Women in Fintech Archives - Page 4 of 8

Women in Fintech: Creating Shared and Seamless Experiences with Mithu Bhargava of NCR

By David Penn Posted on September 9, 2021
Categories: Interview, NCR Corporation, Women in Fintech

How are fintechs helping financial institutions make successful digital transformations? What is required in order for financial institutions to maximize the opportunities available from increasingly ubiquitous enabling technologies to better engage and serve their customers and members? What lessons can we draw from those banks, credit unions, and other financial services providers that have prioritized digital transformation over the past several months?

We checked in with Mithu Bhargava, Senior Vice President and General Manager for NCR’s Global Professional Services Organization to talk about the current pace of digitization in financial services, and what financial institutions are doing to meet their customers’ growing expectations for shared, seamless experiences.

What are the most significant changes NCR has seen in the banking landscape over the past year?

Mithu Bhargava: The pandemic served as an impetus for banks to digitally transform. While the industry has been talking about digital-first banking for years, Covid-19 firmly accelerated this transformation. At NCR, we were prepared to manage the shift; we have been evolving toward a digital-first and self-directed banking approach for years. As a result, we were able to help banks and credit unions continue to serve their customers and keep operations running even while social distancing. Moving forward, we believe digital-first banking will be the route institutions must take to survive.
Over the past year, we’ve also noticed a growing customer demand for cryptocurrency, which is why NCR recently announced that we’ve entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LibertyX, a leading cryptocurrency software provider. We plan to offer the LibertyX capabilities as part of our solutions for banks, retailers and restaurants across both physical and digital touchpoints. This will ultimately provide a complete digital currency solution for our customers.
It’s time for financial institutions to leverage flexible, modern digital technologies to navigate changing business needs and demands. At NCR, we firmly believe that digital-first banking doesn’t just mean adopting new digital banking tools, a common misconception. Rather, digital-first banking is a shift in mindset; it requires re-imagining an institution’s holistic digital strategy to evolve alongside customer expectations, digitizing all aspects of the financial journey and connecting digital and physical experiences. Financial institutions that focus on creating these shared, seamless experiences are able to differentiate their brand and expand existing customer relationships while attracting new ones.

Obviously digital experienced a significant uptick because of the pandemic – is that here to stay? What role will branches play in the future?

Bhargava: Yes, we believe that this trend in digital channels will not be reversed; consumers that traditionally shied away from digital (for example, older generations) have now seen how easy and convenient it is. While the branch will always remain a critical touchpoint, the pandemic has forced the traditional branch model to evolve. Branches are elevating in terms of functionality and services offered. Expect to see more banks and credit unions approach the branch from an advisory perspective, serving as a place for customers and members to go for personal financial advice and complex services—not routine transactions.
We also anticipate the rise of digital bank branches that leverage self-directed technologies like ITMs and ATMs. Such technologies provide convenience and speed to customers while creating efficiencies for the institutions, enabling them to cost effectively extend service hours. More banks and credit unions are expanding the ITM functionality offered, incorporating more video teller capabilities to maintain the human connection. There will be a shift in how institutions manage these machines, as well; more will transfer the burden of machine maintenance and updates to a trusted partner via the cloud. Such a hosting option makes the self-directed banking channel simpler by offering a better, digital-first customer experience while reducing the total cost and onus of ownership. Branches are evolving to build profitable relationships and long-term loyalty.

What trends should bankers watch out for here in the second half of the year?

Bhargava: Customers expect a fast and frictionless experience at every touchpoint, and they’ve proven they’re not afraid to walk away when those expectations aren’t met. Looking forward, there will be a continued (and accelerated) convergence of digital and physical channels. What have traditionally been channel-specific experiences are being made ubiquitous across the bank through software that can connect those experiences.
Self-directed banking will also continue to take off. This approach puts the customer in the driver’s seat, allowing them to decide how they would like to engage with their bank or credit union across all channels and touchpoints. The need for a customer to ever have to work in silos is eliminated, creating a seamless, connected experience. Self-directed banking empowers the customer with flexibility and choice and those banks who embrace the shift will be well positioned for success heading into 2022 and beyond.

Everyone talks about digital transformation, but many still struggle to get it right. What are some key tips and strategies to make it work?

Bhargava: I have three thoughts on this. First, too often, we see bankers jump on emerging technology trends versus really evaluating their current gaps and needs. The first key to digital transformation is to focus on your bank’s overall approach; don’t just pick a technology but pick a specific problem area to focus on. Those that leverage rationalization to determine which processes are ready to be digitized right now and which need to be reimagined entirely before digitizing will be best positioned to navigate digital transformation. Digitizing a flawed process typically just makes a cumbersome process faster.
Second, once your bank has the right mindset for digital transformation, it’s time to focus on the people. Engaging the right leadership team with the relevant skillsets will be a huge asset. Digital transformation should be something that’s embraced organization-wide, not just at the leadership level. Make sure to secure buy-in from stakeholders across the institution. In addition to leveraging appropriate people from within the organization, most banks and credit unions find significant value in partnering with technology providers where appropriate to extend reach and come to market better and faster.
Setting goals and clearly defining a realistic digital transformation roadmap from the onset will allow the institution to evaluate progress. Technology should be used to help effectively monitor and measure performance against goals to help keep everyone on track. User feedback should also be evaluated throughout when applicable, not just at the very end. Finally, it’s important to remember to keep it simple. Complexity on the institution’s end can result in friction for customers.

