Wharton Fintech Podcast

Andrew Janssens hosts Peter Lord, CEO and Founder of Codat. Peter founded Codat, "the universal API for small business data" in 2017. Codat connects small businesses' consented data from banking, accounting and commerce platforms to fintechs and financial institutions. In June 2022, Codat raised a $100M Series C from investors including: JP Morgan, PayPal, Shopify and Plaid. In this episode you will hear about: - Pete's start in Computer Science and SMB lending, and how it led him to found Codat - What being "the Universal API for Small Business" means to Codat - Open Banking and Codat's proposal for Open Finance - Compare and contrast on the fintech scenes in the UK and USA - And much, much more! For more FinTech insights, follow us below: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Andrew’s Twitter: twitter.com/Adhjanssens Andrew’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-p-janssens/

Tarang Gupta hosts TX Zhuo, General Partner, and Gabriella Brignardello, Vice President at Fika Ventures, a seed-fund investing in fintech, enterprise software, and marketplaces. In this episode you will hear about: - Fika Ventures' manifesto of "whole stories, not headlines" - How to be an effective investor - Interesting startups that Fika has invested in - Segments that TX and Gabriella believe will drive the growth of fintech And much more! About Gabriella Brignardello Gabriella began her career at EY-Parthenon. After three years in consulting, she transitioned to a venture role at WndrCo, a consumer technology holding company, before joining Fika Ventures in 2021. She is also involved in fundraising and operational initiatives for Mi Casa de Angeles, a nonprofit she founded in 2009. Gabriella holds a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. About TX Zhuo TX has been involved with startups since his college days where he started and sold an online college textbook marketplace. After a stint at

Tarang Gupta hosts Vishal Garg, Founder and CEO at Better, the #1 digital mortgage lender in the US. In this episode you will hear about: - Vishal's belief that credit is a great socio-economic equalizer - How trying to get a mortgage turned into the inspiration behind Better - The unique thing about Better that makes it a true marketplace - One professional decision that Vishal would like to change And much more! About Vishal Garg Vishal is the Founder and CEO of Better. At 21 years old, Vishal dropped out of the investment banking analyst program at Morgan Stanley to start MyRichUncle, which he grew to the second largest private student lender in the United States. Vishal is also an advocate for leveling the playing field through public education. In 2021, he launched a partnership with the Fund for Public Schools in NYC, donating nearly $2M to purchase Chromebooks, iPads, books, and uniforms for New York City public school students. About Better Since its founding in 2015, Better has originated over $10

Nihar Bobba hosts Seema Amble, a partner focused on fintech investments at a16z. She primarily focuses on B2B fintech, such as payments, CFO tools, and vertical software, globally. She serves on the boards of Mvmnt and Stoik. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Seema had been investing in fintech for over a decade. She was a vice president at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, a venture growth fund, where she focused on leading investments in fintech and Latin America. Previously, she worked at LeapFrog Investments, an emerging markets fund, and at Altamont Capital Partners. She began her career at Blackstone. Seema also worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while in law school. Seema has a BA in Economics, magna cum laude, and a JD/MBA from Harvard University, where she was a Baker Scholar. In this episode you will hear about: - Seema's path into fintech - Her thoughts on fintech business models in emerging markets - Why she's excited about b2b payments, and a whole lot more

Tarang Gupta hosts Alfred Chuang, Founder and General Partner at Race Capital, a venture capital firm that invests, builds, and partners with exceptional founders building the future. In this episode you will hear about: - What Alfred loves about a venture's journey from zero to one - Web3 and its influence on the future of fintech - Achieving repeated success as an entrepreneur - Economic downturns and its hidden opportunities for VCs And much more! About Alfred Chuang Alfred is the Founder and General Partner at Race Capital. Recognized by Andreessen Horowitz as “Silicon Valley CEO’s CEO”, Alfred is an accomplished entrepreneur, having co-founded and taken BEA Systems public. Prior to BEA, Alfred spent eight years and a half years at Sun Microsystems where he led product development and network infrastructure. Alfred received a B.S. in computer science from the University of San Francisco and a Master’s degree in computer science from the University of California, Davis. About Race Capital Based in San F

