LendAPI Podcast

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Carla Canino, Founder & CEO of Kindlee (Techstars '24), to explore the intersection of responsible AI, financial inclusion, and the future of fair lending. Carla brings over 15 years of experience across global payments, financial services product strategy, and entrepreneurship — from her time as Global Payment Strategy Lead at Blizzard Entertainment to co-authoring inclusion standards with the Federal Reserve and W3C. Today, she is building Kindlee, the first AI fairness intelligence platform for regulated financial institutions, helping lenders detect bias, improve model accuracy, and meet EU AI Act compliance — while unlocking billions in untapped revenue.

• Why AI bias in lending is costing the industry an estimated $443 billion annually — and how the majority of affected consumers are actually creditworthy customers being misclassified

• How Kindlee's Kindlee Conversational Trust Index (KCTI) provides the first composite trust score for AI performance across vulnerable populations — with zero PII exposure and zero integration burden

• Why 65% of loan declines may involve creditworthy customers misclassified by biased AI models, and what lenders can do about it right now

• The real business case for inclusive AI: a documented 1,578% ROI on remediation over three years, and why fairness is a competitive advantage — not just a compliance checkbox

• How the EU AI Act's August 2026 deadline is creating urgency for financial institutions to audit their AI systems for high-risk use cases

• Carla's journey from payments expert at Activision Blizzard to solo founder — and the personal experiences as a disabled immigrant that exposed systemic weaknesses in financial systems and inspired Kindlee

• Practical advice for any fintech or lender looking to build AI that is explainable, unbiased, accessible, and growth-focused

Kindlee is an AI fairness intelligence platform backed by Techstars and J.P. Morgan, purpose-built for regulated financial institutions navigating the EU AI Act and European Accessibility Act. Founded by Carla Canino, Kindlee helps banks, fintechs, and lenders detect bias and operational friction in their deployed AI — including conversational AI, credit decisioning, and KYC systems — and provides a direct path to remediation. Their proprietary KCTI benchmark has audited nine of Europe's largest financial institutions, revealing that 82.7% of AI interactions with disabled, elderly, and immigrant customers result in severe or critical failures. Kindlee makes fairness measurable, profitable, and easy to adopt — without touching a single line of PII. Learn more at www.kindlee.ai.

What You’ll Learn:About New Market Growth

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Carlos Caro, Founder of New Market Growth, to discuss the complex and rapidly evolving landscape of consumer lending. Carlos shares his deep industry expertise, detailing how lenders can successfully navigate the challenges of listing on popular affiliate platforms, the critical importance of balancing lead quality with volume, and the significance of building a strong professional network.

What You'll Learn

• The real challenge of getting listed on major platforms like LendingTree or Credit Karma, and why Carlos often has to turn down 85% of lenders who approach him for placement.

• Why striking a balance between acquiring a high volume of leads and ensuring those leads are of top quality is essential, especially as platforms prioritize customer welfare and competitive rates.

• The importance of "Market Fit" and understanding the specific requirements of each platform, tailoring your offerings to match traditional products like mortgages or personal loans.

• How embracing innovation—such as leveraging blockchain technology for new, high-reward credit cards—can help differentiate your products in a crowded market.

• Actionable strategies for success, including focusing on customer needs, attending industry events, collaborating with other businesses, and staying ahead of market trends and regulatory shifts.

About New Market Growth

New Market Growth is a specialized consulting firm that helps lenders connect with powerful affiliate marketing channels to drive customer acquisition. Founded by Carlos Caro, who brings a rich background in lending and marketing from his time working with major financial institutions, the firm assists lenders in navigating the highly competitive consumer finance space. They focus on bridging the gap between innovative lending products and key acquisition platforms, ensuring lenders can effectively reach and serve their target markets.

📢 Explore more on the ⁠LendAPI Marketplace⁠

Listen now on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠.

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Dan Neimiec, Chief Credit Risk and Analytics Officer at 1sr Franklin Financial, to discuss the company's unique approach to consumer lending. Dan shares how his team is using internal performance data and AI tools to enhance predictive modeling, while still ensuring the human element and personal branch-customer relationships remain the core of their operation.

What You’ll Learn:

• Dan’s experience managing risk at JP Morgan Chase during the 2008-2009 housing downturn, which highlighted the limitations of "backwards looking" credit models.
• How an 85-year-old company like First Franklin strategically shifted to making data-driven decisions while maintaining its crucial community and branch-based customer relationships.
• Why the company uses their lending models as "guard rails and guidelines" rather than a fully automated decision engine, emphasizing that humans make the ultimate lending decisions.
• The primary product offerings and how the company uses direct mail models to target new customers.
• How First Franklin uses "live checks" (or convenience checks) via direct mail to pre-qualified customers, followed by personal branch outreach to solidify the customer relationship.
• Advice for aspiring credit risk analysts: focus on "business knowledge and the business intuition" because artificial intelligence now handles much of the data assembly and manipulation.

