Fintech Nexus

The pioneers in the fintech lending space are now well-established companies that have been in business for 15 years or more. Many millions of customers have been served and yet many (most?) consumers are still struggling with their finances. One of these pioneers is working hard to change that.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Brad Stroh, the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Achieve (formerly known as Freedom Financial). Achieve has quietly become one of the largest fintech lenders in the country, with a focus on helping consumers who are experiencing financial challenges. While this is the first time I have had one of the co-founders on the show, a few years ago I interviewed the then-head of their asset management division, Joe Toms.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Achieve.
• Why the company did not launch as a digital-first business.
• How they differentiate their personal loan business.
• Why they expanded into home equity loans.
• How their debt resolution products works.
• Why they developed two mobile apps for consumers.
• How Bills.com fits into their product suite.
• Why they decided to rebrand from Freedom Financial to Achieve.
• How their core customer struggles with debt.
• The root causes for these debt struggles.
• The impact inflation has had on loan demand.
• Brad's view on financial literacy and how to improve that.
• Their approach to the capital markets and why they remain active in securitization.
• His vision for the future of Achieve.

Connect with Brad on LinkedIn
Connect with Achieve on LinkedIn
Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

On today's episode, I'm joined by Ron Benegbi, Founder & CEO of Uplinq.

Ron and I discuss his history of entrepreneurship and how it ties closely to his family's journey as immigrants. We talk about the SMB credit score, the shifting definition of small business, the overuse of as-a-service, getting more lenders to yes, fraud detection as a byproduct, raising capital, the NFL Draft, and much more.

A couple of short PSAs:

We are still accepting applications for PitchIt at Fintech Nexus USA 2023, head to (https://www.fintechnexus.com/usa/2023/startups/) Fintech Nexus dot com for details. The link will be in the show notes.

If you want to sponsor an episode, come on as a guest, or sponsor one of our many digital or in-person offerings, please reach out anytime at [email protected].

Without further ado, Ron Benegbi, Founder & CEO of Uplinq. Enjoy the show.

Episode highlights include

• Ron's entrepreneurial background
• The founding story behind Uplinq
• The lack of an SMB credit score
• The overuse of as-a-service
• The various definitions of small business
• How lenders get to yes more often
• Better data equals lower defaults
• The fraud byproduct
• No regrets
• Recommended reading - Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The struggles of raising capital
• And much more…

Connect with Ron on LinkedIn
Connect with Uplinq on LinkedIn
Apply for PitchIt at Fintech Nexus 2023 HERE
Connect with PitchIt:

• Tweet me @ToddFintech
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous PitchIt episodes
• Email me at [email protected]

Until next time.

Making news this week was Frank CEO Charlie Javice, Acorns, GoHenry, BloombergGPT, Jamie Dimon, Aspiration, FinFit, Salary Finance, American Enterprise Institute, KASZEK, Hello Alice and more.

While AI has been around for decades there has never been more interest in this topic than there is today. In underwriting, some lenders have been using AI for a while but it is only recently that it has caught on for mainstream lenders.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Pankaj Kulshreshtha, the CEO and founder of Scienaptic (he was last on the show two years ago). A lot has changed in the last two years and they have seen tremendous adoption among credit unions, which we discuss in some depth.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How he describes Scienaptic today.
• How much they emphasize the AI part of what they are offering.
• The process of migrating their clients from a manual process to an automated one.
• How the human touch can be maintained, or even increase, with more automation.
• Why credit unions have become the core focus for their technology solutions.
• What their credit unions are asking for most.
• How they work with existing loan origination platforms.
• What is involved in implementing Scienaptic's solution.
• The types of loans they are working with for their credit union partners.
• How they ensure their models remain free of bias.
• How their AI models are getting better over time.
• What Pankaj makes of the sudden interest in AI with ChatGPT.
• How they could augment some of this technology into their systems.
• How this technology is going to develop over the next 3-5 years.

Connect with Pankaj on LinkedIn
Connect with Scienaptic AI on LinkedIn
Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

A few weeks ago, Isabelle Castro sat down in London with Matt Bullivant, OakNorth’s Director of ESG Strategy. 

Greenwashing has been cited as the ultimate enemy in the race to meet net zero targets, and a lack of transparency in ESGs has been fuelling the flames of skepticism. 