Tarang Gupta hosts Patrick Gauthier, CEO at Convera, the largest non-bank B2B cross-border payments company in the world. In this episode you will hear about - What makes Convera the dominant player in cross-border payments - Countries that are going to drive the future of fintech - Operational differences in B2B vs B2C financial services organizations - What working with Jeff Bezos is like And much more About Patrick Gauthier Patrick joined as the CEO of Convera in 2021 after having held senior leadership roles at Amazon, PayPal, and Visa. He has deep expertise in developing high-performance teams and building high-growth businesses. Patrick holds several patents related to payment systems and is a recognized thought leader on the future of commerce and payments, with recurring appearances on CNBC and at industry conferences. Patrick holds a master's degree in Computer Science from Telecom SudParis in France. About Convera Convera is the largest non-bank B2B cross-border payments company in the world. For

Tarang Gupta hosts Gayathri Rajan, Chief Product Officer at DriveWeath, a pioneer in fractional investing and brokerage infrastructure. In this episode you will hear about: - Fractional investing and its role in attracting retail investors - Identifying a great product-market fit - Future of embedded finance and its potential to spawn business opportunities - Why building B2B products is exciting And much more! About Gayathri Rajan Gayathri currently serves as DriveWealth’s Chief Product Officer, where she leads the firm’s strategy in developing and launching high-demand financial services products for investors worldwide. Gayathri joined DriveWealth following a 16-year stint as a product leader at Google, where she built the enterprise business for Google Maps and founded Google’s payments platform. Prior to Google, Gayathri held several positions at the Vanguard Group and Financial Engines. Gayathri holds a BA and M.Eng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Computer Science f

Tarang Gupta hosts Andy Bromberg, CEO of Eco, a consumer fintech company that lets you spend, send, save, and make money, all in one app. In this episode you will hear about - Building an open rewards system - Working towards maximizing wealth of the community - Navigating market cycles in crypto - Choosing the right investors and colleagues And much more! About Andy Bromberg Prior to joining Eco as the CEO, Andy was Co-founder and President of CoinList, a leading platform for token sales, trading, and other financial services for digital asset projects. Andy is also a founding board member at FreeWorld, a non-profit seeking to end institutionalized poverty in the United States by providing access to living-wage jobs for people with criminal histories. Andy studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Stanford University and co founded the Stanford Bitcoin Group. About Eco Eco is a digital wallet that is replacing checking accounts, credit cards, and more with a single balance that rewards you each time you

Andrew Janssens hosts Ashwin Kumar, Head of Startups for Banking-as-a-Service at Stripe. Ashwin is the former CEO and co-founder of Y Combinator-backed Sway Finance, and now helps Stripe's customers to use their BaaS APIs to embed financial products. Ashwin’s startup roots help him guide fintech founders as they work with Stripe to solve complex financial problems. He’s designed products from scratch, taught himself to code, won several hackathons to support his entrepreneurial endeavors, and was part of Y Combinator’s S16 cohort. Prior to joining Stripe in 2021, Ashwin was a data scientist for YC Startup School, a product manager/machine learning engineer at Mythic and a software engineer at Autopilot. In this episode you will hear about: -How Stripe is building the infrastructure for embedded finance -How Ashwin won 30 hackathons in a row by working backwards from the pitch -Why calling your company the Uber for X can backfire -And much, much more For more FinTech insights, follow us below: WFT Medium:

Tarang Gupta hosts Andrew Jamison, the CEO and Co-Founder of Extend, an innovative platform that is redefining how credit cards are issued. In this episode you will hear about: - Leaving leadership positions in corporate and start a venture - Navigating the tricky small and medium business segment - Why building relationships is so important in business - How to assess potential investors And much more! About Andrew Jamison A virtual card expert, Andrew was the head of B2B Corporate Payments Products at American Express with a mandate to drive digital payment innovation and adoption. Prior to American Express, he spent 10 years as an SAP consultant. About Extend Founded in 2016, Extend enables credit card sharing amongst non-cardholders via a simple and ubiquitous P2P platform. Extend helps banks, and their customers to capture more business spend on their existing card accounts by connecting account holders and their workforce. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-finte