About First Franklin Financial

First Franklin Financial is an 85-year-old, privately owned financial services company that started in the early 1940s. The company operates nearly 400 branches and serves almost 400,000 customers, with approximately $1.2 billion in receivables. First Franklin primarily serves subprime consumers with credit scores in the 550 to 700 range. While maintaining a strong community presence with personal branch relationships, the company has recently implemented a strategic initiative to incorporate data-driven decisions and modern analytic models.

📢 Explore more on the LendAPI Marketplace

Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Debra LeJeune, a special friend of LendAPI. Debra, whose background originated in banking, is a former commercial banking officer. She discusses the formation of her company, Integrity, and how it focuses on a payment strategy to improve the lending and payment process.What You’ll Learn:- How Debra's background in banking and as president of multiple companies led her to found Integrity.- Why Integrity was formed to combat the payments industry missing the mark on putting the customer first, locking clients into long-term contracts, and not having the customer's best interest in mind.- How Integrity provides agnostic advice and representation, ensuring the recommended technology stack is specific to the client and focused on their integrity.- Integrity's approach to payments, which involves taking the payment process across the entire life cycle, including infrastructure, onboarding new borrowers, and payment success.- How Integrity might set up a client with five, six, or seven different solutions to create the perfect waterfall, minimize issuer declines, and achieve a 10% to 30% lift in authorization approvals.- The importance of clients owning their payment data, utilizing network or universal tokens for validation, and having the infrastructure to waterfall onto other solutions with no downtime.- How a forensic analysis of a client's payment and authorization data can lead to advice on qualifying for lower interchange and having fewer false declines.About Integrity Payments Group (IPG):Integrity Payments Group (IPG) positions itself as more of a payment strategy firm than a payment placement or bank-pushing firm. They focus on putting the client's needs first across the life cycle, which contrasts with traditional payments companies that might focus on locking people into a singular payment provider. Integrity uses its strategy to help clients with everything from infrastructure to collection

📢 Explore more on the LendAPI Marketplace

Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Timothy Li, Founder & CEO of LendAPI, sits down with Steven Ma, Founder & CEO of PonyMoney, a Texas‑based personal lending company focused on delivering fast, hassle‑free installment loans. Steven shares how PonyMoney built a modern lending operation around flexibility, rapid experimentation, and borrower‑friendly experiences—and why they chose LendAPI as their core lending technology partner.What You’ll Learn:- Why Steven founded PonyMoney and the specific gaps he saw in traditional personal lending around speed, transparency, and product flexibility.- The challenges PonyMoney faced with legacy loan origination systems and decision engines, from rigid integrations to limited control over underwriting rules and pricing.​- How PonyMoney uses LendAPI’s flexible, API‑driven platform to run A/B tests on underwriting strategies, plug into cash‑flow data providers, and update rules in real time—without vendor tickets or long release cycles.- The impact of this setup on approval rates, portfolio performance, and operational efficiency, including faster launch of new products and smoother borrower journeys.About PonyMoneyPonyMoney is a consumer lending operator dedicated to providing individuals with simple, transparent, and quickly funded installment loans. By combining data‑driven underwriting with a digital‑first experience, PonyMoney helps borrowers access credit with less friction while giving its team full control over product design, risk strategies, and pricing. Powered by LendAPI’s integrated LOS and decision engine, PonyMoney can test, iterate, and scale new lending programs at startup speed without sacrificing compliance or control.

This week on the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Rutger Van Faassen sits down with Joseph Huch, Vice President of Sales at USIO, a leading, tech-forward payments provider helping lenders, fintechs, and SaaS platforms modernize how they move money. Together, they unpack how integrated payments, real-time funding, and smarter disbursement workflows are reshaping the economics and customer experience of lending.

• How Joseph’s background in payments and financial technology shapes his approach to helping lenders deliver faster, more reliable funding experiences.​

• Why embedded payments and payouts are becoming a core competitive edge for digital lenders and vertical SaaS platforms.​

• The current USIO offering for lenders and fintechs today—and the future vision for deeper, API-first integration across onboarding, servicing, and collections.

• How USIO’s platform enables instant or same‑day disbursements, card and ACH rails, and configurable workflows that reduce friction for both borrowers and operations teams.​

• A real‑world example of a lender that streamlined its funding process, cut manual work, and improved conversion by delivering a more seamless payment and payout experience.

Explore more partners and episodes on the LendAPI Marketplace.

LendAPI Partner Podcast with Mor Milo, CEO at Relli features an insightful discussion on revolutionizing real estate investing through technology. Mor Milo shares his expertise in building a platform that democratizes access to high-yield, passive real estate opportunitiesKey Topics Discussed- Democratizing real estate investing: Mor explains how Relli transforms family rental lessons into a tech platform, opening vetted deals to passive investors beyond traditional networks.​- Platform for accredited investors: Current offerings include diverse assets like retail, self-storage, and debt, with flexible investments starting at $10k and improved liquidity/yields (e.g., 15% structured returns).​- Future vision and marketplace model: Aims to create a "stock market for real estate" with fractional ownership for all; connects developers to educated investors via free marketplace, enhancing deal economics.​- LendAPI integration benefits: Automates KYC/KYB for seamless onboarding, ensuring compliance, reducing friction, and enabling scale for investors/sponsors—key for Relli's growth.- Success stories: An LA CEO shifted $100k from 8% multifamily returns to higher-yield, flexible deals on Relli, showcasing better economics and user experience.​​Mor's insights highlight partnership-driven innovation, like Relli's LendAPI collaboration, empowering fintechs to streamline operations and expand real estate access.📢 Explore more on the LendAPI MarketplaceListen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, Jay Bhattacharya shares his journey in the world of payments and fintech. As the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Veem, Jay provides a deep dive into how fintech companies can simplify global payments and accelerate innovation through strategic alliances and API-driven solutions.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Making cross-border payments frictionless:
  Jay explains how Veem’s platform was developed to remove pain points in international payments, delivering ease and speed for businesses operating globally.

• API-powered partnerships:
  The conversation highlights how integrating Veem’s payment APIs with platforms like LendAPI enables fintechs and lenders to automate payment workflows, reduce risk, and improve transparency.

• Scaling compliance & efficiency:
  Jay discusses the regulatory and operational challenges of cross-border payments and how Veem’s technology-first approach helps clients maintain compliance while streamlining vendor payments and customer payouts.

• Collaboration in fintech:
  The episode explores how ecosystem partnerships—like those between Veem and LendAPI—unlock new value for lenders, drive digital transformation, and empower businesses to expand into new markets confidently.

• Real-world success stories:
  Jay shares tangible examples where customers have benefited from smart, integrated payment experiences, resulting in faster settlements and better global reach.

Jay’s story is a testament to finding opportunity in complexity and the power of partnership-led growth. Whether you’re a fintech product leader, operations executive, or innovator in global commerce, you’ll find actionable takeaways in how Veem and LendAPI are setting new standards for modern B2B payments.

📢 Explore more on the LendAPI Marketplace

Tune in to discover how LendAPI and Veem are collaborating to advance the future of lending and payments technology. Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, Brian Reshefsky, Founder and CEO of Edge, shares the origins of Edge and explores his journey in fintech, focusing on technology-driven lending and API transformation. He highlights how partnerships like Edge and LendAPI address digital onboarding, compliance, and integration pain points, spotlighting real-world benefits for lenders.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Solving industry pain points: Brian explains how Edge was established to tackle inefficiencies in lending technology and streamline digital lending workflows.

• API automation & innovation: Edge emphasizes automation across onboarding, origination, and underwriting, enabling seamless API integration for fintechs and lenders.

• Partnership impact: Insights into Edge’s collaboration with LendAPI and the business results of integrating best-in-class API solutions.

• Compliance & customer experience: Brian discusses how Edge simplifies regulatory workflows and enhances lender and borrower experiences through smart tech.

• Actionable strategies: How lending institutions and fintechs can leverage API partnerships to unlock growth, efficiency, and flexibility.

• Customer success stories: Real-world examples illustrating improved operational efficiency and digital transformation through Edge and LendAPI integrations.

  
  

Brian’s story is a testament to the power of solving root business challenges with technology, listening to partners and customers, and co-innovating in a rapidly changing digital lending market. The Edge journey shows the lasting impact of collaboration, automation, and relentless focus on operational efficiency.

📢 Explore more at the LendAPI Marketplace. Tune in to hear how platforms like Edge and LendAPI are shaping the future of lending technology and partnerships. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

In this episode of the LendAPI Partner Podcast, host Rutger van Faassen sits down with Georgina Merhom, the founder and CEO of SOLO. Georgina shares her journey from running a lending company in Egypt to solving critical data challenges in the global lending sector by founding SOLO. This discussion gets into the origin, vision, and unique approach SOLO brings to customer data management.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Solving real pain points: Georgina talks about experiencing inefficiencies with customer data collection in her first lending business, leading her to launch SOLO to address these industry-wide challenges.

• Data reusability & efficiency: SOLO focuses on enabling the reuse of customer data across multiple products, departments, and even institutions—streamlining onboarding, origination, and underwriting processes.

• Integration and workflow: The platform integrates at points of customer interaction, resolving information gaps by leveraging what’s already known, and engaging customers only when necessary.

• Reducing friction: SOLO’s “single source of truth” approach eliminates redundancy, making customer experiences smoother both within and across financial institutions.

• Collaborative innovation: Georgina describes how customer and partner feedback has directly influenced SOLO’s roadmap, including the creation of new network-driven solutions.

• Network effects: The SOLO network connects lenders and partners to reduce duplicative costs and enhance verification processes, benefitting everyone involved.

• Customer impact stories: From customer accolades (“With SOLO, hard takes a day and impossible takes a week!”) to real-world efficiency gains, SOLO’s value is validated in day-to-day client success.

• Industry vision: The episode highlights how putting customer needs first and fostering collaboration are key to building financial technology that works for everyone.

Georgina’s experience exemplifies the power of solving genuine problems, listening to customers, and continuously adapting your product to evolving market needs. The SOLO story demonstrates that innovation and partnership can reshape lending for the better.