Wharton FinTech Podcast

Miguel Armaza sits down with Sam Bobley, Co-Founder and CEO of Ocrolus, an infrastructure company that transforms documents into data analytics with incredible accuracy designed to help financial services companies make high quality decisions at unprecedented speed. Sam started building Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen when he was only 22 and seven years later, the company employs nearly 1,000 people globally and has raised close to $50 million in equity from top VC funds, including Stage 2 Capital, QED, Fintech Collective, Oak HC/FT, and Bullpen Capital. We talked about: - Company origins - Sam’s entrepreneurial journey - Strategies on building and hiring the initial team - Finding product-market fit and how he decided to shift and expand his client base - The fast-changing and fast-moving fintech ecosystem - Entrepreneurial advice - And a whole lot more Sam Bobley Sam started building Ocrolus in his parent’s kitchen when he was 22-years-old. Six years later, the company employs nearly 1,000 people globally, spread across four offices. As Ocrolus matured, Sam authored a patent application and helped raise more than $30 million in venture capital. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Finance, Class of 2020. About Ocrolus Ocrolus is a human-in-the-loop infrastructure company that transforms documents into data analytics with over 99% accuracy. Ocrolus technology is designed to help financial services companies make high quality decisions with trusted data and unprecedented speed. Inc. Magazine recognized Ocrolus as the #1 fastest-growing fintech nationwide, and the #1 fastest-growing software company in NY. Visit ocrolus.com to learn more.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Samir Chaibi, investor at Insignia Ventures Partners, a Southeast Asian growth and venture investing fund with over $350 million in assets under management, where he specifically focuses in backing fintech startups. Prior to Insignia, Samir spent many years working around the world and got his MBA at our Wharton School. We discussed: - Samir’s background and his path to venture capital - Company history for Insignia Ventures Partners, their investment thesis, and a bit about the portfolio companies - The evolution and current state of the fintech ecosystem in Southeast Asia - The surprising parallels between fintech in Latin America and Southeast Asia - His outlook of the regional future of the industry - And a lot more! Samir Chaibi Samir Chaibi is a Principal at Insignia Venture Partners (IVP), a Southeast Asia-focused growth and venture investing fund with US $350M+ in AuM. Prior to IVP, Samir was a venture investor at STRIVE, a Tokyo headquartered VC fund deploying capital into seed rounds across Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Samir started his career in investment banking with Lazard (France) and Citigroup (UK) before transitioning to private equity and joining the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a US $400bn+ sovereign wealth fund. Samir also co-founded DocEx Legal, a legal technology startup, leveraging an experienced team of lawyers based in South Asia to solve the legal talent gap across the Middle East. Samir graduated from a three-year dual-degree MBA/MPA program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government with a focus on entrepreneurship, finance, and technology policy. About Insignia Ventures Partners Insignia Ventures Partners is an early-stage technology venture capital firm focusing on Southeast Asia since 2017, managing capital from premier institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds, foundations, university endowments and renowned family offices from Asia, Europe and North America.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Eyal Shinar, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Fundbox, a company focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by launching the world’s first B2B payments and credit network. Since its inception in 2013, Fundbox has raised more than $300 million dollars from leading investors like Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Spark Growth Capital, and Jeff Bezos. We talked about - Company origins - Customer acquisition and distribution strategies - Entrepreneurial challenges - Reflections around the PPP loan program in the US and the company’s incredibly meaningful role at the height of COVID to disburse and fund these loans to small businesses. - His thoughts on the key and strategic roles of fintech and tech during the pandemic - Lessons for entrepreneurs - And a whole lot more! Eyal Shinar Eyal Shinar is the Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Fundbox. Prior to his current role he served as a vice president at Battery Ventures where he led many projects and investments in the areas of finance, machine learning and software as a service. Additionally, Shinar was one of the first employees of Old Lane, a $5.5 billion New York-based global hedge fund (later acquired by Citigroup), and also worked for Castle Harlan, a leading $6 billion NYC-based buyout firm. Shinar earned his MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. About Fundbox Fundbox is a leading financial technology company focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by launching the world’s first B2B payments and credit network. With heavy investments in machine learning and the ability to innovatively analyze transactional data, Fundbox is reimagining B2B payments and credit products in new category-defining ways. Fundbox has received numerous accolades for innovation including the prestigious Forbes A.I. 50, Red Herring North American 100, Forbes Fintech 50, CB Insights Fintech 250, Benzinga 2019 Fintech Listmakers, Forbes Billion Dollar Startup To Watch among others. Since the company’s founding in 2013, Fundbox has raised more than $300 million from a blue-chip group of investors led by Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Spark Growth Capital, and Jeff Bezos.

