There are many options for raising growth capital for established startups. With all the attention paid to venture capital, we sometimes forget that the vast majority of companies are not funded that way. Revenue-based financing has been around for more than a decade and it is a good alternative for certain types of companies.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Melissa Widner, the CEO of Lighter Capital, a pioneer in the revenue-based financing space. We learn all about how this space works, what types of companies it works best for and how Lighter Capital has become one of the market leaders.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How she first got involved with Lighter Capital.
• What attracted her to the CEO role.
• What it is like running a fintech company from Australia.
• The different countries where they are set up to lend.
• How revenue-based financing works (that was pioneered by Lighter).
• The types of companies that are in their sweet spot.
• The size and terms of their financing.
• How their underwriting works.
• Why most revenue-based financing lenders are not really doing revenue-based finance.
• The impact of the venture capital downturn on Lighter Capital.
• How the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank impacted demand for capital.
• Their historical loss rate.
• How loan demand has been overall in 2023.
• What it was like renewing their credit facility in the summer.
• Melissa's vision for the future of Lighter Capital.

Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn
Connect with Lighter Capital on LinkedIn

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The use of machine learning models in underwriting for consumer loans has been around for more than a decade. While fintech clearly took the lead here it has really only been the last couple of years where traditional lenders are engaging with this technology. While these AI/ML models are different from the Generative AI craze that has embraced the business world in the past year, this phenomenon has certainly helped with awareness.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Laura Kornhauser, the CEO and Co-Founder of Stratyfy. Her company is on a mission to enable greater financial inclusion for people while also helping financial institutions better manage and mitigate risk. They do that by implementing their advanced AI models and, of course, through the dedication of their people.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Stratyfy.
• The company's mission and how it has evolved?
• The different types of financial institutions they work with today.
• How they differentiate themselves from others in the space.
• How their UnBias product works.
• What being transparent means for adverse action notices.
• What is top of mind for most banks and fintechs today.
• The types of data their clients are using that are most important.
• What is involved in implementing Stratyfy into a lender's system.
• How their AI models have improved over time.
• How the popularity of AI through ChatGPT has impacted Stratyfy.
• What it was like raising an equity round in 2023.
• The biggest challenge Stratyfy is facing today.
• How AI will continue to improve when it comes to credit and risk decisions.

Connect with Laura Kornhauser on LinkedIn
Connect with Stratyfy on LinkedIn

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There has been endless talk in fintech over the past year and a half about the pullback from equity investors and how difficult it is to raise money in this environment. Less is being talked about the debt investment landscape.

So, I wanted to bring Jacob Haar, Founder and Managing Partner of Community Investment Management (CIM), back on the show (he was previously a guest in 2015 and 2020). He has been a debt investor in fintech for almost a decade now and he has deep experience with fintech lending not just in the United States but increasingly around the world.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How he describes CIM today.
• How the pandemic played out for them.
• What areas of fintech he finds most interesting today.
• What countries he is focused on.
• Examples of some recent deals CIM has closed.
• The size of the typical debt facilities they provide.
• The factors CIM considers today when making an investment decision.
• Why they decided to move outside small business lending.
• How their investors view impact versus a financial return.
• How the deal between Camino Financial (podcast here) and Fundation (podcast here) came together.
• Jacob's thoughts on transparency in small business lending and the regulatory movement there.
• Some of the key milestones that fintech lending has reached in the past 10 years.
• Why he is optimistic about the next decade.

