It is the big challenge for fintech: making the financial lives better for the those who are underserved. We have come a long way in the past decade but there is still so much more that has to be done. And one of the people who has been at the center of this fintech transformation is Arjuna Costa, Managing Partner at Flourish Ventures.

He is someone I have wanted to get on the show for many years, so I am fortunate that the stars aligned and we were able to sit down for the engaging discussion (I had another Flourish partner, Emmalyn Shaw, on the show back in 2019). We cover a lot of territory here, including a topic I have never before covered on the podcast.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The journey Arjuna took from microfinance to venture capital.
• The early days of the Omidyar Network and how they thought about financial inclusion.
• How Flourish Ventures grew out of the Omidyar Network.
• The five principles they believe that underlie a fair financial system.
• The advantages of having a single funding source.
• How Flourish measures success.
• What is different today from investing 10 years ago.
• The change in the quality of entrepreneurs and business models.
• How much better financially people are doing today in emerging markets.
• What else needs to happen to really make a difference.
• How Flourish is helping to address the challenges of the mental health of fintech founders.
• The state of fintech venture capital in 2024.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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

While BNPL has gathered all the attention these past few years, there is another point-of-sale financing category that has been around for decades: lease-to-own, sometimes called rent-to-own. It has historically been full of unscrupulous actors charging excessive fees and it is not an area that has received much attention from fintech companies.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Neal Desai, the CEO and Founder of Kafene. After a thorough analysis of different opportunities he landed on lease-to-own as an area that could use some fintech innovation. He is doing things very differently to the legacy players in the field and is building a sizable business.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The detailed research that Neal did before founding Kafene.
• Why he decided to focus on lease-to-own financing as a category.
• How his time as a trader on Wall Street helps him run Kafene.
• How the Kafene offering works.
• The types of companies they partner with.
• Their average approval amount.
• How they underwrite these subprime consumers.
• Their unique approach to helping consumers who are experiencing difficulties.
• The regulatory structure they use with their lease-to-own agreements.
• Their approach to adding merchants into their ecosystem.
• How the rise of BNPL has impacted the growth of Kafene.
• The breakdown of early buyouts, returns and charge-offs.
• How Kafene is building trust in a space not known for good actors.
• How they make money.
• The big challenges today when it comes to growing their business.
• The scale they are at today.
• Neal's vision for the future of Kafene.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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The resources that consumer lenders have to work with today are better than ever before. Gone are the days when risk officers could just pull a bureau file and have access to the best data about a potential borrower. The credit infrastructure tools today are more sophisticated and predictive, allowing lenders to serve more borrowers without expanding their credit box.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Misha Esipov, the CEO and Co-Founder of Nova Credit. They are at the forefront of this movement to bring more and better data to lenders and have become one of the leading credit infrastructure companies. I last had Misha on the show back in 2017 when they were just a startup, so a lot has obviously changed since then.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Misha describes Nova Credit today.
• Why they decided to move beyond the Credit Passport product.
• The performance of the Credit Passport borrowers with American Express and others.
• How the Credit Passport works.
• The history of Cash Atlas and why they got into cash flow underwriting.
• The challenges of building a cash flow underwriting engine.
• What Income Navigator is and how it works.
• The different types of income they work with.
• Why they launched the Nova Credit back in March and why it is significant.
• The types of financial institutions they are focused on today.
• What is driving the new attention paid to alternative data.
• What they learned from their State of Alternative Data in Lending 2024 report.
• Some of the best practices in implementing cash flow underwriting.
• How lenders are using cash flow underwriting today.
• Why they decided to create the Cash Flow Underwriting Summit.
• What is on their roadmap for the next 12-18 months.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
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There is a shift that is beginning to happen in financial services: using purchase history to provide more personalized offers from merchants. There is no richer data for advertisers than knowing how we actually spend our money. This is one of the reasons behind the huge growth of BNPL but today, there are some credit unions that are on the cutting edge of this trend.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is David Metz, the CEO and Founder or Prizeout. His company started in the gaming space as a way to give people bonuses for cashing out their money. But today, he is focused on financial services, particularly credit unions, where there are a number of use cases that is helping put real money back in people's pockets. This is a completely new application of ad tech for fintech but one that I see growing fast.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The unusual founding story of Prizeout.
• How a potential bank acquisition led to their movement from gaming to fintech.
• How they are blending adtech and fintech.
• Why they decided to focus on credit unions.
• How JPMorgan has validated their data science thesis.
• The challenge of building a credit union or bank loyalty program.
• How their digital gift card program works.
• How sophisticated their technology is behind the scenes.
• Why they created a CUSO and how it has helped Prizeout.
• How they have expanded their cash back program with Cash Back Plus.
• The advantage that credit unions have in motivating their members to take action.
• How they are working with ZayZoon to supercharge earned wage access.
• How their expansion from gaming to financial services has helped with their purpose.
• David's vision for the future of Prizeout.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
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The journey of the small business owner is often a lonely one. For many people, particularly first-time entrepreneurs, starting a small business can be overwhelming. But today, with the tools available, there has never been a better time to start a business. Having said that, most new small businesses don't make it to five years. What we need is a better support system for small business owners.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Carolyn Rodz, the CEO and Co-Founder of Hello Alice. She has thought deeply about the multifaceted challenges facing small business owners and has built a business around it. They now have a community of 1.5 million small businesses they support in a number of different ways.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The frustration that led to the founding of Hello Alice.
• How they help small businesses improve the health of their business.
• What the 1.5 million small businesses they work with have in common.
• How their business credit cards, loans and grants programs work.
• Details of their enterprise partnerships and how that is helping business owners.
• What data goes in to determine their proprietary business health score.
• The primary concerns for small business owners today.
• How Hello Alice makes money.
• How they are riding the small business creation wave.
• What more we could be doing as a country to encourage small businesses.
• Why they decided to name their company Hello Alice.
• Her vision for Hello Alice.