The competitive landscape continues to intensify and grow more complicated – how can community and regional FIs protect their market share?

Bhargava: The embrace of digital-first banking quickly and completely will position banks and credit unions for success. Why? Digital-first banking creates new and exciting opportunities for traditional institutions who now find themselves up against a slew of emerging fintech companies adept at swiftly closing the widening gaps between yesterday’s and tomorrow’s consumer banking needs. And the world has changed. We will never be the same as we were before March 2020, at least when it comes to how consumers interact and connect with their service providers.
Personalization will also be critical moving forward. Those that continue to leverage marketing campaigns to the masses will quickly turn off customers. Instead, outreach should be intentional and tailored. Institutions have a wealth of data available to them, and it’s time to use it for insights to guide customers in making the smartest financial decisions.
Digital-first banking is all about merging digital and physical experiences to meet customers’ timely financial needs and making it simple to serve the customer across all channels and touchpoints—without breaking the back office. Those that can do this while leveraging their data to personalize engagements will be well equipped to protect their market share and relevance.

Photo by Vraj Shah from Pexels

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Women in Fintech: Learning to be Nimble in the Face of Uncertain Circumstances

By Charlie Burgess Posted on August 25, 2021
Categories: Interview, Kabbage, Women in Fintech

Our Women in Fintech Series continues with an interview featuring Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage, an American Express Company.

We caught up with Kathryn Petralia to discuss her journey to success as the co-founder of Kabbage, an American Express Company, how alternative lending is democratizing access to financial services, and the importance of advocating for inclusion for every employee and end user.

Can you tell us how you got involved in fintech?

Kathryn Petralia: I was always interested in technology, its possibilities and impact, but I never considered it a career until much later. I was on track to earn a masters degree in English when a family friend asked me join a tech company he had invested in at the time. I ended up ditching the graduate program to take advantage of the opportunity.

From there I spent close to 15 years working in the credit, payments, and e-commerce industries, leading strategy and corporate development, as well as founding multiple companies. When my co-founder, Rob Frohwein, approached me about the idea of Kabbage, I immediately saw the potential to help small businesses gain access to capital via real-time data.

What drew you to the world of alternative lending?

Petralia: I’ve been in alternative lending since the late ’90s, and my passion for helping small businesses has always been a driving force.

I was drawn to alternative lending as it’s a very interesting area of financial services that was ripe for disruption as new technologies paved a path to give customers a better experience.

At the time, I could see that automation and access to real-time data could do away with the lengthy, manual processes which were the status quo in the industry, and democratize access to financial services.

Where did you find support as you were starting out?

Petralia: It’s important to have a strong partner and support system at home and in the office. I’ve been fortunate that my husband has been an at-home dad for our kids. And I’m an advocate of having a co-founder in business, someone that compliments one another’s strengths and weaknesses, and I’ve been lucky to have Rob a part of this journey.

Kabbage has grown into a hugely successful company. Can you share some of the challenges you have faced on your journey?

Petralia: It was very challenging to raise money when we first launched Kabbage, especially in Atlanta where the venture community was small and there was not a lot of competition at the time. This unfortunately tends to drive down company valuations. It was hard to get Silicon Valley investors behind Atlanta businesses, but we ultimately succeeded and really raised the profile of Atlanta as a fintech and startup hub.

What advice do you have for small businesses coming through the pandemic?

Petralia: While businesses were forced to adapt their processes to stay afloat during the pandemic, it’s crucial for them to continue evolving for long-term success. According to our Small Business Recovery Report, 77 percent of small businesses agreed they’re more open than ever before to replace old systems and adopt new technologies to run their company more efficiently.

Be nimble in the face of uncertain circumstances and adopt new technologies that will aid in the success of your business.

Where do you see fintech heading in the next 12 months?

Petralia: The pandemic highlighted where small businesses have cash flow gaps and operational blind spots, so fintechs should shift their focus and offer more comprehensive solutions that address these concerns. Offering a full suite of solutions and integrated platforms can provide business owners with the tools they need to solve their immediate needs while instilling more confidence in how they run their company with data.

What more do you think can be done to support women in fintech?

