The longest running one-on-one interview show in all of fintech, since 2013
The longest running one-on-one interview show in all of fintech, since 2013
The longest running one-on-one interview show in all of fintech, since 2013
When we really started covering financial inclusion and financial health here at LendIt five years ago it seemed that we had a very long way to go. Tens of millions of consumers were still left outside the financial system with no credit score and therefore had little to no access to credit. That has changed a great deal in the last five years. At the same time we have seen an explosion in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platforms.
Banking is at an interesting inflection point. There is better technology available today than ever before that can really help banks run more efficiently as their customers are demanding faster and more user-friendly services. At the same time, looming over the horizon is blockchain technology, DeFi, stablecoins and more that could make some of today’s cutting-edge technology obsolete.
Good financial habits should be formed before adulthood. Unfortunately, most schools still don’t spend much time teaching this kind of thing. But the good news is that there are new tools out there today that make it easy for kids to not just learn good habits but to understand what it means to be financially healthy. And how you reach teenagers today is through the phone.
While the media focuses on the unicorns and the massive funding rounds happening in fintech today, there are so many interesting early-stage companies that are often overlooked. The newsletter, This Week in Fintech, has one of the most extensive lists of fintech funding rounds, often reporting on companies that have raised less than a million dollars.
For digital assets like bitcoin to go truly mainstream they need to have onramps through banks. People trust banks with their money and if their own bank is offering crypto trading in a seamless way many more millions of people will join the crypto revolution. But for banks to be able to offer this they need sophisticated infrastructure, which is where our guest today comes in.
The CEO of Rally talks democratizing investing in a new asset: collectibles, something that historically has only been available to wealthy individuals.
The franchise industry is unique. While the franchisees are often small businesses run by entrepreneurs, the franchisors they work with can be large businesses. It is an unusual space to underwrite when it comes to small business loans, so it requires unique expertise to do well.
The auto finance market is such a unique space. In some ways it has a lot in common with home finance, it is an asset-backed loan after all, but it also seems to be a far less mature market when it comes to fintech disruption. That is starting to change, thankfully, because there are likely tens of millions of people who are overpaying for their auto loans today.
Embedded finance is one of those fintech terms that gets thrown around a lot. But the reason this trend has real traction is because there are huge benefits for the end-user when finance operates in this embedded fashion. One of the very earliest proponents of embedded finance was DriveWealth, having started in 2012.
If you receive a parking ticket or are late on a utility bill your options as a consumer are pretty limited. You need to go to the website and pay or send a check in the mail by the due date. If you don’t there will likely be serious consequences. What about bringing the power of technology to enable more flexibility in these situations?