Wharton FinTech Podcast

Miguel Armaza is joined by Donna Parisi, Global Head of the Finance Business Unit for Shearman & Sterling, a global law firm with over 850 lawyers in 24 offices worldwide. Donna is one of the firm’s Financial Services Industry leaders and also leads Shearman & Sterling’s FinTech Foundry and Shearman Women, the firm’s women’s initiative. About Shearman & Sterling With more than 850 lawyers in 24 offices, Shearman & Sterling is a global law firm that partners with corporations, major financial institutions, emerging growth companies, governments and state-owned enterprises to provide the legal and industry insight needed to navigate the challenges of today and achieve their ambitions of tomorrow.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Craig J. Lewis, Founder and CEO of Gig Wage, a company building modern payment tools for the future of work. Gigwage’s innovative vision aims to modernize an antiquated industry by designing a service that meets the needs of on-demand workforces. Craig graduated from Morehead State University and upon graduation became a Professional Basketball player across Europe, until returning back state side and becoming an expert in payroll technology. Prior to building Gig Wage, Craig became the Chief Strategy Officer of Kairos, a facial recognition/emotion detection startup. Craig was an excellent guest and is an ambitious dreamer who believes is technology’s capacity for wealth creation and its ability to improve lives. He is committed to building this legacy for his family, wife, and 4 children, while elevating the community around him through mentorship and growth.

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Anchit Gupta (WG '21) sits down with Nitya Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of Simpl. Simpl is a technology company that offers Pay-later solutions in India. Simpl has revolutionized online checkout in India by creating a market-leading Pay-Later platform, empowering e-commerce merchants to offer their consumers 1-click checkout, a line of credit at POS, and full buyer protection. Before starting Simpl, Nitya worked on Wall Street for more than 10 years, where he structured, traded and risk-managed structured credit portfolios at Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs. Before that, he was a co-founding portfolio manager at JNF Financial, a distressed credit hedge fund from 2010–2014.   Nitya initially moved back to India with the objective of starting an emerging-markets focused hedge-fund. However, he experienced the shortcomings of the Indian payments and credit stack first-hand when his credit card application was declined. This experience prompted him to dig deeper into the Indian payments landscape and subsequently led to the founding of Simpl. In this interview, Nitya shares: - His educational background and journey as an entrepreneur - His motivations for launching Simpl - Simpl's business model and the challenges of underwriting risk in a cash-first economy like India - Differences between banking infrastructure in India and the US - Simpl's plans to compete with financial incumbents as well as big tech firms such as Amazon and Google - The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Simpl - Nitya's future plans for the organization Nitya has his B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College and his Masters in Financial Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Sarah Hammer, Managing Director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The Stevens Center is the premier research, education, and thought leadership institution in the world for financial technology and blockchain. Amongst Sarah’s many interesting initiatives, she is now leading and helping organize the upcoming Wharton Hackathon, COVID and the Economy, taking place September 21-27, 2020! Visit the website at https://whartonhackathon.com/ for full details, rules and to register yourself or a full team. Hackathon Prompt: How has COVID-19 affected different aspects of the global economy and financial markets? The Wharton Hackathon is open to anyone around the world and we are seeking a diverse group of participants from all levels of experience and academic and professional backgrounds. Teams can consist of 1-4 members and no technical expertise is necessary. Registration closes Friday, September 18th at 12:00 PM. There is no cost to register. Submissions are due Friday, September 25th @ 5:00 PM. Participants will compete for prizes totaling $4,000. We are also excited to announce that throughout the hackathon, academics and accomplished industry professionals will hold virtual discussions on the effects of COVID-19 on a variety of topics related to the economy and financial markets.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Lupina Iturriaga, Founder and Co-CEO of Fintonic, the leading financial platform in Spain, solving the main financial needs more than 1 million users, by enabling them to make payments worldwide with the Fintonic account and to control their finances in the same app. Launched in 2012 at the height of the financial crisis in Spain, Fintonic has raised over $50 million in funding from backers including Atresmedia, Blackbox, ING Ventures, Premier Specialty Network, All Iron Ventures, Ideon Media. Lupina graduated in Business Administration and Management from CUNEF, where she was awarded a scholarship based on academic merit, which proved her worth within the business and financial sector. For some time she was fully dedicated to the world of banking, first in New York and then in Madrid, where she spent some years in the world of treasury and commercial banking, to finally join the company IDEON as a partner, leader in the area of financial consulting. Lupina Iturriaga's professional career positioned her as an expert in financial planning from a very young age and this, together with her entrepreneurial profile, led her to found Fintonic in Spain. FINTONIC was born at the end of 2012, proving a success among those interested in taking advantage of new technologies applied to simplify and control personal finances, saving, getting the best financing and a very exclusive card and account available to its users. Today, more than one million users are already taking advantage of this application, which offers information in a neutral and objective way, so that any citizen can make the best decisions regarding their money, save and also contract the best products from more than 50 entities directly from their mobile phones. Fintonic's usefulness and efficiency in managing personal finances has earned it the first Mobile Innovation Award in the Finance sector from Google, and it was named by IOS as the best Finance app, included in the select ranking of the best 20 apps, with Fintonic being the only one in Finance.

