The This Week in Fintech Podcast This Week In Fintech

Welcome back for the next episode of the Fintech OG series!

This week I'm excited to have Laura Spiekerman of Alloy and Aaron Frank of Lightspeed on the podcast. With each of them having more than a decade of fintech experience, these two offered incredible insights and advice. From nearly dying to then selling their company to Goldman Sachs and creating the Apple Card, to making the controversial decision to sell to banks (hello long sales cycles, regulation and small pool of customers), we dove in to what has defined their success and what the future of the space looks like.

PS: Don't forget to follow, like and share the podcast!

Lastly, thanks to LoanPro and Lithic for sponsoring this weeks episode! If you’re in the market to streamline your lending processes or if you just want to see what next-gen loan management looks like, go to ⁠loanpro.io⁠ and book a demo.

And whether you're a venture-backed startup or a mature company looking for robust APIs that can reliably handle your card transaction volume, Lithic may be the right choice. Contact their sales team at Lithic.com/contact to learn more.

In this episode we break down the latest news, articles, events, and dive into our Fintechionary—all in just 10 minutes! In this episode, we explore NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, explaining how it enables secure, fast, contactless payments and revolutionises data exchange. We also cover the latest fintech news and highlight this week's key fintech events. Plus, we dissect the dramatic downfall of Synapse, a once-promising fintech giant, unraveling their partnership troubles, regulatory missteps, financial inaccuracies, and toxic culture. Learn critical lessons from their mistakes to avoid becoming the next cautionary tale. Don't miss out—stay informed and ahead in the fast-paced world of fintech with us!

In this episode, Helen and Jeremy Tsui delve into the intricate challenges of managing debt for startups, particularly the complexities and compliance issues involved. Jeremy discusses how Finley aims to revolutionise corporate lending by applying consumer finance tools to streamline and expedite the process.

Key topics covered include:


Modernising Debt Capital Management: Jeremy explains how Finley’s platform seeks to modernise debt capital management, making it more efficient and standardised.


Challenges in the Tech Industry: The discussion highlights the specific difficulties tech companies face in debt management, emphasising the lack of existing tools in this space.


Innovation and Automation: Both speakers stress the importance of innovation and automation in debt management to improve efficiency and user experience.


Trends in Business Lending: The episode explores the increasing diversity among business owners and the shift towards non-bank lenders, noting the fragmented nature of the private credit market.


Standardisation Issues: Jeremy and Helen discuss the ongoing challenge of standardisation in private credit, despite new entrants bringing creativity to the lending space.


Future of Decentralised Lending: Predictions are made about the continued growth of decentralised lending, with more private and non-bank lenders entering the market.



Jeremy shares personal anecdotes, including a memorable pitch where investors questioned the existence of private credit, highlighting the need for clear communication in this industry.

Welcome back for the next episode of the Fintech OG series!

This week I'm excited to have Dan Rosen of Commerce Ventures and Luis Valdich of Citi Ventures on the podcast. Beyond their professional insights, both of them offered candid reflections on personal growth over their 10+ years in the space, what they thought would have been solved for by now but hasn't, and where fintech is headed next.

Don't forget to follow, like and share the podcast!

Lastly, thanks to Zero Hash for sponsoring this episode! Zero Hash supports 50+ global platforms and has compliantly onboarded close to 5 million people to crypto and stablecoins, and their platform has processed ~$20bn+ in transaction volume. If you want to design new and better mechanisms of payments and the transfer of value across brokerage, remittance, cross-border payments, payroll and commerce, go to Zerohash.com.

This week on the This Week in Fintech podcast, in just 10 minutes, we cover the downfall of brokerage apps post-pandemic, highlighted by Noah Weidner (@noahw) in his article "Signals: The Broker App-pocalypse Is Here," where once-popular platforms like Robinhood have seen a massive drop in active users while established firms like Fidelity and Vanguard continue to thrive. We dive into the fintechionary, remittance, the vital money transfers by foreign workers to their home countries, and how fintech is revolutionising this process by making it faster, cheaper, and more transparent, significantly impacting global economies and reducing poverty. Lastly, we highlight key news, including UK bank fraud losses topping £1 billion and Capchase securing €105 million from Deutsche Bank to support SaaS companies in Europe.

In this 10-minute episode, we explore the latest in fintech from groundbreaking product launches like Wenia's COPW Stablecoin to significant challenges such as Binance's $6M AML fine. We delve into Sophie Vo's insightful article on the globalization era of neobanks, examining how giants like NuBank and Monzo are leveraging international markets to innovate domestically. Our Fintechionary segment demystifies P2P lending, explaining its impact on democratizing finance. Wrapping up, we recommend deep reads on PayPal's optimistic future and Visa's revolutionary One Card. Tune in for a concise roundup of the essential fintech developments this week!