Fintech One-On-One Transforming the Middle Layer of Banking with the CEO of Aliya
In banking, we often talk about the "front end" customer experience or the "back end" systems of record. But according to S.P. “Wije” Wijegoonaratna, the founder of Aliya, the real revolution is happening right in the middle. From his early days in the UK to his time in the high-stakes world of New York hedge funds and his role as an early investor at SoFi, Wije has consistently found himself at the intersection of financial data and decision-making.
At its core, Aliya is an operational intelligence layer that sits between a bank's customer-facing front end and its core system of record, what Wije calls "the middle." It combines transaction categorization trained on 1.5 trillion transactions from nearly 1,500 banks, dynamic risk segmentation, and real-time post-origination monitoring into a single microservices platform.
In our conversation, we discuss why Aliya went after the largest banks first, how their approach to post-origination risk management drives charge-off rates as low as 2.5%, why Wije believes Nubank poses an existential threat to regional and community banks, and why he thinks the biggest opportunity in banking today lies in transforming that middle layer.
In this podcast, you will learn:
- How meeting Mike Cagney and the founders of Palantir was the catalyst for the birth of Aliya.
- Why they decided to start with helping banks with lending.
- The two core offerings Aliya has today.
- Why the cumulative losses on their portfolio is far better than most lenders.
- How they decide when to take action on a consumer that may be having problems.
- Why they chose to focus on selling to the large banks first.
- What they are providing to the large banks exactly.
- Why Aliya doesn’t fit into any fintech category.
- Where the biggest opportunity for Aliya is today.
- Why Wije believes Nubank is going to be successful in the US.
- What is next for Aliya.
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