Andrew Janssens hosts Dimitri Dadiomov, Founder & CEO of Modern Treasury. In this episode we cover topics including: - Dimitri and Modern Treasury's Y combinator journey - Building a culture at a new company - Dimitri's outlook on Real-Time Payments - Modern Treasury's reverse interview of Acquired - And much, much more! About Dimitri Dadiomov: Dimitri founded Modern Treasury in 2018 alongside his co-founders, Matt Marcus and Sam Arons. Prior to Modern Treasury Dimitri was a Principal PM at LendingHome (formerly Kiavi) responsible for building payment operations. About Modern Treasury Modern Treasury is building payment operations solutions to automate the full cycle of money movement and help businesses to implement real-time payments and close their books with continuous accounting. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Andrew’s Twitter: twitter.com/Adhjanssens Andrew’s Lin

Tarang Gupta has a conversation with Danielle Cohen-Shohet, CEO and Founder at GlossGenius, one of the quickest growing solutions powering small business owners across the US in the beauty & wellness space with powerful SaaS and fintech functionalities. In this episode you will hear about - How GlossGenius is building fintech solutions for the beauty industry - Why optimizing ease of use for consumers is paramount - Danielle’s experience as a female entrepreneur - Why she recommends people to take more interest in history And much more! About Danielle Cohen-Shohet Danielle Cohen-Shohet is the CEO and Founder of GlossGenius. Prior to starting GlossGenius, Danielle was an analyst at Goldman Sachs and graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University. Danielle was selected as a member of the Fast Company Impact Council, the Inaugural Sephora Accelerate Program, and a member of Techstars NYC. About GlossGenius GlossGenius is one of the quickest growing solutions powering small business owners across the US i

Tarang Gupta sits down with Latif Peracha, General Partner at M13, a venture capital firm investing in enabling technologies that will power the future of work, health, commerce, and money. In this episode you will hear about - The interesting world of Web3 investing - M13’s unique Propulsion Platform for startups - Exciting Web3 startups backed by M13 - What working with Sir Richard Branson was like And much more! About Latif Peracha Latif manages the overall investing strategy for M13 and has led numerous deals across money and health verticals with a large focus on Web3. He was previously the Managing Director at Virgin Group where he led investing in the Americas including investments in Ring, Slack, Virgin Galactic, and Virgin Orbit. Prior to Virgin, Latif worked at Bear Stearns and Ticketmaster and currently serves on the advisory board at the University of Michigan. About M13 M13 is a VC firm with a portfolio of $137 Billion+, including 15 unicorn startups, which focuses on investing in technologies

Andrew Janssens hosts Nik Milanović, Founder of This Week in Fintech, a digest of global FinTech news, and General Partner of The Fintech Fund. In this episode we cover topics including: - How This Week in Fintech evolved from Nik's weekly updates to his teammates and friends - Nik's early start in microfinance and how it has affected his philosophy on fintech - How we can build more diverse communities in fintech - Nik's love of music (specifically DJ-ing) About Nik Milanović Nik Milanovic, is the Founder of This Week in Fintech, and General Partner of the Fintech Fund. Prior to This Week in Fintech and the Fintech Fund, Nik was hire #1 at Funding Circle, led Strategy at Petal and subsequently led BD and Strategy for Google Pay and Google Finance. About This Week in Fintech This week in Fintech is a digest of all things in global Fintech. From a single weekly newsletter it has grown to coverage of fintech news around the world. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: WFT Medium: medium.com/whart

Tarang Gupta has a conversation with Philip Belamant, Co-Founder and CEO of Zilch, a UK-based payment and BNPL provider that is Europe’s fastest-ever company to go from launch to unicorn. In this episode you will hear about - Philip's entrepreneurial journey from Africa to the UK - How Zilch's ad-subsidized payments network is changing the way consumers access credit - Why Zilch decided to take a different approach than conventional “checkout” finance - What it takes to build a 'customer-first' company And much more! About Philip Belamant Philip is a serial entrepreneur who founded fintech companies in developing economies including a mobile payment service and a leading fintech company in Africa, before starting Zilch. Philip graduated Cum Laude from RAU University in South Africa, where he completed both Bsc IT and Bsc IT Honors degrees and he won UK’s Great British Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2021. About Zilch Founded in 2018, Zilch is a UK-based payments and BNPL provider that reached 2 million c

