Wharton FinTech Podcast

Kajol Char hosts Zuben Mathews, co-founder and CEO of Brigit. Brigit is a personal finance application dedicated to bringing financial stability to Americans by helping users avoid overdrafts, access instant cash, build credit, and budget effectively. This episode delves into Zuben’s journey to founding Brigit.

In this episode you will hear about:

-Zuben Mathews’ firsthand experience with personal finance challenges

-Brigit’s holistic product suite

-Regulatory opportunities

-Power of cashflow data

-And much more!

About Zuben Mathews

Zuben Mathews is the Co-Founder and CEO of Brigit. Zuben Mathews first immigrated to the U.S. on a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he worked two jobs to make ends meet. After school, he learned the ins and outs of finance by working in investment banking at Deutsche Bank for over eleven years. He then spent a year as Managing Director in Mergers & Acquisitions at Infosys before co-founding Brigit in 2017.

About Brigit

Brigit is a personal finance application dedicated to bringing financial stability to all Americans by helping users avoid overdrafts, access instant cash, build credit, and budget effectively.

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Podcast lead Djavaneh Bierwirth hosts Jenny Xia Spradling, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of FreeWill, a Bain Capital-backed startup on a mission to create access to estate planning for all individuals and promote high-impact charitable giving. In this episode, Jenny discusses her journey from founding her first fintech startup to disrupting estate planning with FreeWill.

In this episode we discuss how FreeWill’s technology:

supports nonprofits with planned giving programs

simplifies complex donations of stocks and crypto assets

provides innovative software solutions for fundraising

And more…

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About FreeWill

FreeWill is a social-good enterprise offering online tools that empower Americans to address commonly faced estate planning needs and make charitable donations in tax-advantaged ways, all for free. FreeWill also features a charitable giving platform that makes it easier for nonprofit fundraising teams to unlock transformational non-cash gifts. Through its partnerships with 1,500+ nonprofits who understand that major gifts often are part of estate plans, the company is also able to provide a comprehensive suite of estate planning and related tools to consumers free of cost. To date, FreeWill has generated nearly $10 billion in planned and real-time gifts for more than 10,000 nonprofits while helping more than 1 million consumers create wills and plan their estates.

In today's episode, Wesley Aster hosts Mrinal Manohar, the co-founder & CEO of Casper Labs, a pioneer in AI governance technologies leveraging blockchain to revolutionize AI governance.

Tune in to hear about:

- Mrinal's journey from computer science to private equity, and ultimately to founding Casper Labs

- The mission of vision of Casper Labs to enhance transparency in AI systems

- Insights into Casper Labs’ collaboration with IBM consulting and its impact on generative AI auditability

- The unique challenges and opportunities at the intersection of blockchain and AI

- Mrinal's outlook on the future of blockchain in enterprise AI and evolving regulatory landscapes

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Kajol Char hosts Doug Ricket, founder and CEO of PayJoy. PayJoy is the leading financial platform dedicated to serving the underserved in emerging markets by providing access to smartphones, finance, and the modern financial system. This episode delves into Doug’s inspiring journey and his vision for PayJoy’s future.

In this episode you will hear about:

- Doug’s early career and his love for tech and international development

- PayJoy’s origin story

- PayJoy’s innovation

- Opportunities for growth

- And much more!

About Doug Ricket

Doug Ricket is the Founder and CEO of PayJoy. Prior to founding PayJoy, Doug founded a residential summer school for female high school students to study engineering at MIT, helped take Google Maps global, and built the wholesale distribution network for d.light solar products throughout West Africa (among many other accomplishments). He earned an MBA from Stanford Business School, his Masters of Engineering from MIT, and his Bachelor’s degree from MIT.

About PayJoy

PayJoy is the leading financial platform for the underserved in emerging markets. By opening the door to smartphones, finance, and the modern financial system to those who have been traditionally excluded, PayJoy is helping the underserved escape poverty and gain economic freedom.

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In today's episode, Wesley Aster hosts Jonathan Whittle, the co-founder and Managing Partner of Quona Capital, a global venture capital firm investing in fintech in emerging markets.

Tune in to hear about:

- Jonathan's journey from entrepreneur to investor and how his experience as a founder has shaped his approach to investing

- Quona's mission to drive financial inclusion, its recent advanced impact verification from BlueMark, and success stories from its portfolio.