What happens after you hit “buy” on that $300 order of Shopify stock (worth over $1,100 as of the day of the episode)? Fractional trading has become one of the hottest product features in Fintech, democratizing access to expensive shares (AMZN, BRK-A, CMG, etc.) to everyday investors. In addition, they allow more precise and comfortable investing and budgeting, as people can designate a notional dollar amount toward a purchase. But how exactly do you buy .3 of a share? Enter Apex Clearing, a PEAK6 company, one of the most innovative and digital-first clearing and custody platforms in the world. Apex powers the fractional capabilities of many companies you may use today, including Stash, M1 Finance, broker-dealers, major banks, and RIAs. They also powered Robinhood up until recently. In today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Apex’s Chief Product Officer, Dustin Kirkland, to learn about: - Dustin’s unusual path to FinTech (2:00) - What Apex does (8:00) - What is clearing & custody (9:00) - Clearing & Market Making (11:00) - The nuts & bolts of Fractional Trading (15:00) - Crypto trading and how it will disrupt equities (20:18) - And a rapid-fire round including the best Austin BBQ and some shared love for the Grateful Dead For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/whartonfintech/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/whartonfintech/ Apex Clearing is a custody and clearing engine that’s powering the future of digital wealth management. Our proprietary enterprise-grade technology delivers speed, efficiency and flexibility to firms ranging from innovative start-ups to blue-chip brands focused on transformation to capture a new generation of investors. We help our clients provide the seamless digital experiences today’s consumers expect with the throughput and scalability needed by fast-growing, high-volume financial services businesses. Founded in 2012, Apex Clearing is registered with the SEC, a member of FINRA and a Participant in SIPC.

Miguel Armaza interviews Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner at Core Innovation Capital, a venture capital firm, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, investing in high-growth financial technology companies that can unlock upward mobility for everyday Americans. Kat holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Babson College and an MBA from The Wharton School. We talked about: - Kat’s journey, from family upbringing, schooling, all the way to how she ended up in VC - Why she continues to be excited about Fintech, even after investing in the sector for over a decade - What’s changed in the industry over the past few years - Core’s investment and valuation approach and how they work with portfolio companies to prepare them from seed, to series A, and beyond - Her vision for Core’s future - And a lot more! Kat Utecht Kat Utecht is co-managing partner of Core Innovation Capital, an early stage venture capital fund making mercenary returns through missionary investments in financial services and insurance technology. Portfolio companies include HealthSherpa, Bestow, Ripple and Synapse. Prior to investing with Core and at Comcast Ventures, Kat was CEO of Green Rock Entertainment, a commerce company acquired by private equity in 2009. Kat began her career in financial services, both as an investment banker and a graduate of General Electric Capital's Financial Management Program. Kat has an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Babson College. About Core Innovation Capital Core Innovation Capital is an an early stage venture capital fund making mercenary returns through missionary investments in financial services and insurance technology. Core invests across three themes: 1. Modernizing financial and insurance infrastructure, 2. Expanding access to better financial services and insurance, and 3. Creating wealth through fintech adjacencies that help increase a household or SMB GDP. We optimize our portfolio by focusing on high conviction, early-stage investments with the flexibility to participate in unique opportunities across the venture lifecycle. Our main value add is our contacts - regulatory (e.g. state insurance regulators, CFPB), people flow (internal database for hiring), commercial contracts (e.g. insurers / reinsurers; lenders / debt capital, SaaS customers) - and to bounce ideas off of since we are so focused. Investments include Ripple, NerdWallet, and Oportun, among many others. For more information, visit www.corevc.com.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Laura González-Estéfani, Founder and CEO of The Venture City, a global accelerator and venture capital fund of emerging ecosystems specialized in growth with the mission to help entrepreneurs from all over the world. Prior to Venture City, Laura spent many years at Facebook, eBay, Siemens, and Ogilvy Group. We talked about - Laura’s career in big tech - Her decision to leave Facebook and launch the Venture City - The challenges of building a fund and why she believes she leads the most diverse VC in the industry - Her decision to base the company in Miami (before the Miami twitter crazy of 2020, I should add) - Her investing and portfolio management approach - What excites her about investing in fintech around the world - And much much more! Laura González-Estéfani Laura spent nearly nine years with Facebook in various roles supporting overall growth strategies. Laura led the Growth, Mobile & Partnerships team for Latin America, spearheading the Internet.org and connectivity initiatives from Silicon Valley and later Miami. Before Facebook, Laura held management roles at eBay, Siemens and Ogilvy Group.