Petralia: There is so much more we can do to create equality in fintech. The gender disparity in fintech is due, in part, to the tendency of white-male-dominated industries to invest in other white-male-dominated businesses (which is of course true for technology companies generally). We can ensure this situation doesn’t endure by building inclusive products and encouraging leaders to make diverse hires. It’s crucial that we continue promoting policies and products that minimize biases and create a more inclusive industry.

What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry now?

Petralia: Women in Fintech must advocate for inclusion not just for leadership, but also for every employee and end user. But as for those women—or men, frankly— just joining the industry or pursuing their goals, I always advise to really take the time to be the smartest about your field, job, or industry. That will earn you seats at tables and trust among executive teams that will help propel you and your career.

Photo by Tim Gouw from Pexels

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Imagination is Fundamental: A Conversation with First Internet Bank President Nicole Lorch

By David Penn Posted on August 17, 2021
Categories: Interview, Women in Fintech

This summer, as part of our Finovate Fintech Halftime Review, we helped make the case for the U.S. midwest as an under-recognized source of fintech innovation.

Today, our conversation with Nicole Lorch of the First Internet Bank is a reminder of what “America’s Heartland” has to offer in terms of leveraging technology to make online banking a reality for small businesses and families. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Indiana, First Internet Bank was the first state-chartered, FDIC-insured financial institution to offer exclusively online banking services. At the same time, First Internet Bank has continued to emphasize the importance of personal connection and service to the community.

We caught up with Ms. Lorch recently to talk about First Internet Bank, the evolution of online and digital banking, and her goals as the institution’s new President and Chief Operating Officer.

You joined First Internet Bank as Director of Marketing at its launch in 1999. How has the idea of an “Internet bank” changed over the years?

Nicole Lorch: At the time of our launch, we operated as a direct-to-consumer bank with a fairly standard lineup of products: checking, savings, CDs, and credit cards.

While we actually were the first state chartered, FDIC-insured bank to operate entirely online, a number of competitors quickly emerged. However, many of them couldn’t make it work or were absorbed into another entity:

Compubank (Acquired by NetBank)
Netbank (Closed by OTS, 2007)
Wingspan Bank (Closed by its parent, BankOne, in 2001)
ING Direct (Divested U.S. operations, sold U.S. relationships to Capital One)
Security First Network Bank (Acquired by Royal Bank of Canada)
Telebank (Acquired by E*Trade)

Even with our early successes, many industry pundits believed that moving to more complex banking services, like mortgage and real estate lending, could not be done on a direct-to-consumer, nationwide basis. While we considered ourselves trailblazers in the new world of digital banking, it was critical that we created processes that allowed us to function in a sustainable, repeatable, and compliant way. As a result, we were able to efficiently – and profitably – become leaders in lending.

Imagination has always been fundamental to our existence. Our innovative approach to banking has continued to play an essential role in the development of First Internet Bank – and with it our ability to build a national lending platform with digital DNA behind it.

How has the challenge of educating the public about the Bank’s offerings changed from a time when there were very few if any “Internet banks” to now when the idea is more commonplace?

Lorch: One thing is certain: it is much easier for people I meet to wrap their heads around the concept of a branchless bank now than it was 22 years ago! The world has changed, and consumers have adapted and embraced the digital realm. From shopping and ordering food to conducting financial transactions, it’s all available instantly at our fingertips. But we need to remember, this is a very human business, not one that should be labeled “contactless.” We still pride ourselves in delivering the personal service our customers deserve.

Consumer demand and the way people want to access their money has moved in the direction we predicted: more electronic transactions, fewer cash-based transactions … with so few paper checks these days.

What are your first priorities as President and Chief Operating Officer?

Lorch: My new role with First Internet Bank is evolving. But our strategic agenda remains unchanged – which is good for our team because we move fast and get a lot of things done! We continue to concentrate on improving the customer experience by creating new solutions that foster greater efficiency and ease of use, strengthening our existing business and personal banking relationships, and diversifying our revenue streams. We have a great team that responds to challenges head-on, which makes achieving all our priorities much easier.

What are some of the bigger challenges that financial institutions like First Internet Bank are facing right now?

Lorch: Disruptive fintechs will continue to challenge our industry, bringing with them new consumer expectations and innovation. Fintechs have the ability to disrupt four primary categories of any traditional bank’s business: market share, margins, information security/privacy, and customer churn. However, financial institutions still maintain a greater sense of consumers’ trust.

Many fintechs do not face the same regulatory demands that chartered, insured depositories do, nor do they face the shareholder expectations of a publicly-traded company. Having a leaner virtual operation, more flexibility through not being regulated as a deposit-gathering institution and, in many cases, significant venture capital cash allows fintech startups to attract customers with competitive pricing and to move in a more nimble fashion when market conditions dictate.

We must continue to evolve and look for opportunities where they exist, to meet the changing demands of consumers. There is, however, one important area where we can continue to win: by providing great, high-touch (human) service that backs up our customer-facing technology.