- Insights into fintech opportunities in Brazil and Mexico, and how regulation influences innovation in Latin America

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Joshua Benadiva hosts Oded Zehavi, co-founder of Mesh Payments, whose innovative approach to expense management is reshaping how companies handle their finances globally.

In this episode, they discuss:

- Oded's rich background with giants like PayPal and Payoneer and how it paved the way for founding Mesh Payments.

- The intricate challenges of launching fintech solutions in international markets and the strategies to overcome them.

- How Mesh Payments is revolutionizing cross-border B2B transactions through the use of card networks.

- The pivot of Mesh Payments during the COVID-19 pandemic to address the evolving needs of remote and distributed teams.

- The transformation from a payment-centric to an automation-centric company, enhancing the operations of the office of the CFO.

About Mesh Payments:

Mesh Payments enables robust automation and management for any spend category from procurement to T&E via a single platform and is built from the ground up for a modern work environment. Mesh makes it easy to manage and control global spending across multiple entities and currencies, from saving on FX with local currency cards to customizing policies, approvals, automations and integrations.

Today, more than 1,500 companies rely on Mesh to power global spend, automate manual accounting tasks, and optimize finance workflows.

About Oded Zahavi:

With a career that spans across major players like PayPal and Payoneer, Oded Zahavi brings a wealth of experience to the fintech industry. His journey from these companies to founding Mesh Payments showcases his deep understanding of financial technologies and market strategies. His insights are particularly keen on scaling operations internationally and navigating the complex global compliance landscape.

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Kailee Costello hosts Davi Strazza, the North America President at Adyen. Adyen is a global fintech platform for enterprise businesses, offering end-to-end payments, data, and financial management in a single solution.

Tune in to hear about:

- Adyen’s unique value proposition, and how Adyen runs their platform across the world under a single tech stack

- Why Adyen attained bank licenses and the opportunities this offers, such as short term loans, issuing and with FedNow

- What Adyen is doing to enable FedNow

- How Adyen partners with fintechs like BILL and Plaid

- How Adyen's offering and focus areas have evolved over the past few years

- Davi’s career path and motivation for joining Adyen

- Key differences between Davi’s previous role as President Latin America and current role as President North America

- Industry outlook and the future for Adyen

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Nate Gee hosts Eric Sager, COO of Plaid, whose technology links fintech apps and financial institutions in a network empowering the fintech solutions that millions of people use.

In this episode, they discuss:

- How Plaid has transformed the fintech landscape in the past decade

- Eric’s journey into fintech and becoming Plaid’s COO

- The role of APIs and open banking in modern financial services

- The growth of digital finance in recent years

- Instant payments and alternative payment rails

- Other fintech trends and how Plaid fits in

- And much more!

About Plaid

Founded in 2013, Plaid has become essential infrastructure in the fintech world, connecting over 100 million users to financial services and facilitating integration among more than 12,000 financial institutions and 8,000 fintech apps worldwide. Plaid’s technology enables simpler, faster, and more transparent financial services, making it a cornerstone in the ongoing evolution of digital finance.

About Eric Sager

With over 20 years of experience in financial services, Eric Sager joined Plaid as COO in 2019. Before joining Plaid, Eric held senior roles at BlueVine and Square. Originally from Germany, Eric worked at Bain & Company in Europe after graduating from Harvard Business School in 2006.

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Zoey Tang sat down with serial Investor, VC, Former Techstars Exec Jon Zanoff.

Previously featured on the Wharton Fintech Podcast before, Jon is the founder of Empire Startups, one of the the largest FinTech communities of entrepreneurs, investors, bank innovators, and operators.

As a fintech legend in New York, Jon is back on the show to share latest updates about Empire Startup and the New York Fintech Week on Apr. 8th - Apr. 12th.

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Previous episode with Jon: https://bit.ly/3VBahpY

In today's episode, Wesley Aster and Djavaneh Bierwirth host Graham Weaver, the founder and managing partner of Alpine Investors, a people-driven private equity firm that invests in software and services businesses.

Tune in to hear about:

- Graham's journey from starting Alpine in his Stanford dorm room to growing the firm to $16B in AUM

- Graham's personal growth and investment philosophies, as well as how he thinks about driving long-term impact

- Alpine's latest $4.5B fund 9, and Graham's experience fundraising in a challenging market