Tarang Gupta has a conversation with Alex Zinder, Global Head of Ledger Enterprise, the B2B division of Ledger, a leader in crypto-asset management. In this episode you will hear about: - Ledger’s pioneering offerings in Web3 hardware and software - Witnessing the dotcom bubble and the evolution of internet companies - What's it like working at NASDAQ vs at a high-growth startup - How to get involved in Web3 if you are not from a tech background And much more! About Alex Zinder Alex joined Ledger Enterprise in March 2021 after spending almost two decades in capital markets technology. Alex was previously at NASDAQ where he was the Director of Global Software Development and held the role of Assistant Vice President, Enterprise Architecture. Alex has more than 15 years of experience in driving the adoption of emerging technologies in financial services organizations and for the past seven years he has focused on distributed systems and digital assets. About Ledger Enterprise Ledger Enterprise, the B2B divis

Andrew Janssens hosts Mark Higgins, Co-Founder and Chief Analytics Officer of Beacon, an end-to-end development platform for financial markets that allows traders and quants to build and share code and applications across the front and back office. In this episode you will hear about: - How Mark went from his PhD in physics to the world of finance - How Goldman's Sec DB contributed to their trading edge - Whether finance and FinTech are still appealing for today's PhDs - Some of the latest applications of AI and machine learning in modern trading About Mark Higgins Mark Higgins (PhD) is a veteran of the finance industry, and a true technologist with a PhD in astrophysics. Before co-founding Beacon with Kirat Singh in 2014, Mark spent eight years at JP Morgan, launching and delivering the Athena project, and co-heading the quantitative research group for the investment bank. Prior to JP Morgan he spent eight years at Goldman Sachs where he worked on Goldman's legendary SecDB. About Beacon Beacon is a devel

Tarang Gupta has a conversation with Robert (Bob) Pitti, Partner at Liquid Stock, an investment firm providing liquidity to employees and stockholders of privately held companies. In this episode you will hear about: - How Liquid Stock is enabling liquidity for shareholders of pre-IPO companies - How companies can leverage tax arbitrage to retain talent - Robert's outlook on the recent economic uncertainty - Liquid Stock’s growth and expansion plans About Robert (Bob) Pitti Robert is a founder of Liquid Stock and possesses more than 25 years of wealth management and advisory experience. Prior to Liquid Stock, Robert was a founder and Managing Partner at VSL Partners and before that he worked at Thomas Weisel Partners. Robert pursued an undergraduate degree in business from George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. About Liquid Stock Founded in 2019, Liquid Stock is a pioneer in private company liquidity solutions that provides employees with financing to help option exercise,

Andrew Janssens hosts Joe Robinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Hummingbird, a regtech helping banks and fintechs fight financial crimes with better communications and platforms to investigate Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) incidents. In this episode you will hear about: - How Joe came to found Hummingbird after experiences at Square and Circle - How fintechs can stay ahead of the newest forms of financial crime - How banks and fintechs are navigating the crypto universe and financial crime - Building a distributed team and what's next for Hummingbird About Joe Robinson Joe Robinson is the co-Founder and CEO of Hummingbird. He started his career in product management within FinTech and has held roles including VP of Risk and Data Science at Circle, and Senior Product Lead at Square. About Hummingbird Hummingbird is a platform that enables fintechs and financial institutions to conduct their investigations into potential financial crime. For more FinTech insights, follow us below:

Tarang Gupta has a conversation with Ben Verschuere, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Treasure Financial, a cash management platform designed to help businesses transform idle cash into revenue. In this episode you will hear about: - What motivated Ben to launch a fintech startup - How good treasury management can help companies become more profitable - Why banks are disincentivized to offer attractive yields on deposits - His opinion on the next revolution in banking About Ben Verschuere Ben has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, starting his career with Morgan Stanley followed by 10 years at Peter Thiel’s hedge fund and family office, after which he co-founded Treasure. Ben earned a BS in Economics and a MS in Finance from UCL(Belgium), a MS in Statistics from the University of Chicago and was a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. About Treasure Financial Founded in 2018, Treasure is a platform offering treasury as a service. With the Treasure Reserve a