Miguel Armaza is joined by Shinichi (Shin) Takatori, Founder and CEO of Kyash the largest digital bank in Japan offering digital wallet, mobile payments, and credit card services. Launched in 2015, Kyash has raised more than $70 million in funding from backers including all three major Japanese megabank groups and venture capital investors including Greenspring Associates and Broadhaven Capital Partners. Prior to Kyash, Shin worked at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Kurt Salomon Consulting. He is a graduate of Waseda University.

Vanessa Colella is Citi’s Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Head of Citi Ventures, and Head of Citi Productivity. She is focused on harnessing the power of Citi to help people, businesses, and communities thrive in a world of technological, behavioral, and societal change. Before assuming the role of CIO, Vanessa led venture investing and D10X for Citi Ventures, and previously ran marketing for Citi’s North American Consumer Bank. She joined Citi in 2010 from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) after having held senior roles at Yahoo and McKinsey & Company. Vanessa received her masters’ degrees from Columbia University and M.I.T. as well as a Ph.D. from M.I.T.’s Media Lab. She holds an S.B. degree in molecular biology from M.I.T. and currently serves as a member of the Corporation’s Visiting Committee for the Media Lab.

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Anchit Gupta (WG’21) is joined by Marwan Forzely, co-founder and CEO of Veem, a global payments company helping small businesses transfer money internationally. Veem is revolutionizing global business payments and wire transfer systems to help small businesses grow at home and abroad. Marwan is also the author of “Small Business in a Big World: A Comprehensive Guide to Doing International Business." Formerly of Western Union and eBillMe, Forzley is a thought leader in global finance, innovating in the space through disruptive technology like blockchain. In this interview, Marwan shares: - His background and journey as an entrepreneur - The difference between SWIFT and bitcoin-based transfers - The various ways in which Veem is helping businesses transfer money across borders - The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Veem as well as their response to the pandemic and SBA Paycheck Protection Program - His opinion on the future of contactless payments - Advice to young entrepreneurs hustling through this crisis

In this Wharton Fintech Podcast episode, Miguel Armaza is joined by Iñigo Rumayor, Co-Founder and CRO of Arcus, the leading platform making fintech possible for everyone in the Americas. Arcus’ fintech-as-a-service platform helps any business launch a fintech business across the Americas including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi. Based in New York City, Arcus has raised $16M from Y-Combinator, Ignia, Maverick, Winklevoss, Initialized, HOF and Kapor. Inigo Rumayor Inigo is the co-founder and CRO of Arcus, the leading platform making fintech possible for everyone. Arcus’ fintech-as-a-service platform helps any business launch a fintech business across the Americas including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi. In his current role, Inigo is responsible for generating, managing and ensuring the growth of Arcus' business. As a founding member of Arcus, Inigo has served in several roles at the company, including a Vice President and CFO. Prior to Arcus, Inigo worked at Morgan Stanley and as the Managing Director of Rumayor Genetics, his family business, managing all aspects of the operations and expansion of the company. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. About Arcus Arcus is the leading platform making fintech possible for everyone. Arcus’ fintech-as-a-service platform helps any business launch a fintech business. The world’s largest and most innovative companies choose Arcus to launch fintech products across the Americas including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi. The company is based in New York City and has raised $16M from Y-Combinator, Ignia, Maverick, Winklevoss, Initialized, HOF and Kapor. For more information, please visit https://www.arcusfi.com/

On today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Tim Levene, Co-Founder & CEO of Augmentum Fintech. Augmentum invests in fast-growing fintechs disrupting financial services and is the UK's only publicly listed investment company focusing fintech in Europe. Launched on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, Augmentum gives businesses access to patient capital and support unrestricted by conventional fund timelines. This structure also gives public market investors access to a largely privately held investment sector during its main period of growth. Their portfolio of 19 fintech companies includes Tide, interactive investor, iwoca, Zopa, Monese, BullionVault and Farewill. In this episode, we discuss: - Getting started in a fledgling EU VC & Entrepreneurship Scene - The Decision to go Public as a VC - Why fintechs stay private and how it hurts the public investor - His portcos and some he's kept his eye on including "death services" …and more Tim Levene is Co-Founder and CEO of Augmentum Fintech plc. As well as being an active fintech investor, Tim is an experienced entrepreneur, having also co-founded juice bar business Crussh and betting exchange Flutter.com, the latter of which became one of the highest-profile internet businesses in the UK after it merged with Betfair.com. Tim subsequently served as Commercial Director of Betfair. For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: https://twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/

