The FinTech Report Glen Frost

Interview with Jordan Lawrence, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, Volt.io
 
Jordan Lawrence; Co Founder & Chief Growth Officer, Volt.io | European Advisory Board Member Merchant Risk Council | Real-Time Payments Everywhere
Prior to Volt.io Jordan was founder of PCN: PCN Capital is a leader in recruitment, focusing on Payments, Fintech, Data Science & Cyber Security through it's brands. Jordan is also a kite surfing expert and started his career in sports and kite surfing instructing
Volt is building the next generation payment network that is global, instant and interoperable - connecting real-time payments everywhere. 
In Volt’s words they are “driving the shift to an era where real-time is the only time.”
 In this episode, we cover:
1.     What is the vision for Volt.io  
2.     Progress to date – product, countries
3.     Fundraising – from who? Best places & funds/people to raise from?
4.     Building the team: in UK, Brazil, Asia, and then Australia
5.     Plans for Australia? What will your service be? Target market?
6.     What is unique or better about Volt.io in Australia?
7.     Typical customer?
8.     Partners in Australia? 
9.     Why partner, why not go direct?
10.  Thoughts/comments on Open Banking 
11.  Message to the fintech market?

Learn more: https://www.volt.io/ 

The FinTech Report Podcast: Episode 47: Interview with Alexandre Chavotier, Co-Founder at Upworth
 
“Money works better when it’s all in one place; Upworth is a dashboard to rule them all,” says Alex
“For decades the greatest advantage for financial institutions was their monopolistic hold of your personal data … open banking changed that”
“You can refinance your mortgage within the Upworth App,” 
 
About Alex:
●      Co-founder and CEO of Upworth
●      Started career in investment banking in Europe before working at McKinsey and Quantum Black in Sydney. Was at the forefront of McKinsey´s work in AI, including the development of a trading solution that secured internal VC funding. Consulted to all the large Australian banks on an array of strategic topics and projects
●      Came back to Australia about 1 year ago to start Upworth after a 3-year stint in Mexico as right-hand to the Founder and CEO of ZeBrands, a successful scale-up comparable to Koala here
About Upworth: https://upworth.com.au/ 
●      Upworth is the wealth superapp. 
●      A one-stop-shop for your personal finances where you can connect all your accounts to track your entire net worth, access unique and personalized insights and apply to the best financial products in a few clicks
 
1.     What is your vision for Upworth -  Why did you want to start Upworth? 
2.     What do you do? Progress to date 
3.     CDR and Open Banking – enables the magic
4.     It’s not PFM. Its wealth management, it’s an enabler for other services – a dashboard to rule them all
5.     Fundraising. Best places & funds/people to raise from?
6.     Target market? Typical customer?
7.     What is unique or better about Upworth? Typical customer?
8.     Partners in Australia? 
9.     Thoughts/comments on Open Banking (and/or screen scraping)
10.  Message to the fintech market? More CDR!

Systematic change requires collective action

Misha has worked at a number of exciting high growth companies in tech as well as some well known brands in finance and banking, including Boston Consulting Group, the Commonwealth Bank, Uber, startups Eucalyptus (healthcare) and Vow (cultured meat).

Misha is the co-founder of Grapevine. Grapevine empowers individuals in Australia's tech scene by spotlighting personal stories and insights. Grapevine provides advice based on lived experience and general legal know-how, to reshape power dynamics for a safer, more inclusive environment.

1.What is the story behind Grapevine?
2.Are you a media platform telling stories, self help, legal help; all of the above?
3.What is wrong with tech culture?
4.What can be done – and the role Grapevine plays – esp role of making stories public – what media works best? LinkedIn, mainstream media?
5.Examples of toxic culture
6.What to do if you’re in a toxic culture
7.How to ask questions
8.What could be done differently within startups ?
9.Australia vs International experience
10.Help from big and small companies – get in touch with Misha & Grapevine

For more information, please visit:

Ask The Grapevine: https://www.askthegrapevine.com/

Whispli: https://www.whispli.com/ 

“Plan your home loan and financial life to be portable,” says Gino Farina
“A large part of my job is financial coach, but we use plenty of technology to help us” 
 
 In this episode we cover:
1.     There are 19,000 mortgage brokers in Australia; they run their own business, and are paid by the banks/others when they write loans and recommend other products.
2.     What does a mortgage broker do? Explanation of how brokers help clients, especially educating people about finance
3.     Who are your customers? Individuals, couples, businesses
4.     What are the key issues? Evaluation, decision making time
5.     What tech do brokers use?  Equifax (credit reports), Connective (Mercury), Sales Tracker (CRM, Sales process), Monday (CRM), Cash Deck, My Prosperity and Yodlee (looking at clients cash flows, home loans, interest rates), Canstar, has reviewed Sherlok.
6.     What is the bank loyalty tax? What could be done differently? Client engagement and financial advice is needed. There are 200 home loan providers in Australia, Commonwealth Bank has 25% market share.
7.     Differences between business loan broking vs residential
8.     What is churn and why do people move bank/provider every 7 years?
9.     Message to fintechs

