Rebank: Fintech Analysis

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.

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.