Wharton FinTech Podcast

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of FedNow's debut, Zoey Tang sat down with an esteemed panel of experts, Nick Stanescu, Carlos Brandt, and Rocio Wu. In today’s episode, we discussed -Latest updates about FedNow -Lessons learned from Pix and other international instant payment network -Factors that drove differences in adoption across markets -Exciting innovations in the instant payment space About guests featured on today's show: Nick Stanescu is the Executive Vice President and Chief FedNow Executive at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He leads the FedNow® Service, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at revolutionizing the US payments landscape with round-the-clock instant payment and settlement services. Carlos Brandt is a senior advisor at the Central Bank of Brazil for Pix and payments in general. He was the Head of management and operations for Pix since the launch in 2020. He has been instrumental in the design and implementation of Pix, Brazil's highly successful instant electronic payment system that has significantly increased financial inclusion and transformed the country's payment ecosystem. Rocio Wu is a Principal at F-Prime Capital, where she leads investments in FinTech and enterprise software. With a rich background in investing and operating roles at companies like Google and Amazon in Europe, LatAm, Asia, and the US, Rocio brings a global perspective on innovation and technology in the payments sector. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Zoey's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoeytang1007/

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. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Kajol’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kajol-char/

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… For more FinTech insights, follow us on - WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech - WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech - WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech - Djavaneh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djavaneh/ 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 For more FinTech insights, follow us on - WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech - WFT Twitter: http://twitter.com/whartonfintech - WFT Instagram: http://instagram.com/whartonfintech

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. For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: https://medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: x.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Kajol’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kajol-char/

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 For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech

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. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Joshua’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbenadiva/

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 For more FinTech insights from Wharton Fintech, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Kailee’s Twitter: @KaileeCostello_ Kailee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaileecostello/

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. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Nate’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-c-gee/

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. For more FinTech insights, follow us on: WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Zoey's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/zoeytang1007/ 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

Trevor Prince sits down with John Beccia, the Co-Founder and CEO of FS Vector, and Edin Trto, a Managing Director at Canaccord Genuity. FS Vector is a strategic consulting firm in the FinTech industry, focused on regulatory issues and other critical functions. In this episode, John and Edin discuss how their teams prepared FS Vector for its first institutional capital raise, how they navigated market volatility during their process, their outlook on the FinTech regulatory landscape, and much more.

In today's episode, Wesley Aster hosts Justo Benetti, SVP Head of Americas at dLocal. Justo formerly served as VP of Strategic Solutions at Worldpay. In this episode you will hear about: - Justo's background and new role at dLocal - Payment processing in emerging economies - Managing regulatory complexity across emerging markets - dLocal's $100M investment in Argentina, and how Argentina's new presidential administration will impact the fintech sector - Global fintech trends

In today’s episode, Joshua Benadiva hosts Irana Wasti, Chief Product Officer at BILL. Irana was previously the Chief Product Officer at Typeform and President of GoDaddy EMEA. In this episode you will hear about: - How to be a successful product manager in fintech - How Irana measures and implements successful strategies for building for small businesses - Best practices for managing product organizations in fintech - BILL's strategy to provide value as a full-stack financial operations platform - How BILL leverages machine learning and AI throughout its product - How to lead a product-led growth team and how to measure success, activation rates, and customer value For more FinTech insights, follow us on WFT Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Instagram: instagram.com/whartonfintech Josh's Twitter: @josh_benadiva Josh’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jbenadiva/

Rhea Advani Bobba hosts Tess Bloch, co-founder and Head of Operations of Spade, a fintech startup reshaping the card ecosystem with real-time merchant intelligence. They delve into how Spade is revolutionizing transaction data clarity, enabling FIs to enhance fraud detection, authorize more transactions, and foster innovation in financial products and services. They discuss the journey of Spade from its inception and path to product-market fit. The conversation also covers the challenges and successes faced in expanding globally, the importance of a clear ROI for financial institutions, and Spade's ambitious plans for the future. About Tess Tess Bloch is the co-founder and Head of Operations of Spade. In her current role as Head of Operations, Tess leads Spade’s operations, finance, sales, and people teams, and grew the employee headcount 5x. Before co-founding Spade, Tess spent two years at the leading income and employment connectivity API, Pinwheel, where she started as the Chief of Staff before becoming its Head of Operations. In these roles, she helped scale the Pinwheel team 14 to 100 employees and supported growth that helped the company raise a $50M Series B. Previously, Tess also worked for McKinsey & Company in London, where she focused on payments, private equity, and public and social sector work, but her passion for fintech didn’t start there. Already, before graduating from Stanford, she realized her interest in the financial services ecosystem early on in her career, starting an internship at Venmo in her freshman year and taking time off during her junior year to work there full time. About Spade Spade provides real-time merchant intelligence for the card ecosystem. Spade leverages its ground truth database to link any card transaction to a real merchant identity – providing granular merchant, category, and geolocation information. Spade leads the market in terms of merchant coverage, geolocation matching accuracy, and speed of transaction enrichment. Customers such as Mercury, Sardine, Ramp, and Unit trust Spade's data to authorize more transactions, prevent fraud, and build more innovative features. — As always, for more Fintech insights and opportunities to collaborate, please find us below: WFT LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech WFT Blog: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Home: www.whartonfintech.org Rhea’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rheaa/