. Lots going on. Lastly, Lex explains why Goldman's M&A activity over the past couple years leads to the natural conclusion that they should buy Schwab. To sign up for Lex's amazing weekly newsletter, please visit www.fintechblueprint.com 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, Lex Sokolin.

Radboud Vlaar is the Founding Partner at Finch Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm and one of Europe's most active series A investors. Prior to starting Finch in 2013, Radboud was a Partner at McKinsey, where he worked for ten years. Finch recently published a fantastic report on fintech in a time of crisis, which forms the basis for our conversation today. The report is available at https://www.finchcapital.com/covid19. 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, Radboud Vlaar.

Laurent Le Moal is the CEO of PayU, a leading emerging markets payments company. As CEO of PayU, Laurent has grown annual volumes to nearly $30 billion and overseen close to $1 billion in strategic investments in companies including Citrus Pay and Paysense in India, Iyzico in Turkey and Remitly in the US, where he is also a member of the board. As if that weren't enough, Laurent and PayU are founding members of Facebook's Libra project, which we touch on in this conversation. Prior to joining PayU in 2016, Laurent ran EMEA for PayPal. 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, Laurent Le Moal.

Ohad Samet is the Co-Founder and CEO of TrueAccord, a company using machine learning, behavioral economics and empathy to reimagine the debt collection process. TrueAccord is a fantastic example of fintech's most fundamental promise: using technology and a fresh perspective to create outcomes in financial services orders of magnitude better than traditional approaches, at a fraction of the cost. Ohad is a seasoned fintech founder and executive. The first company he worked for was acquired by PayPal, where he worked for three years before founding a company that eventually exited to Klarna. He served as Chief Risk Officer at Klarna for three years before founding TrueAccord. In this conversation, Ohad, Lex and I discuss the ability of machine learning to create empathetic customer experiences, AI's ability to be creative, expectations about COVID-19's impact on consumer borrowers and the economy as a whole, and TrueAccord's performance vs. traditional solutions. 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, Ohad Samet and Lex Sokolin.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital is joined by Mike Laven. Mike is the CEO of CurrencyCloud, one of the leading FX and payments companies in Europe, powering some of the most successful financial institutions and consumer fintech unicorns. Mike has spent over 25 years in financial technology, with executive roles at a number of large venture backed firms. Mike joined CurrencyCloud in 2011 and has raised over $140m in funding for the company. In this conversation, Mike and Aman discuss the immediate impact of COVID-19 on the broader FX and remittance market as well as potential longer term implications, why API delivery has been so successful in payments, consolidation and the future of payments, and what the next 12-to-24 months have in store for CurrencyCloud. 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, Aman Ghei and Mike Laven.

Today, we're joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss recent developments in digital money, including stablecoins, CBDCs and a new Facebook Libra proposal. A digital world needs digital money, and a few influential players are actively working to build it. China's BSN initiative and Facebook's Libra embody the East's public sector led approach to building and owning the internet of value, and the West's private sector led (and public sector challenged) attempt at cheaper commerce on the web. While the nature of the approaches may be different, the data and privacy considerations are eerily similar. 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, Lex Sokolin.

Today, we're joined by Brett King, founder and Executive Chairman of Moven, one of the original digital banks, and Lex Sokolin, Global Head of Fintech at ConsenSys. Lex and I discussed Moven's recent announcement to shutter its B2C business on episode 170 of Rebank, and we're happy to have the opportunity to connect with Brett directly to discuss the decision in more detail. Of particular interest in this conversation are Brett's learnings from ten years of running Moven about B2C vs B2B as a digital banking strategy, the missing pieces in the current US and European challenger banking business model and where the space will go from here. 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, Brett King and Lex Sokolin.

Today, Rebank co-host Aman Ghei of Finch Capital is joined by Silvi Wompa. Silvi is the head of portfolio underwriting at Swiss Re, one of the largest reinsurers in the world with over $30B in revenue. Over the past 18 years, Silvi has built an international executive career in insurance across Life & Pensions, Property & Casualty, Broking and the Lloyd's Market at companies like Hiscox, Old Mutual and Willis Towers Watson. She also co-founded Ch.AI in 2018, an insurtech start-up based in London focused on mitigating price risk in raw materials. In this conversation, Aman and Silvi discuss the insurtech landscape, why disruption in insurance has not kept up pace with other areas of fintech, why enablement may trump disruption in insurtech, and what incumbent insurance companies are doing to stay relevant. 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, Aman Ghei and Silvi Wompa.

Today, we're joined by Lex Sokolin to discuss the ways in which COVID-19 is influencing consumer and business behavior and what changes are likely to be permanent. Digital is booming in areas where it hasn't before, both on the consumer and business sides. This genie will not be put back in the bottle. We are in the midst of a quantum leap forward in digital adoption. Fintechs that have long struggled for regulatory acceptance are punching through with solutions for SBA loan and stimulus check disbursement. This pivot toward a more mainstream role doesn't feel like a change that can be reversed. Apple and Google are building tools to enable us to give up even more privacy in the name of public health. Times of crisis reorder moral priorities. 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, Lex Sokolin.