Joining us today is James Wallis, Vice President at Ripple. James, leads Central Bank Engagements and CBDCs at Ripple. On this episode, we unpack the difference between Cryptocurrencies and Central Bank Digital Currencies (Also known as CBDC). We also talk about Ripple’s role in this space and some of the future trends in CBDC. When this podcast was recorded, Ripple announced Ripple CBDC Innovate, a hackathon to build or update a fintech or payments solution utilizing Ripple's CBDC Private Ledger. You will hear it referenced throughout the podcast. Learn more about Ripple (http://www.ripple.com/) You can also learn more about Fintechs and Startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/startups/FinTech/)

Joining us on this episode is Alain Meier, Head of Identity at Plaid and Former CEO of Cognito, Cognito was recently acquired by Plaid in January of 2022. Plaid recently announced two new identity products at their forum held on May 19th. On this episode, Alain talks about some of the innovative trends in digital identity and how they will influence fintech today and in the future. And of course, we talk a bit about cloud and its role in their product development. Learn more about Plaid (https://plaid.com/) You can also learn more about Fintechs and Startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/startups/FinTech/)

Joining us on this episode is Munya Chiura, Head of Growth for Rest of Africa at Flutterwave, one of the few fintech unicorns in Africa. Seven unicorns emerged from Africa in 2021, five out of the seven were fintech. On this episode, we talk about the state of fintech in Africa, lessons that the west can learn from African fintechs. We also talk about key trends that are influencing fintech on the continent as well as how cloud played a significant role in scaling their business. Learn more about Flutterwave (https://flutterwave.com/us/) You can also learn more about Fintechs and Startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/startups/FinTech/)

On this episode, we speak to Karim Atiyeh, CTO and Co-founder at Ramp. Karim talks about how Ramp initially started as a corporate card and evolved into a finance automation platform covering expense management, bill pay, accounting, negotiations-as-a-service, and more. We also talk about some of the challenges in corporate spend and how Ramp is addressing them today. Learn more about Ramp (https://ramp.com/). You can also learn more about Fintechs and Startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/startups/FinTech/)

On our premiere season and episode 1 of the podcast, we speak to Edward Woodford, CEO and Co-Founder at Zero Hash. Edward effectively defines the notion of Crypto as a Service and how it is evolving in the embedded finance ecosystem. He also highlights key trends in the ever-evolving world of Digital Assets and how these trends will influence the future of fintech. Learn more about ZeroHash (https://zerohash.com/). You can also learn more about Fintechs and Startups on AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/startups/ or https://aws.amazon.com/startups/FinTech/)