What do your small business customers need most from First Internet Bank? And what kind of help do your retail customers most frequently request?

Lorch: Our customers need us to be creative. Sometimes they think they need a line of credit when they really need a term loan. Sometimes they think that they need a conventional product, when they need an SBA loan. We listen to their needs and customize our responses to their situation, instead of talking at them or selling them something they don’t need or want. If we can’t help them, we go so far as to make introductions to other financial institutions that can help them.

Most importantly, we have always believed that customers need surety of execution and respect for their time. On a loan request, a fast “no” is better than a long, drawn out “maybe.” Whether they are buying a business or a home, they need to know they can count on us to get them to the closing table – and closed – on time.

What of the popular enabling technologies have been most effective in helping First Internet Bank grow its top-line and better engage customers?

Lorch: AI allows us to leverage the data we have to acquire new customers as well as enhance our relationship with existing ones by identifying and offering products, services, features, and partnerships better tailored to their evolving needs. It also assists in fraud prevention.

APIs allow us to extend our platform and rapidly integrate new features, partnering with best-in-class service providers to create a robust, constantly-improving user experience while limiting the burden of legacy technologies and in-house coding.

What are some of the bigger initiatives the bank is pursuing this year?

Lorch: The last eighteen months have really tested our nation’s small business owners. We are poised to help entrepreneurs rebound and accelerate their growth. The pandemic pulled forward consumer acceptance of digital delivery of services by several years. We have a small window, albeit brief, to capitalize on the opportunity to layer our more than 20 years of direct-to-consumer know-how, with a next-generation user-interface, to give consumers a better way to bank.

We are growing our small business lending team while we overhaul the customer experience and our back office processes. It’s like flying the plane while we’re tuning the engine and refurbishing the cabin, but it’s necessary to ensure that our customers receive the level of service they expect from us.

Photo by Allan Mas from Pexels

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Women in Fintech: Finding Community and Investing in Social Capital

By Charlie Burgess Posted on August 12, 2021
Categories: CEO Interview, Interview, Speaker series, Women in Fintech

Our Women in Fintech Series continues with an interview featuring Pauline Roteta, Co-Founder and CEO of Pasito.

We spoke with Pauline to discuss the importance of DEI in current fintech trends, the benefits of finding one’s community, and her journey to founding Pasito, the fintech that delivers financial wellness through inclusive employee benefits.

Pauline will be joining our Women In Fintech Power Panel: Paving The Way For The Next Generation Of Female Founders & Executives – How Can We Reach A Gender-Neutral Future In Financial Services? at FinovateFall next month.

Tell us about yourself.

Pauline Roteta: I went to college to be a Civil Engineer. Growing up in a small town in Argentina, I was awestruck by the sheer size of development in New York and wanted to be part of that continuous cycle of growth. While I cherish the process thinking engineering gave me, after a couple of civil and construction internships, I was hired by Goldman Sachs for the summer and have never looked back.

In finance, I found a community of the sharpest minds tackling global challenges and saw the opportunity to effect impact at scale.

Now a decade later, I can safely say that finance has given me the development and growth I was after. I’ve been part of teams that grew multi-billion dollar businesses from scratch, led acquisitions, raised private equity funds, and I have been the most senior female investor of a private markets investment fund. In 2021, with this experience under my belt, I co-founded Pasito, a female-led fintech delivering inclusive benefits for working parents. As a founder and business leader, I am now even more excited than at the start of my career for the tremendous growth opportunity ahead for fintech companies like Pasito.

How have you seen the industry change across your career?

Roteta: So much has changed in 10 years. When I first joined BlackRock, we were focused on the European Debt Crisis and unraveling legacy portfolios from the 2008 Financial Crisis. While technology was important to the business model, most of our analysis and delivery was in person. The active-passive debate was just starting. Fintech wasn’t mainstream and wasn’t seen as a threat by incumbents.

Fast-forward to today: we’ve seen a proliferation of fintech companies that are effectively competing with long-time incumbents in wealth, banking, and payments. In the space where we are building, there has been less disruption. Plan administrators continue their manual processes. Technology looks like it’s from the first days of the internet. Customers haven’t yet been delighted. Pasito is working on changing that.

Where do you see fintech heading in the next 12 months?

Roteta: After the events of 2020, financial health and diversity, equity, and inclusion will remain top of mind for businesses and the government. We’re seeing employers treat financial and mental wellness with the same care that they treat physical health. That’s a huge win for the retail consumer and creates an opening for new business models in fintech to fill in the gap left behind by wealth management.

When it comes to DEI, we see fintech pushing the boundaries of financial product and service personalization.

While we’ve seen an explosion in fintech, it’s important to remember most of the big problems remain without a solution. The U.S. has never been more unequal. The wealthiest families, who are primarily white, own most of the stock market. Black and Latinx families have limited access to financial advice, and their assets amount to a fraction of the average American household wealth. At Pasito, we are working on closing this gap, one product at a time. Our hope is that more fintechs will build with this mission in mind, rather than continuing to develop products that solidify the status quo.

