The IJGlobal Podcast IJGlobal

Infrafintech – Infrastructure finance reimagined is an innovative financial journalism podcast. It’s a serial podcast, meaning each episode builds from the last.

Most podcasts about infrastructure finance and finance, in general, are episodic. Podcasters interview a personality or a panel covers a topic for a given episode. They have a conversation and the audience is like a fly on the wall, gaining insights into how those ideas and trends might apply to their own work.
So why is IJGlobal covering infrafintech? 

Our primary focus is covering infrastructure finance at the project level, perhaps uncovering the debt pricing on an 18-year non-recourse loan for a Taiwan offshore wind farm. Or maybe disclosing the short-listed bidders on an M&A transaction concerning the equity interest of a road project company in India.
This first podcast season doesn't share any project-level details nor does it offer particular insights for sector specialists. Rather, it tells a story about an industry-wide issue – the nexus between infrastructure, finance, and technology.
The word infrafintech, which we coined in a feature in 2021, only appears on the IJGlobal website 4 times. Out of nearly 150,000 news articles and features, infrafintech really doesn’t appear on anyone’s radar.
Talking about the why not to cover infrafintech reveals exactly why we should cover it on our first podcast season ... because it’s not on anyone’s radar.
Even well-known business analytics platforms and global fintech databases don’t categorise infrafintech within the fintech industry. The market is undoubtedly small. But that’s today. What about tomorrow? ... What about developing a future worth creating?
Infrafintech – Infrastructure finance reimagined puts a stark question to the infrastructure finance industry ... Why are we practically the last area of financial services to adopt fintech solutions? 

Fintech has significantly enabled and disrupted nearly all aspects of financial services. Yet to date infrastructure finance is the black sheep in the fintech family.
Infrafintech may have its greatest impact in developing markets including those in Asia Pacific, where the need to increase technology investment, lower impact costs, and enhance policy measures is abundantly clear.
This first season targets three audiences – daily users of infrafintech, infrafintech solution providers, and financial backers of infrafintech, whether in the venture capital or corporate venture communities. This triumvirate represents the demand, supply, and financing of the inchoate infrafintech industry. 
Episode 1 – The almost right word – focuses on unpacking infrastructure as an asset class and the contours of infrastructure finance. 

It is critical that our three audiences share a common foundation of understanding. The venture capital industry, in particular, has tended not to have infrastructure finance in its opportunity set.  That's why we examine what infrastructure is and how the private sector has taken an increasingly expansive view of the asset class. 

Entrepreneurs and financiers of infrafintech solutions will need to pick and choose where along the financial value chain to concentrate. Therefore, we also explore infrastructure finance and ways founders can bucket their infrafintech solutions.

It’s easy to lose sight of what is at stake in the financing of large, complex infrastructure assets. We can become disconnected from the human element. In their pitches, founders of infrafintech solutions need to weave in what is at stake – the human element – to capture the imagination of the venture capital and corporate venture communities.

In episode 2, we delve into the challenges facing infrastructure finance to lay the groundwork for what infrafintech startups may pr

In the first of a series of IJGlobal Infra Dig podcasts, nuclear power luminary Dr Tim Stone CBE sets the stall for a massive wave of investments in the UK and internationally as the tide of opinion turns in favour of base-load solutions.
Tim – who was appointed chair of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association in October 2018 and has been chair of the Nuclear Risk Insurers for more than 6 years – is an internationally-renowned champion of nuclear energy as a primary solution to a low-carbon future and a well-known figure in the infrastructure finance community.
In this podcast, hosted by IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville, Tim delves into the UK nuclear industry, identifying a massive requirement to build new capacity in the coming years before spotting trends across the international scene, comparing it with large-scale alternatives like offshore wind and the burgeoning hydrogen market.

Dr Tim Stone CBE joins IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville in the second in a series of 3 podcasts where he delves into the future of nuclear investment, primarily in the UK but also with an international focus.
Tim – who was appointed chair of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association in October 2018 and has been chair of the Nuclear Risk Insurers for more than 6 years – is an internationally-renowned champion of nuclear energy as a primary solution to a low-carbon future and a well-known figure in the infrastructure finance community.
In this podcast, Tim focuses on how the UK will finance a massive investment programme in the nuclear space which is poised – not without its issues – to deliver billions of pounds worth of investment over the coming years.

Ian Dixon – an infrastructure and energy specialist of more than 30 years’ standing – joins IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville on the Infra Dig podcast series to discuss all matters energy, and the global shift to renewables.
Ian retired recently and is a well-known figure in the infrastructure financing community having worked in banking, at a monoline insurer, as an investment banker, as well as having had a stint at a credit rater.
This latest podcast continues the theme of energy investment, delving into international renewable energy agendas, the ambition to hit Net Zero and whether it’s realistic to anticipate a world in the foreseeable future where all energy is derived from alternative sources.

For the final podcast in a series of 3, Dr Tim Stone CBE joins IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville to investigate the impact of the Ukraine invasion and energy security issues, before launching into the planned discussion on base-load technologies.
There are few people in the market with as all-encompassing a view on nuclear and the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, given Tim’s role as chair of the Nuclear Risk Insurers. He is also chair of the UK's Nuclear Industry Association.
In the podcast Tim says that: “The 4 nuclear sites that provide 50% of Ukraine’s power are still operating and they are currently… operating safely and sensibly.”
The invasion of Ukraine, Tim says, has added another “bolt of lightning” to the question over energy security which now centres on the “Russian hegemony of gas and oil” which “cannot continue”.
Tim says: “It has rattled cages all around the world in terms of thinking about energy security and sovereignty of energy and it has added more fire to the conversation over what should a sensible energy system in a country look like.”
The conversation moves on to the deployment of Advanced Modular Reactors (AMR), role that is to be played by hydrogen and – the holy grail for nuclear – fusion.

IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville pulls up a distant chair for a fireside chat with Sydney-based Global Infrastructure Hub chief executive Marie Lam-Frendo.
In this latest Infra Dig podcast where we interview infrastructure and energy specialists from around the globe, the spotlight turns on the Australia-headquartered GI Hub to learn more about its plans to increase private sector involvement in the delivery of infra investments in lower-to-middle income markets.
The G20-backed organisation is a not-for-profit organisation – formed by the G20 and majority financed by it – that “advances the delivery of sustainable, resilient, and inclusive infrastructure”.
In this 30-minute podcast, Marie talks listeners through the Hub’s strategy and involvement in markets – as diverse as Indonesia, Mexico and Saudi Arabia – as it rolls out its mission to support transformative investment where it is needed most.