In our latest podcast, Peter Jankovsky (WG'20) is joined by Emmalyn Shaw, Managing Partner at Flourish, a $500 M global venture fund whose investments leverage technology to advance financial health and economic resilience. Emmalyn co-manages the fund and leads its US investment efforts. She has 20 years of technology investing experience, working closely with entrepreneurs to build large-scale businesses. In this extensive interview, Emmalyn shares: • Flourish's goal of advancing financial health and how it grew out of Omidyar Network's impact mission • How Flourish identifies investment themes as well as specific companies to invest in • Portfolio companies that Emmalyn is especially excited about, and how they are helping consumers during COVID-19 • FinTech’s role in helping consumers overcome the financial challenges they are facing • Advice that Emmalyn has for those building careers as venture capitalists and/or entrepreneurs Prior to Flourish, Emmalyn was a Managing Partner at Omidyar Network where she co-managed the financial inclusion team. She joined Omidyar from Oak Investment Partners, where she was a venture partner. Prior to that, Emmalyn held roles at VantagePoint Partners and Barksdale Group. She began her career at Morgan Stanley and MSCI Barra. Emmalyn holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA from University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. When not with entrepreneurs, Emmalyn enjoys time with her husband and six kids.

In today's episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Hanif Joshaghani, Co-Founder & CEO of Symend. Symend is a Calgary-based FinTech helping transform the impersonal, outdated, and inefficient problem of debt collections across the world.  Symend's digital engagement platform combines behavioral science, AI and machine learning to provide a simple, personalized experience that empowers customers to take desired actions while improving outcomes and collector KPIs. Demand has only increased during COVID, where Symend has helped numerous companies personally engage each customer depending on his or her unique situation. Hanif shares how his own experiences as a child inspired him to create Symend, how the product works, how he spotted COVID back in January, and how he raised $52 million virtually. Hanif is serieal entrepreneur who is passionate about building high performing teams that deliver results for clients. Hanif's background includes 15 years of senior roles in capital markets, energy finance, business development and entrepreneurship in a broad range of industries including investment banking, energy and technology. He has raised about $100MM across the four companies he has founded with several exits to date. Hanif is also passionate about helping other entrepreneurs and is an active angel investor in several technologies companies. Hanif received his BA in Economics from UChicago and an MBA from the University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management. For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: https://twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/

In this episode, Miguel Armaza is joined by Prajit Nanu, CEO and Co-Founder of NIUM, a global fintech platform that aims to break currency borders by allowing businesses and consumers to send, spend and receive funds anywhere in the world. Founded in 2014, Nium now has hundreds of employees around the world and has attracted investment from industry leaders, including Beacon Venture Capital, MDI Ventures, Vertex Growth, Visa Ventures, and Rocket Internet. Prajit Nanu, Co-Founder and CEO of NIUM Prajit Nanu is the Co-Founder and CEO of NIUM, a global financial technology platform that aims to break currency borders by empowering businesses and consumers to send, spend and receive funds anywhere in the world in a more convenient and transparent way. Based in the company’s headquarters in Singapore, Prajit is responsible for expanding the company’s geographic reach and establishing NIUM as a leading financial technology platform all over the world. He oversees not just NIUM’s B2B arm of the business, but also its B2C platform InstaReM, powered by NIUM’s technology. Prajit is also responsible for driving innovation in key markets that NIUM has offices in, including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, United Kingdom and the United States of America. Prior to co-founding InstaReM and eventually, NIUM, Prajit held leadership positions in various global organizations. He was the Global Sales Director at TMF Group, a multinational professional services firm headquartered in Amsterdam, and was the Vice President of Sales and Account Management at WNS Global Services, a business process management company. Prajit holds a Bachelor’s in Commerce & Economics from the University of Mumbai.