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Dan Henry, CEO of Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT), a 20-year-old company focused on making modern banking and money movement accessible for everyone. Green Dot also recently launched Go2Bank a digital bank for Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Green Dot is far from being Dan’s first rodeo. In fact, this is the third publicly listed company he’s led in the last three decades. He previously served as CEO of Netspend, a leading provider of prepaid debit cards, and led the company through its IPO and eventual sale to TSYS Corporation. Prior to Netspend, he co-founded Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leader in secure electronic financial transaction processing, where he served as President and COO from 1994 through 2006. We talked about: - Dan’s entrepreneurial and international fintech journey since the early 90s - What motivates him and why entrepreneurs are his favorite type of folks - Two fundamental things he believes make a business successful - The evolution of fintech - Why he came out of retirement to lead GreenDot - What led him to launch Go2Bank in January 2021 and a bit about their Go2Market strategy - Reflections for aspiring founders - And a whole lot more! Dan Henry Dan Henry joined Green Dot as CEO in early 2020 with a vision to maximize the potential of the 20-year-old digital bank and make modern, affordable banking and payments accessible to everyone. He previously served as CEO of Netspend, a leading provider of prepaid debit cards for personal and commercial use, from 2008 to 2014. In 2010, Mr. Henry led Netspend through its initial public offering, and in July 2013 completed an all-cash sale of the company to TSYS Corporation, valued at $1.4 billion USD. Prior to Netspend, Mr. Henry co-founded Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ: EEFT), a leader in secure electronic financial transaction processing, where he served as President and Chief Operations Officer from 1994 through 2006, and remained on the company’s Board until 2008. Mr. Henry has been Chairman of Paysign Inc (NASDAQ: PAYS), a vertically integrated provider of innovative prepaid card programs, digital banking and processing services for corporate, consumer and government application, since 2018. He also served as a director of The Brink’s Company (NYSE:BCO) from 2017 through early 2020. About Green Dot Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT) is a financial technology and registered bank holding company focused on making modern banking and money movement accessible for all. Our proprietary technology enables faster, more efficient electronic payments and money management, powering intuitive and seamless ways for people to spend, send, control and save their money. Through our retail and direct bank, we offer a suite of financial products to consumers and businesses including debit, prepaid, checking, credit and payroll cards, as well as robust money processing services, tax refunds, cash deposits and disbursements. GO2bank is FDIC-insured, so your money is protected up to the maximum allowable limit. And GO2bank is a brand of Green Dot Corporation, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Pasadena, CA. Green Dot has served more than 33 million consumers directly over the last 20 years and many more through our banking partners.

What do you think of when you hear “stock trading”? For most of us in 2020, we thought of YOLO Calls, Tesla Bulls, Robinhood, Wall Street Bets, and Day Trading. Going back to earlier days, you might think of men in suits on the phone, scrambling to buy & sell stocks. The culture of the market needs to change. Enter Public.Com, the stock investing app with a social, community-based focus making stock trading approachable (and free) for everyday people. On today’s episode, Ryan Zauk sits down with Co-Founder Leif Abraham to learn how Public is changing the culture of the market through approachability, community, in-app features, and celebrities like Tony Hawk and Adrian Grenier (netting 40% female users, an industry-high). Public has taken social media and FinTech by storm, and just raised $65M in a Series C backed by A list celebrities (Chainsmokers, Tony Hawk) and VCs (Accel, Greycroft) who are also prominent users of the platform. Lief and Ryan cover a ton in this episode, including - What FinTech marketers get wrong (and how they can fix it) - How Public has focused on building its app to reach 40% female users in a male-dominated market - A flurry of marketing tips and frameworks around K-Factor, Retention, Content Marketing, and more - Tangible advice on how to build a culture that democratizes and scales decision making ...And much more This is one of our most information-dense episodes to date – Leif does not disappoint. For more insights and analysis from FinTech leaders, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Ryan's Twitter: twitter.com/RyanZauk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/whartonfintech/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/whartonfintech/