You can get in touch with Gino at The Bondi Broker: 
 https://bondibroker.com.au/ 
 

Expanding access to home ownership: how Own Home is creating homeowners for the next generation of Australians
 
James Bowe Co-Founder of Own Home. OwnHome’s mission is to turn renters into homeowners. James background includes over 7 years with Bain & Co in the USA, UK and Europe, and stints at UBS, Macquarie Bank, a Barrister’s assistant and a debating coach.
 https://ownhome.com/ 
The essence of OwnHome is a loan for your deposit - just 2.2% and Stamp Duty to secure a loan up to 100% of the property value.
The example they give is Instead of saving $340K for a traditional 20% deposit on a median-priced home in Sydney, with a Deposit Boost Loan, aspiring Sydney homebuyers need roughly $60K, including stamp duty and typical upfront fees; customers can then access an 80% loan-to-value ratio loan from OwnHome’s list of lender partners.
OwnHome raised a $3.6m seed round in July 2021 (from angel investors plus German based Global Founders Capital, and Israeli based Entrée Capital), and their initial product was a ‘rent to buy’ scheme where ownHome bought the house you, the buyer wanted, rented it to you for 3-7 years while you paid them back at a pre-agreed price - 

In 2022 they pivoted to the Deposit Boost Loan - raised a $31M series A from Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s venture arm, X15 Ventures, and as well as Square Peg Capital, Global Founders Capital, Entrée Capital, AfterWork Ventures, and Possible Ventures.
OwnHome say they plan to support $500 million in home purchases over the next 18 months. 
In this episode, we discuss:
·        Why did James start Own Home? (started with Rent-To-Own, then pivoted)
·        What’s the key problem Own Home solves?
·        Who are the customers?
·        The fundraising journey; how hard is it?
·        What’s the business model? Pricing?
·        How do people repay the loan?
·       What Partnerships are involved?
·       Lending – why tier 2 lenders and not CBA?
·       Team size?
·        Long term vision?

Philippa Watson is CEO of ubank, an award-winning digital bank owned by National Australia Bank. Prior to ubank, Philippa held a range of senior executive roles spanning digital banking, technology, operations, customer service, sales, finance, risk management, compliance, and strategy. These roles have involved accountability for functions in Australia, USA, UK, China and South Africa.

Philippa is passionate about the role organisations can and should play in community wellbeing. She believes that banks should offer customers accessible, uncomplicated, and high-tech banking services to help them be more successful with money.

Philippa is a Director of Lifeline Australia and NAB Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the bank, and a member of Chief Executive Women. 

In this episode we discuss:

•Background to Philippa’s career in banking
•A brief history of ubank (started in 2008): savings accounts, home loans
•Describing the past two years; the purchase and integration of 86400
•Since the acquisition of 86400 in May 2021, what ubank has worked to do – work has been substantial. Summary: Retire the 86400 banking license and brand, and launch a new ubank brand; (existing 86400 customers were met with a new name (ubank), a refreshed and rebranded website, a new app to download in the app store, a new ubank card in their digital wallet and a new Online Banking Experience. Original ubank customers experienced a more gradual introduction to the new brand experience and have been upgraded to the new technology and refreshed brand). Matured the 86400 platform to support larger customer numbers. Built the technology, processes, capacity and skills to support the customer upgrade. Progressed the banking proposition to support future growth and improved service. Migrated all the original legacy ubank customers with Term Deposits and Self-Managed Super Funds to NAB.
•Why did NAB/ubank buy 86400? 
•What was the decision behind keeping the ubank name but using the 86400 tech stack?
•What does the tech stack provide? 
•Migrating customers to NAB and to the new ubank platform
•Decommissioning legacy technology assets
•Data and AI - how important are these things to ubank’s strategy? How do you leverage data from a customer and tailor products and services to help them? 
•Designing and delivering an acquisition engine that will attract and onboard active customers at scale through a combination of modern marketing techniques (for the digital generation of customers) and product features that have the potential for virality; and most importantly
•Using data and technology to engage customers and help them succeed with money. 
•Opportunity and challenges for ubank? 
•Defining the culture at ubank
•What is ahead for ubank?
•Opportunities for future products?