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

• Tweet me @PeterRenton
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It is a simple problem that every card issuer has. You have issued a credit or debit card to a new customer, so how do you get them to actually use it? More than that, how do you encourage this customer to make this new card their primary payment card.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Rory O'Reilly, the CEO and Co-Founder of Knot. He wrestled with that problem himself and decided to do something about it. His company has built API connectivity into most of the major merchants in this country, in a similar way Plaid built API connectivity into major banks. With this connectivity, any card issuer now has the capability to bring their card to the top of wallet.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The a-ha moment that led to the idea for Knot.
• Their target market.
• How their technology works.
• How the card issuers decide what merchants to feature on Knot.
• Why card issuers are so excited about this.
• How card issuers implement Knot.
• The benefits for merchants to work with Knot.
• How they are working with BaaS platforms.
• The key to their go to market strategy.
• How they charge the issuers for their service.
• How Rory thinks about digital wallets and how they can work with Knot.
• Why they have not put much effort into pay by bank.
• Where they are today in terms of scale.
• Their scale goal for the next four years.
• The types of new products they are working on.
• Rory's vision for Knot.

Connect with Rory on LinkedIn
Connect with Knot on LinkedIn

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I have made no secret of my affection for earned wage access (EWA) as a product. It has been growing rapidly, particularly the last couple of years, as more consumers realize what a great tool it is. There have been several different approaches to implementing EWA from the major players in the space but no one has approached it the same way as Clair.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Nico Simko, the CEO and Founder of Clair. While operating in a space without regulatory clarity, Clair has taken the most conservative approach. It also happens to be the approach with the most regulatory work to implement. It is somewhat controversial in EWA circles: considering these advances to be a loan.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Uber Money gave Nico the idea for the founding of Clair.
• The wedge he built that differentiated Clair from the start.
• How their product works from an employee experience.
• How they are able to get the workforce management apps involved.
• The maximum that employees are able to advance each pay period.
• Clair’s approach towards the regulatory uncertainty in the EWA space.
• Why they decided to create the legal structure to make their product a loan.
• Nico’s thoughts on the EWA bill that is working through Congress right now.
• Why they chose Pathward as their partner bank.
• What it will look like in ten years time for workers’ access to their wages.
• Some simple ideas that Nico is thinking about for better products for workers.
• What Clair is focused on the next 12-18 months.