What more do you think can be done to support women in fintech?

Roteta: We have a long way to go in fintech to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce. The easiest way to begin this work is for leaders in the space – both men and women – to first look inward and ask:

What am I doing to actively advance women in fintech?
How am I contributing to female-founded and women-led companies and initiatives?
How many women are working for my company? (if the answer is not many, then ask WHY?)
How is my culture inclusive and inviting to women?

The second easiest way to support women in fintech is to simply listen. What do women need to join the industry? If you ask, they will tell you. (Hint: it usually boils down to equal pay, family-friendly benefits, and flexibility.)

Lastly, invest social and financial capital in women. Women with powerful ideas will not only increase the return on your investment, but also the overall positive impact you can have on the world.

Where did you find support in the fintech world?

Roteta: We’ve seen tremendous support from Startup Boston, Parenthood Ventures, The Capital Network, other fintech founders, and personal mentors. The insight and community from these networks have been invaluable for Pasito’s early growth stage. Our leadership team is now paying it forward to other founders, so we can collectively level the playing field in hiring, building, and fundraising.

What advice would you give to women starting their careers in the industry now?

Roteta: Be confident. Find your community. Listen to founders who have been there before. Conduct market validation before spending your money. Be selective of your investors. Above all else, stay true to your mission and values.

Photo by RF._.studio from Pexels

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Women in Fintech: “Driving Value and Generating Results” with Izabella Gabowicz of Sensibill

By David Penn Posted on July 13, 2021
Categories: Interview, Sensibill, Women in Fintech

Our Women in Fintech Series returns with an interview featuring Izabella Gabowicz, Chief Operating Officer of Sensibill.

An innovator in the field of SKU-level data insights,Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based Sensibill made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateFall. At the event, the company won Best of Show for its Insights solution that helps institutions identify and act upon revenue opportunities from on- and off-card purchase data.

We caught up with Izabella Gabowicz to talk about her work with Sensibill, the importance of achieving a work-life balance, and why everyone benefits when women have a seat at the table when decisions are being made.

Tell us about yourself.

Izabella Gabowicz: I graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Cognitive Science and AI, and I joined IBM as a developer in 2001. During my 14 years at IBM, I had the opportunity to work in the airline, banking, and telecommunication industries, improving customer and employee experiences via technology and processes, as well as normalizing data and interfaces to connect disparate systems across enterprises.

The lessons I learned from IBM, such as the importance of value creation, helped me transition into my next role at Sensibill where I became one of the founding team members. Moving from a global organization of a few hundred thousand to a startup of five was energizing. I contributed to product strategy, built client relationships and our client success division from zero, as well as shaped the company’s vision and organizational structure. Today, as COO, I’ve been directly involved in finalizing agreements and rolling out technology to large financial institutions and core banking providers. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but an incredibly rewarding one.

When I’m not working, you’ll find me trying to stay physically active, which is often outside in nature where I feel connected. I enjoy spending time with my family — whether that’s weekly dinners with my parents or walking through a nearby creek with my daughters. Over the years, I’ve learned the importance of making time to “refill my cup” in order to show up as my best self at work, while also approaching each new phase of my career as a learning opportunity.

What are some tips for balancing work and life?

Gabowicz: The reality is you can’t do that perfectly, and that’s okay. There’s this myth that successful women always have it all together, and that holds us back because we keep believing we should be able to do it all, all the time. Instead, let’s accept the fact that everything is a series of trade-offs. On the days that I’m pitching to an important client, I’m looking at a messy house – or my parents are helping with childcare so I can travel for business, or my partner is making me dinner when I’m putting in longer days to negotiate an agreement. Sometimes I get the balance right, sometimes I don’t. But giving myself permission to drop some of the balls I’m juggling from time to time and being kind to myself when they do has been game changing.

Why is it important for women to have a seat at the table?

Gabowicz: Businesses need to have decision-makers who reflect and represent the people they serve, which is why it’s critical for women to also be part of the teams making the decisions – at each level. While this concept hasn’t been successfully done at the top levels, technology companies are becoming more mindful of their efforts to be inclusive. Financial institutions have, however, made huge strides in including women – from the working teams that are designing the customer journeys and the leadership teams that are choosing the initiatives to be prioritized, to the board and executives who identify the strategic direction, mission, and corporate objectives. When you belong to the group that is being targeted for a product and/or service, often it can be easier to empathize with their needs and understand them. And since half of the population are women, having a seat at the table is that much more important.

For women who have a seat at the table, be yourself. There are so many of us who feel as if we have to be reserved and polished to be seen as respectable professionals. But I argue that women can be respected because of the concepts and thoughts they bring to the table, as well as their competence, while still feeling empowered to be themselves. And that might include being a little quirky and awkward at times, but that’s okay.

How can women having a seat at the table help drive personalization?

Gabowicz: The key to personalization is to avoid thinking of everyone in any targeted group as having the same thoughts, valuing the same things, and having all the same needs. To humanize the experience, we need to look at customers as microsegments. That requires analyzing additional data, aside from demographics, to inform messaging and advice. Harnessing deeper, contextual data like SKU-level insights can reveal interests, lifestyles, spending habits, and behaviors. This alternative data enables the financial institution to speak to customers on an individual level using language, messaging, and imagery that’s relevant to them, creating an emotionally compelling experience where the customer feels listened to and understood.

How can financial institutions benefit from harnessing SKU-level data?

Gabowicz: People typically don’t buy products for the sake of making a purchase; they buy them to solve a problem or satisfy a need. A financial institution has a myriad of products it can offer to its customers, involving cards, investments, loans, and so on. But the uptake won’t be there unless the institution is presenting an offer that is personalized, meaningful, and compelling to their customers, at the right time to fit their unique financial needs. If the 360-degree view of a customer is only looking at their interaction patterns, but not the details of their spending and expenses, then there is a lot of rich information being left on the table.

Such details can help pinpoint micro-moments and tailor messages that attract and retain customers. For example, the bank or credit union might see two customers spend $100 at Costco, but SKU-level data can reveal customer A might be an expecting mother and B a small business owner. Messages and interactions will need to be personalized for individual financial needs, which can look very different person to person.

What advice would you share for women professionals looking to break into the field?

Gabowicz: What’s exciting to me about technology today is that “business” and “technology” are no longer separate. It’s not sufficient to build software that just meets basic requirements. There must be value created, the experience must be compelling, and companies must consider how they position the innovation in the market, onboard users, and explain its value proposition. Today’s technology jobs are not limited to writing code but can include designing the user experience, architecting systems, creating go-to-market plans, and more.

Future professionals should not shortchange any industry experience they have already amassed, but consider how they can leverage and sell it when looking for opportunities in tech. People are graduating every day with computer science and engineering degrees, and they need to work with talented professionals who can help them build products that serve the needs of all people. Together, they can create AI algorithms that are less susceptible to bias, considering all types of people in the training set.

As I think about my professional journey, I’ve learned the following:

There is substantial value in learning and growing — anything can be attainable, and there are always multiple paths to any one destination.
We’re all humans, which means we need connection, empathy, space to be ourselves, ease, and convenience. This knowledge can apply to building solutions for customers, fostering diversity in the workforce, or encouraging women building their careers to be as kind to themselves as they are to others.
And lastly, outcomes matter. You need to consider both data and behavioral psychology when building strategies to drive value and generate results that make a difference.

Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels

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How Collaboration and Partnership Power Fintech Innovation: Our Interview with FISPAN’s Andrea Zand

By David Penn Posted on June 1, 2021
Categories: Alumni profile, FI.SPAN, Interview, Women in Fintech

How are banks and fintechs leveraging the lessons learned during the global health crisis to provide consumers and businesses with financial products that do an even better job than before of addressing their needs? And when it comes to innovation in technology and financial services, is disruption or collaboration dictating the pace of change?

To talk about these and other issues, we caught up with Andrea Zand, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of FISPAN. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, FISPAN made its Finovate debut in 2017, demonstrating its cloud-based platform that leverages APIs to enable banks to deliver new business banking solutions to their corporate customers.

How are the banks you work with doing now – a little over one year after the onset of the pandemic?

Andrea Zand: Open-banking infrastructure and data sharing are helping banks and governments around the world better respond to the recovery post-pandemic. We are starting to see evidence that governments are beginning to use open banking data to help inform their pandemic responses and help small businesses. The banks we work with are feeling positive about the recovery going into 2021.

In what ways should banks expect customer behavior to change and how should they respond?

Zand: We’ve already seen that the pandemic has sped up innovation in financial services. Customers are getting more and more comfortable doing their personal banking online, and business banking customers are also turning to digital banking platforms as an alternative to in-person branch visits. Banks are struggling to keep up with this rapid shift in the types of online service offerings their clients are demanding.

Because of this, banks are looking to deploy innovations that will have an immediate impact on the client experience. This is where we see a huge opportunity with embedded banking. By embedding the banking experience inside the platforms that business customers use to run their businesses (such as ERPs or accounting software), banks are able to easily provide their business clients with a more automated and streamlined treasury management process. The banks that are ahead of the curve and partnering with fintechs like us are beginning to better understand how their customers use their products in context, allowing them to innovate smarter and faster.

Technology has moved too fast for the banks to build those capabilities themselves. The best way for B2B banks to manage the impact of rapidly evolving customer expectations is to partner with agile, innovative fintech services.

Connecting with their clients as much as possible and understanding their needs will be essential in driving the agenda for the new capabilities the banks should be focusing on. Leveraging tech and automation will manage and rise to customer expectations while still allowing for more face time during this transition period to explore and understand customers’ needs and wants.

What are some of the other challenges that banks will encounter as the recovery picks up steam – and how will FISPAN help them?

Zand: Banks will continue to be challenged by continually changing customer expectations. They will also be challenged by the need to adapt to an open exchange of data that will happen as a result of the many new fintech upstarts that are creating new business models and finding ways to better meet these changing client demands.

FISPAN helps by collaborating with FIs to understand what will make their customers happier by joining forces across all levels of the product discovery and implementation phases. Getting in front of the customers and understanding their day-to-day ERP and accounting struggles is a large part of how we meet and overcome the challenges that have risen due to the digital shift during our global pandemic. More specifically, we enable banks to extend their service offering to their business clients by embedding commercial banking applications within the organization’s ERP or accounting software.

For those institutions that engaged in digital transformations, how do they make sure those efforts truly pay off?

Zand: Continue to be open to new ways of thinking and working with new partners. In partnering, serving, or investing in innovation by way of technology upstarts, financial institutions are able to position themselves for future growth and adaptation through real-time, easy access to products, services, data, and channels. Delivering a product or service that truly resonates with their customers and meets them where they are with the current challenges they face in a rapidly growing digital market.

What does collaboration between banks and fintechs look like in a post-COVID world?

Zand: Collaboration between banks, fintech, and other providers is becoming more important as the payments landscape is becoming more complex. Banks that are open to partnering have a competitive advantage because they can provide better services at scale. Not to mention that some banks are at risk of getting disintermediated by nonbank providers for some of these types of solutions. The time that bank partners spend helping integrate their banking services into different platforms is markedly less than the time it would take for the bank to develop it themselves. That same time investment from the bank also leads to countless saved hours for their business clients, increasing their value as a business bank.

What has been your biggest professional takeaway from 2020?

Zand: If 2020 taught me anything, it was to always remain flexible and open-minded. One of the big plans we had was to go to some in-person events and start to talk face to face with end-users and really understand what kinds of pain points they were experiencing with their treasury management process. All of our events were either canceled or transferred to digital. We were still able to get the information we needed from customer interviews and case studies, but it just goes to show that sometimes your best-laid plans aren’t going to be in the cards and you need to pivot quickly.

What are you looking forward to most in 2021? Where do you see the greatest opportunities?

Zand: Besides being able to see our bank clients and end-users face to face, in 2021 I am looking forward to watching banks, payments providers, and fintech companies launching services and solutions that can help small businesses across the country emerge from 2020. I think the greatest opportunity for economic recovery and success post-pandemic lies in banks being better able to serve their small business clients.

Photo by Nacho Juárez from Pexels

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Boss Insights and the Brave New World of Business Data as a Service

By David Penn Posted on May 18, 2021
Categories: Alumni profile, Boss Insights, Diversity in Fintech, Interview, Women in Fintech

Earlier this year in our conversation on diversity in fintech and financial services, we looked at a partnership between Paybby, a challenger bank focused on Black and Brown communities; Carver Federal Savings Bank, an African-American owned bank; and Finovate alum Boss Insights.

Today, we pick up that conversation from the fintech’s perspective, talking with Boss Insights founder and CEO Keren Moynihan about her company’s innovations in the field of business-data-as-a-service, its participation in the Paycheck Protection Program, and the importance of impact and meaning when it comes to providing financial services.

Boss Insights specializes in Business Data as a Service. What does this mean?

Moynihan: We work with fintechs and private lenders, banks, and credit unions. We work with their business lending groups; it could be small and medium business lending, SBA, invoice factoring, commercial, all sorts of business lending types. And what we are giving the lenders is access to their business customers’ financial data in minutes. It sounds impossible, but actually only takes the lenders one hour of their time to set up.

What we’re enabling is for them to be able to pull real-time accounting information, banking, or commerce information on demand.

When you look back on 2020, what are your biggest takeways?

Moynihan: In March 2020 I was speaking with (a reporter) at a conference and she asked for a direct quote responding to “how are fintechs and entrepreneurial companies going to be responding to COVID?” And I’ll never forget it because I said, “Look, fintechs thrive on challenges and this is an unprecedented challenge but we will be looking at ways to respond to it.” Two hours later, we all got an order that the economy was going to shut down, that we were all going to isolate. I don’t think anyone knew what was happening. I called the reporter and said “I know what I said, but …” I knew I was going to eat my words, because this was on another level. She laughed and said, of course, and she appreciated my call.