Connect with Jacob on LinkedIn
Connect with Community Investment Management on LinkedIn

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Trillions of dollars is spent on credit and debit cards every year in the US. These payments are all processed on one of the most expensive card processing networks in the world, costing merchants tens of billions of dollars. Account-to-account payments, otherwise known as pay-by-bank, is yet to take off in this country but it does have the potential to put some of these card processing dollars back in merchants' pockets.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Eric Shoykhet, the founder and CEO of Link Money. His company has built the infrastructure needed to bring scale to pay-by-bank in this country. After we recorded this conversation there were several big announcements in this space, so it looks like 2024 could be a big year for pay-by-bank.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Link Money.
• Why the US has the highest card processing costs in the world.
• How Link Money's pay-by-bank offering works.
• The data access partners they are using.
• Why this is not an established payment option in the US yet?
• The different components that Link Money needed to develop.
• The coverage they have of the total number of deposit accounts.
• How you get consumers to adopt this new payment method.
• Where this makes the most sense for potential merchants.
• How Eric looks at the competitive payments rails in the U.S.
• Why pay-by-bank will be part of digital wallets.
• The challenges Link Money needs to overcome to be successful.
• His vision for the future of retail payments.

Connect with Eric on LinkedIn
Connect with Link Money on LinkedIn

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There is no technology that has generated more buzz this year than generative AI. We have all played around with ChatGPT and marveled at its capabilities. But what is really happening with this technology in financial services? Or more importantly, what is going to happen?

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Anu Sachdeva, Global Business and Service Line Leader at Genpact. She has deep knowledge of banking and fintech and has become an expert on generative AI and how it will impact financial services. This is our first deep dive into generative AI on the podcast, but it will certainly not be the last.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How Genpact works with banks and fintechs.
• How Anu first became interested in generative AI.
• What Genpact is doing with generative AI internally.
• How financial services can help unlock the potential of generative AI.
• The use case of using generative AI in anti-money laundering.
• The fundamental principles that Genpact employs when engaging with banking partners.
• How we should be thinking about generative AI.
• The impact of generative AI on the employee makeup of banks and fintechs.
• Will fintechs or banks take the lead with incorporating generative AI.
• How we should think about compliance risk when it comes to generative AI.
• The opportunity for better personalization.
• A look to the future of where generative AI is going.

Connect with Anu on LinkedIn
Connect with Genpact on LinkedIn

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There are tens of millions of Americans who have limited access to credit. Those with thin files or FICO scores below 650 often have difficulty accessing credit. Many have to resort to payday loans or pawn shops when they incur an unexpected expense. But there are fintech companies whose sole focus is serving this population with affordable credit access.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Todd Schwartz, the CEO and Founder of OppFi. OppFi has been around since 2011 (they have a fascinating founding story) and are now a public company that has helped more than 1.3 million people with affordable loans. I did have the previous CEO, Jared Kaplan, on the show in 2020, but this is the first time I have had the founder on.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of OppFi.
• Why he started the company with a physical store front.
• How the pandemic really turbo charged the business.
• Why they decided to go public.
• How being public has changed their business.
• For underwriting, why understanding the primary bank account is critical.
• Details of their Turn Up program.
• The impact of the entry of banks into the small dollar loan space.
• What the consumer advocate don't understand about small-dollar lending.
• What happens when states, such as Illinois, ban higher APR small-dollar lending.
• Why they are focused on the states when it comes to engaging with regulators.
• How they make sure that OppFi customers end up better off financially.

Connect with Todd on LinkedIn
Connect with OppFi on LinkedIn

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Medical debt is the number one reason people go bankrupt in the United States. So, you would think there would be a plethora of fintech companies attacking this problem from many angles. And while there are certainly lenders willing to finance medical procedures there are few companies taking a holistic approach to patient financial health.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Itzik Cohen, the CEO and Co-Founder of PayZen. He saw the problems medical debt has created firsthand when working in the debt settlement space and he decided to do something about it. PayZen is the first company that looks at all the options available for patients as they try to afford their healthcare.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The idea that led to the founding of PayZen.
• The state of medical debt in the United States today.
• What the "operating system for healthcare affordability" means.
• Their north star at PayZen.
• The different types of products they offer.
• How they are finding and analyzing all this medical and financial data.
• What kinds of providers they are working with.
• How they are able to integrate their technology so quickly.
• Itzik's thoughts on removing medical bills from their credit report.
• His vision for PayZen.