Connect with Nico on LinkedIn
Connect with Clair on LinkedIn

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The largest payments network, by volume, is the ACH network. A dollar value of several times US GDP flows through the network each quarter. It is a 50-year-old network that is reliable, ubiquitous, and still growing. While several shiny new payment rails have been developed, the workhorse of the economy remains ACH and will remain so for some time.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Jane Larimer, the President and CEO of Nacha, the organization that governs the ACH network. While I often feature people on this show to talk about cool and emerging technology, I also think it is critical that we understand the infrastructure that is in place today. And the ACH network is how the vast majority of payments are made.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The origin story of the ACH network.
• The first use case for the network.
• How they moved from paper checks to electronic payments.
• The mission of Nacha.
• Why some banks become direct members of Nacha.
• The staggering scale of the payments flowing through the ACH network.
• How the timing works for payments on the ACH network.
• Why the ACH network is unable to process payments on weekends (but that may be changing)
• Jane's perspective on instant payments and why she believes it is complementary to ACH.
• The cost difference between Same Day ACH and standard ACH.
• The big barrier to the adoption of any alternative payment rails.
• How fraud has changed in the past decade.
• Details of the education available on their website.
• How Jane see the future of payments playing out over the next decade.

Connect with Jane on LinkedIn
Connect with Nacha on LinkedIn

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[Editor's note: This interview was recorded on April 16, six days before the news of the Synapse bankruptcy and several weeks before any of the major problems that came to light at fintechs that were working with Synapse.]

To say the banking-as-a-service space is having a moment is an understatement. But many banks have been doing this successfully for a number of years and have thriving partnerships with fintechs. One such bank is Pathward, formerly known as MetaBank.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Anthony Sharett. He is the President at Pathward, a position he has held since 2021. Pathward is one of the largest and most important banks in the fintech space, so I wanted to get him on the show at this critical time for the industry.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Anthony came to be at Pathward.
• The history of the company and the rebrand from Metabank to Pathward.
• Anthony's take on the state of banking-as-a-service today.
• Why the concept of middleware may not be dead yet.
• The services they offer and some of the fintechs they are working with.
• How they co-create new products with their fintech partners.
• How they have built their risk and compliance framework.
• How they manage the balance between creativity and compliance.
• Their status as far as taking on new fintech clients.
• What they are looking for in a new fintech.
• Anthony's advice to a startup fintech CEO today.
• What he thinks of the state of fintech innovation today.
• What the BaaS landscape will look like in 3-5 years.

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn
Connect with Pathward on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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When I think about the hottest areas in fintech these days identity verification is right at the top of the list. It impacts anyone doing business online so whether you are a bank or a fintech you need to stay on top of this fast-moving space.

My next guest on the Fintech One on One podcast is Joel Sequeira, the Director of Product Management at IDology. Joel is an identity expert with a long history in the space and he talks about the new attack vectors that are in play today, particularly with Generative AI, and more importantly, what fintechs and banks can do to curtail fraud today.

In this podcast you will learn:

• What Joel does exactly at IDology.
• The challenges for fintechs and banks in automating customer onboarding.
• How to incorporate automation and AI into your strategy.
• The role of human-supervised AI and how to maintain compliance.
• What he means by onboarding with inclusive customer journeys.
• How they define advanced identity verification.
• The different data sources that IDology works with.
• Why it is important to have deep data in different sectors.
• Some of the differences between KYC and KYB (Know Your Business).
• Examples of how Generative AI is being used to commit fraud.
• The trends that Joel is paying closest attention to.
• How fintechs and banks can future-proof their identity verification.

Connect with Joel on LinkedIn
Connect with IDology on LinkedIn

Connect with Fintech One-on-One:

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