In this podcast, Miguel Armaza is joined by Adolfo Babatz, Founder and CEO of Clip, the leading solution in Mexico for small and medium businesses to accept digital payments. Founded in 2012, Clip now has more than 400 employees across Mexico and the US and has raised close to $150 million in equity from leading investors, including SoftBank, General Atlantic, Google for Startups Accelerator, and Angel Ventures. Adolfo Babatz Adolfo is the founder and CEO of Clip, the leading solution in Mexico for SMBs to accept digital payments. The company currently has more than 400 employees in different offices located in Salt Lake City, California, Utah, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Before Clip, Adolfo was responsible for Customer Engagement and New Product Development for PayPal Latin America. Before moving into the Engagement team, Adolfo led the team that opened PayPal in Mexico. Right before PayPal, Adolfo studied an MBA at MIT where he specialized in Entrepreneurship & Economics of Information. Previously, Adolfo worked as an advisor to the Executive Vice President of Grupo Desc, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Mexico and shortly thereafter, was part of the founding team of The Carlyle Group Mexico, where he worked as an analyst. Adolfo Babatz Adolfo is the founder and CEO of Clip, the leading solution in Mexico for SMBs to accept digital payments. The company currently has more than 400 employees in different offices located in Salt Lake City, California, Utah, Guadalajara and Mexico City. Before Clip, Adolfo was responsible for Customer Engagement and New Product Development for PayPal Latin America. Before moving into the Engagement team, Adolfo led the team that opened PayPal in Mexico. Right before PayPal, Adolfo studied an MBA at MIT where he specialized in Entrepreneurship & Economics of Information. Previously, Adolfo worked as an advisor to the Executive Vice President of Grupo Desc, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Mexico and shortly thereafter, was part of the founding team of The Carlyle Group Mexico, where he worked as an analyst. Clip Clip is Mexico’s leading solutions for SMBs to accept digital payments. Clip transformed card acceptance in Mexico by offering different models of portable card-reading hardware to accept all credit and debit cards as well as other payment options. The company is focused on empowering Mexican businesses via a set of tools designed to increase merchant’s sales and help them manage their business. The company currently offers hardware products and other solutions to help merchants thrive. For more information visit www.clip.mx Clip is a financial technology startup based in Mexico City (MEX) and Silicon Valley (USA).

In this podcast, Miguel Armaza sits down with Oliver Hughes, CEO of Tinkoff Bank- the leading Neobank in Russia and one of the largest fintechs in the world. The Tinkoff ecosystem offers a full range of financial services for individuals and businesses and has evolved into one of the largest super-apps of the region. Listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as the Moscow Stock Exchange, Tinkoff has a Market Cap of nearly $5 Billion with an ROE of 59%. Oliver Hughes, Tinkoff CEO At Tinkoff, Oliver Hughes is heading the team that is building Russia's leading financial ecosystem. He joined Tinkoff as CEO in 2007 right at the start of the project and has been at the helm every step of the way, helping Tinkoff grow into the world's largest independent digital bank with 11 m customers. Before joining Tinkoff, Oliver worked for Visa International for a decade, including as Head of Visa in Russia from 2005 until 2007. Prior to Visa, he held various positions including at Reebok, Shell UK and the British Library. Oliver holds a Master of Arts degree in International Politics from Leeds University and a Master of Science degree in Information Management and Technology from City University in London. He also has a Bachelor of Arts (First Class) degree in Russian and French from the University of Sussex. Tinkoff Ecosystem Tinkoff is an online financial ecosystem centred around the needs of its customers. The Tinkoff ecosystem offers a full range of financial services for individuals and businesses. With a focus on lifestyle banking, the Tinkoff ecosystem enables customers to assess and plan personal spending, invest their savings, earn loyalty programme bonuses, book trips, buy movie tickets, make restaurant reservations and much more. All Tinkoff services are accessible via our mobile applications and on the Tinkoff.ru website. The Tinkoff ecosystem is branchless: its proprietary network of smart couriers can deliver the Company’s products anywhere in Russia in the shortest time span possible, and customer service is handled online and by call centres (both office and cloud-based). Tinkoff makes active use of AI and machine learning technologies to streamline communications: over 30% of customers' chat queries are resolved with no employee involvement. All Tinkoff products and most of its IT systems have been developed in-house. Some 70% of the bank’s HQ staff are IT specialists. At the core of the ecosystem is Tinkoff Bank, which was founded in 2006 and has since become one of the world’s biggest independent direct banks with over 10 million customers. In 2018, Global Finance named Tinkoff Bank the world’s Best Consumer Digital Bank, in 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015, the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Russia, and in 2019, the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2017 and 2013, the Banker recognised Tinkoff Bank as the Bank of the Year in Russia. The bank’s parent company — TCS Group Holding PLC — has been listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange. The 9M 2019 IFRS net income of TCS Group Holding PLC amounted to RUB 25.1 bn. The ROE was 59%.