For fintech, scope three carbon emissions are an area where companies can significantly impact reaching sustainable goals.

OakNorth has been particularly focused on supporting sustainable growth within its own company as well as providing tools to shed light on others' impact on the environment. They form a part of many international consortiums campaigning to do the same. 

I spoke to Matt about the issues with ESGs, the power of scope three emissions, and why fintech could be integral to meeting net zero goals. 

One of the real promises of fintech is to bring new populations into the financial system for the first time. While this sounds great in theory it is difficult to execute, particularly in developing countries where it is most needed.

Our next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Shivani Siroya, the CEO and founder of Tala (Shivani was last on the show back in 2017). They are operating on the front lines of fintech, bringing financial tools to people who have not had access before. And they are doing it at scale having served eight million customers across four different countries.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What their mission of "enabling financial agency" means.
• The geographies they work in today.
• How they think about whether to enter new markets.
• What the countries they operate in have in common.
• Why cash is still such an important part of what they do.
• How they establish trust with their customers.
• The major use cases for a Tala loan.
• The results of their recent impact survey.
• How they have developed a new kind of credit score.
• The type of non-financial data that is most predictive.
• Why providing a low friction experience is so critical.
• How they engage with their customers beyond the lending product.
• How financial literacy is core to their mission.
• The scale Tala is at today.
• What is like to run a company across four different regions.
• The vision for Tala going forward.

Connect with Shivani on LinkedIn
Connect with Tala on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

On today's episode, I'm joined by Lamine Zarrad, CEO and Founder of StellarFi.

Lamine and I discuss his unique journey to the US and fintech, the inequities in the credit system, rebuilding your credit, why he chose to be a public benefit corporation, the health of the US consumer, banking regulation and failures, raising capital, and much more.

A couple of short PSAs:

We are still accepting applications for PitchIt at Fintech Nexus USA 2023, head to (https://www.fintechnexus.com/usa/2023/startups/) Fintech Nexus dot com for details. The link will be in the show notes.

If you want to sponsor an episode, come on as a guest, or sponsor one of our many digital or in-person offerings, please reach out anytime at [email protected].

Without further ado, Lamine Zarrad, CEO and Founder of StellarFi. Enjoy the show.

Episode highlights include:

• Lamine's unique journey to the US and StellarFi
• The importance of being a public benefit corporation
• The current credit health of the US consumer
• Why credit building and repairing are so complicated
• Is the credit score outdated?
• Lessons from his time in public service
• Thoughts on the current bank crisis
• Bank failures and financial inclusion
• Recommended reading - 
  • The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic by Robert L. O'Connell
• Raising capital
• And much more...

Connect with Lamine on LinkedIn
Connect with StellerFi on LinkedIn

Connect with PitchIt:

• Tweet me @ToddFintech
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous PitchIt episodes
• Email me at [email protected]

Until next time.

On this week's show with special guest Ron Shevlin we discussed big fintech news from First Citizens Bank, Early Warning (Paze), Apple, big banks vs small banks, the FDIC, venture capital, Binance, HM Treasury and more.

The most important type of financial data in our lives is our income data. This one factor can determine whether we get approved for a loan or to rent an apartment. And yet the majority of people today do not have a traditional salary providing 100% of their income. They often have disparate sources of income that until now has made it very difficult for financial institutions to process.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Shmulik Fishman, the CEO and Co-Founder of Argyle. Argyle is all about solving this problem by working with a huge number of sources to provide a complete and accurate picture of income. This process is embedded into a loan or rental application to help make more informed decisions.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Argyle.
• How Shmulik describes Argyle today.
• Their core competency and how they embed their experience.
• How they customize their offering depending on the use case.
• How they handle people with disparate income sources.
• The challenge of connecting to tens of thousands of payroll systems.
• The percentage of the workforce they cover.
• How they work with payroll-linked lending.
• Why mortgage lending is the holy grail for income verification.
• How their direct deposit switching offering works.
• How they work with the gig economy vertical.
• How traditional banks are learning from new digital banks.
• What it means today to be a modern lender.
• The best practices when it comes to automated underwriting.
• What the movement towards instant payouts means for funding of loans.
• What is coming down the pipe at Argyle.

Connect with Shmulik on LinkedIn
Connect with Argyle on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes