The F in Tech Podcast

Aged 10, and freshly arrived in the UK, Husayn Kassai watched his parents struggle to prove their identity. A couple of years later, he “borrowed” his sister’s ID to set up an eBay business that did a roaring trade selling CDs online. These two experiences helped plant the seeds of the idea that, a decade later, would become Onfido, a global leader in identity verification and fraud protection, which he co-founded and - until recently - ran.

Running a fintech is apparently just as challenging as playing professional rugby. Al Lukies should know - he's done both, though he only broke half the bones in his leg with the latter. His first attempt - Monitise - hit a market value of some £2 billion at one point. After a stint as the UK Prime Minister's "fintech ambassador", he went on to found Pollinate, which helps big banks provide digital tools, such as merchant services, to small businesses. And it's a good time to speak with Al: Pollinate has just raised $50m from the likes of Natwest, NAB, Mastercard and Insight Ventures. Enjoy.  

To paraphrase the opening song in the musical, Avenue Q, what do you do with a BA in History? Become a VC and then a fintech founder, of course! Already well-known as the world’s biggest cheerleader for Israeli tech, Jon Medved set up OurCrowd in 2013 to enable retail investors to get the same kind of access to tech startups that he had as a VC. In this sometimes riotous podcast, he reveals that on one occasion one Marc Benioff offered him the chance to invest in the seed round of a tiny startup called Salesforce. He declined. But as he concludes, with his usual ebullience: "Life is life. It's all good. I'm still in the game."

Forget glass ceilings, Christian Wiens had to break through glass doors - and be billed for them by his landlord - before being inspired to found his insurtech, Getsafe. Based in Germany, Getsafe provides coverage for everything from cars to drones to pets to legal fees. You could call it: Europe's Lemonade.  

Rob Straathof is CEO of Liberis, an alternative lender for SMEs, whose technology and data enable it to pre-approve businesses for loans. 

Of all the fintech founders we’ve had on the show so far, Rob’s stints as a cheesemaker and alligator-dodging pilot probably qualify him as the one with the most varied stories. And though he may never have fulfilled his ambition to become an astronaut, keeping his feet on the ground has meant helping many small business owners keep a roof over their heads. Enjoy. 

With a passion for motor racing and cars Giles Andrews wasn’t always destined to found a fintech. And when he did, he almost crashed and burned. But under his leadership, he turned the p2p lending pioneer around. And while banks and other lenders were coming unstuck during the global financial crisis, Zopa sailed through - and even grew, eventually becoming one of the UK's biggest challenger banks. 

They say founding a startup is like raising a child. After blowing more than $100,000 on her own fertility treatment, Claire Tomkins did both, alongside founding Future Family - a fertility-financing fintech - to help others do the same.

Serial entrepreneur William Reeve is CEO of lettings software platform Goodlord and Chairman of robo-advisor Nutmeg. He sold his first startup - Fletcher Research - to Forrester (just before the #dotcom bust), and co-founded Secret Escapes. But is probably best known for co-founding LOVEFiLM which, after seeing off Amazon, was eventually bought by the company.

They say bad things always come in threes. Shachar Bialik would no doubt agree. Brexit and COVID would ordinarily be enough on their own to floor many businesses. Throw in the Wirecard fraud fiasco, and it’s a wonder he’s still around to tell the tale. But not only did he and Curve survive. They thrived. The #fintech recently announced it had raised an additional $95m, taking its total to $175m. Now, Curve is coming to America. (Listen closely, and you may hear his baby son in the background).