Connect with Itzik on LinkedIn
Connect with PayZen on LinkedIn

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The people who lead the national banking regulatory agencies typically come from long careers in banking and law with a traditional view of the banking world. But there has been one exception to this rule.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One Podcast is Brian Brooks, the former acting head of the OCC and a current partner at O'Melveny & Myers. Now, don't get me wrong, Brian has had a long career in banking and law but he has also spent time outside of traditional finance, thinking deeply about financial innovation.

He came to the OCC from Coinbase and he has been an advisor or board member to several other companies in crypto and fintech. So, his perspective on the banking industry, as you will hear in this interview, is very different from your typical banking regulator.

In this podcast you will learn:

• How the financial crisis shaped his career.
• The three dimensions of finance he is trying to knit together.
• How he came to join the OCC from Coinbase.
• How Brian was able to gain the trust of the big bank CEOs.
• The most important idea that he had while leading the OCC.
• How he looks back at his 10 months as OCC head.
• How we could have easily avoided the FTX blowup.
• Why the regulators were reluctant to make these simple changes.
• The core ideological debate that Republicans and Democrats have over crypto.
• Why the failures of Silvergate and Signature were more about concentration risk than specifically crypto.
• What he says to people who want to ban crypto.
• How decentralized finance can get scale and not run afoul of US regulators.
• How US-dollar stablecoins could help mitigate the risk of de-dollarization.
• What regulatory changes need to happen to take advantage of new financial technology.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

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As recently as six or seven years ago modern payments infrastructure in Latin America didn't really exist. Most countries had a monopoly when it came to payments processing and these monopolies sit on old technology that is difficult and expensive to maintain.

A lot has changed today. Digital payments infrastructure has been built and while those old monopoly companies still exist there is now digital payments infrastructure throughout the region.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Aron Schwarzkopf, the CEO and Co-Founder of Kushki. The mission of the company is "connecting Latin America through payments" and they are doing this by building new technology that others can build on to provide a comprehensive digital payments experience. 

In this podcast you will learn:

• Why Aron decided to head back to Latin America after some time in the US.
• The three big problems he encountered there.
• How the payments landscape has evolved in Latin America.
• What Kushki does exactly.
• The two types of clients they serve.
• How easy it is to accept international payments online.
• The countries they operate in today.
• Why the prevalence of cash means a green field opportunity for Kushki.
• Why the growth of real-time payments is helping grow the market.
• What it meant when the government of Ecuador named Kushki as the first payment aggregator.
• Why they acquired BillPocket in Mexico.
• The key takeaways from the recent report they published with Statista.
• Why Kushki experiences less fraud than others in Latin America.
• Aron's vision for the future of digital payments in Latin America.

Connect with Aron on LinkedIn
Connect with Kushki on LinkedIn

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In the consumer lending space, fintech lenders have been using AI in their underwriting models for many years. But there are still many consumers who slip through the cracks and get declined for credit when they should have been approved.

My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Gal Krubiner, the CEO and Co-Founder of Pagaya. They work with a large number of both traditional and fintech lenders and apply their sophisticated modeling to find consumers who have been mispriced. Their two-sided marketplace then works with investors to fund these consumer loans.

In this podcast you will learn:

• The founding story of Pagaya.
• Why they decided to focus on consumer credit.
• How they are partnering with both fintech and traditional lenders today.
• Who they are working with on the investor side of the marketplace.
• The types of data they are using in their underwriting.
• How their underwriting models have evolved over time.
• How investor demand for their ABS deals is trending.
• How the US consumer is holding up when it comes to loan repayments.
• Trends in credit availability for consumers.
• Why the lack of credit availability is a good thing for Pagaya.
• The impact of rising interest rates on consumer credit.
• Why all the attention that AI is getting is helping Pagaya.
• What happened when they invited ChatGPT to their earnings call.
• How being a public company has changed Pagaya.
• How he is thinking about the macro environment in 2024.

Connect with Gal on LinkedIn
Connect with Pagaya on LinkedIn

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