Miguel Armaza sits down with Andrew Lerner, Managing Partner of IA Capital Group, a New York-based private investment firm and manager of the Inter-Atlantic funds, that’s dedicated to partnering with innovative entrepreneurs in venture and growth capital across InsurTech and FinTech. Andy has been at the company since 1995 and is responsible for the day-to-day activities of IA Capital, and is a member of its investment committee. He holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from our amazing Wharton School We talked about - Andy’s background - What drove him to fintech VC in the mid-1990s - His take on the evolution of the fintech industry - The advantages of being in an industry with meaningful tail winds - Why he’s excited about InsurTech for the foreseeable future - Importance of Financial Empowerment, along with diversity and inclusion - Why he prefers backing young entrepreneurs and thinks experience is overrated - The effects of COVID on their portfolio - And much, much more! Andrew Lerner Andrew Lerner is Managing Partner of IA Capital Group, where he has been employed since 1995. Mr. Lerner is responsible for the day-to-day activities of IA Capital, and is a member of its investment committee. In 2000, he launched IA Capital's venture capital business which is now the firm’s core activity. Mr. Lerner was also President and Managing Director of Guggenheim Securities, LLC, IA Capital's former broker-dealer business, until 2003. Mr. Lerner is a Director of Homeowners of America, SMArtX, Crown Global Insurance Group, Credit Sesame, Wellthie, Boost, SmartAsset, Gainfully, and Matic. Mr. Lerner has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining IA Capital, he served as an investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group of Smith Barney Inc. for four years and in its Mortgage and Asset Finance Group for two years. Mr. Lerner holds a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University and an M.B.A. in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He serves as a director of Transportation Alternatives. About IA Capital Group IA Capital is the longest-tenured independent venture capital firm focusing on insurtech. Based in New York City, IA Capital has a two-decade track record of successfully partnering with innovative early and growth stage companies in insurance and—more broadly—financial services. IA is currently investing in its sixth, seventh, and eighth venture capital funds and manages strategic venture capital programs for 15 insurers. Learn more at iacapgroup.com.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Dave Unsworth and Kerri Golden from Information Venture Partners, a Canadian Venture Capital firm that primarily invests in early-stage North American B2B FinTech and enterprise software. We talk about: - Dave and Kerri’s transition from operators to investors - IVP’s relationship with the Royal Bank of Canada - Fundraising from institutional LPs - The duo’s strategy to invest in the next generation of leaders - The importance of engineering a culture early on - Interesting fintech trends - The role of a CFO at a Venture Capital firm - And a lot more! Dave Unsworth Dave Unsworth co-founded Information Venture Partners in 2014. Dave has led investments in eSentire (exited, 2017), Verafin, Sensibill, Igloo Software (exited, 2017), Viigo (acquired by BlackBerry), Coconut Software, BigID, Knowtions and LendingFront. Dave is focused on FinTech and Enterprise software and is particularly interested in cybersecurity, mobile, enterprise 2.0 and ventures that create highly valuable data assets by being at the center of large-scale financial transactions. Prior to founding Information Venture Partners Dave worked as an investor with RBC Venture Partners from 2001. Prior to his career in venture capital, Dave had a successful career in operating roles focused on e-commerce strategy development, technology-enabled financial services product development, technology project management and retail/commercial financial services. Dave is an active member in the start-up community in Toronto and Waterloo as a mentor to early-stage CEOs and founding teams. Dave also serves as a mentor in the Kaufmann Fellows program and more recently with the Holt FinTech Accelerator and as an investment committee member for the Investment Accelerator Fund. Dave has been a frequent contributor to Private Capital Magazine. Dave is an original member and past Chair of the Financial Services Venture Capital Alliance. Dave was granted an MBA from Queen’s University, a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is also a graduate of the NVCA’s Venture Capital Institute and the Rotman SME Board Effectiveness Program. Kerri Golden Kerri Golden joined Information Venture Partners at inception in 2014 and works with the investment team to help select and support the fund’s investee companies and manage the financial operations of the fund. She has over 30 years of general management and finance experience in a variety of technology industries and she’s been active in securing financings of over $1 billion in equity and debt and in negotiations of a number of merger and acquisition transactions. Kerri was a General Partner of Primaxis Technology Ventures for eight years where she led and managed several investments in early-stage companies in the IT, software and communications sectors and also served as CFO of the fund. Kerri had a successful corporate career with high growth technology companies. She was a mobile pioneer at Rogers Wireless, joining prior to service launch and experiencing start-up challenges and opportunities as company grew from zero to $200M in revenue during her 2.5 year tenure. She was a public company CFO at Alliance Atlantis Communications and Lorus Therapeutics and ended her successful 7-year career at Bell Mobility as CEO, Paging Division after progressive leadership positions in Finance and IT. Kerri is an experienced start-up executive. She co-owns a small business Urban Flats Toronto and served as COO at SeaWell Networks and CFO at Infobright. She serves the start-up community as an active mentor at MaRS, where she co-founded the JOLT Fund and continues to serve as a volunteer general partner. Kerri obtained an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and earned her CA designation while working with KPMG in Toronto.