That was more than a year ago. The next two weeks were an onslaught. This was before PPP. This was before any kind of government funding and people really did not know what was happening. And unless you were in it, it’s really hard to describe it. What we did as a company was that we saw in all the news articles there wasn’t enough personal protection equipment, we started to get reports out of Italy, it was a really scary time. Now people at Boss Insights could not create masks. But we did see that if you stopped a company from being able to make sales, they are not going to be able to say alive and to be able to grow.

I asked myself, how do you support the economy? Right away we said we will offer part of our technology for free for any lenders who will support new businesses. And by new businesses, I meant new business relationships with the lender. That is a harder uplift. And as a result of that, everything started to grow for us. Technology companies reached out. Banking companies reached out. We were covered in an industry journal and, as a result of just that one piece, we had so many people call us. And we learned so much just by being able to say we can help.

How much of what you’ve learned will you be able to translate into new initiatives and future growth?

Moyinhan: There are a lot of things that I see changing, and then there’s an even bigger category of things I wish would change and hope will change. And time will tell. One word, very overused, is digitization. That’s going to endure. CB Insights reported that banks were losing about 1% market share each year, so give or take 9% or 10% over a nine year period. In 2020, 9% was lost in one year. A couple more years like that and we’re looking at a very different economy.

That really made the industry stand up and take notice. Back in March 2020, the same lenders that were telling me that they had everything under control and were ready to go, were the same ones that admitted to me on private calls that they were placing orders for laptops at Costco. They literally could not get laptops from regular commercial suppliers and were ordering them from Costco because they couldn’t get them anywhere else.

This points to one trend: people were a lot more honest about where they were (in terms of digital transformation) because you couldn’t just say you had digitized, it was actually being tested. I believe that trend is going to endure because the expectations of people, of businesses, have changed. We all ordered groceries online for awhile. I don’t think that was true before 2020. We are all expecting that these documents and forms that you have to go into branches for will be available online.

That is the biggest thing I can say that has changed. The one thing that I hope will change is the collaboration. We put out something in the American Banking Association saying that social distancing led to social collaboration. What I mean by that is that people stopped talking and they started listening. This includes Boss Insights. We stopped talking about what we’re selling and we started just asking “what do you need?” And I do hope that trend continues. It’s mirrored in other areas outside of financial services. We think these things were long overdue. It’s not a trend that is continuing in the way that I would have hoped. But I do see a lot of changes and this issue surfaced in the second round of PPP. People were open to having conversations. They brought decision-makers in the room. People didn’t want to have high-level discussions. They wanted to clearly tell you “I need this. Can you get it for me?” Then it’s our turn to talk about what we can do.

That amount of collaboration is unprecedented before COVID, and we just hope that it continues.

Tell us about the importance of working with small business owners who struggled to access support from relief programs like PPP.

Moyinhan: In the middle of PPP I was on a podcast called The Powerful Ladies podcast and it was with Kara Duffy. All of this got arranged because of Sharifah Hardie, who also runs a podcast and we had been on her podcast also. There was a woman there named Ronda Brunson. She has a consulting practice where she works with people to educate them on financial health, people who would not necessarily have had that training. We learn a lot of things in school, but financial health is not one of them, and if you have not had that education elsewhere where are you going to get it? She empowers people.

As I’m listening to all of these incredibly accomplished women and what they do in their business lives, she heard what I was doing. I was a little bit the oddball out because I was working with businesses and everyone else was working with individuals. She said, “I hear what you do, but the first round of PPP got a little bit of social notice because it’s supporting large businesses.” The second round of PPP did correct for this. But at that time we didn’t know that was going to happen. She said “how are you actually working to get capital into the hands of people who wouldn’t get access to it?”

I knew exactly what she meant. I knew that she meant people who were either female-run companies or visible minority-run companies. She didn’t say it explicitly, but that was exactly what she meant because those were the people that she was working with on a daily basis.

The way the lending industry works is that it’s based on a percentage of the amount of the loan. Everything is based on that. The costs are the same whether the loan is two million dollars or $200,000 – so who’s going to get more resources? It’s not that banks and credit unions and private lenders are trying to do it this way, it’s that the costs don’t scale down but the revenue does. What I saw from banks at that time is they were working until two or three in the morning. What I’ve heard from the CEO of Carver Bancorp, Michael Pugh, is that he’s been on the phone with clients to get their documents in – which people couldn’t believe, but this is the dedication. And what (Brunson) was asking me was: “what exactly are you doing to ensure your technology gets in the hands of people who will make sure that the disenfranchised will get access?”

And I never forgot it and I started looking immediately. Because for the people at Boss Insights, it is about accelerating business lending from months to minutes. But it’s also about impact and meaning and making sure businesses are evaluated on their merit. It is because of Paybby that we got connected to Carver. And it is because of Paybby and Carver that we are in a position to answer her and say, Ronda, now I can tell you we are doing something.

In some ways, we just started listening. We listened for when the SBA announced that there was going to be a week in advance for lenders focused in this area. And we listened when Paybby said “we have a lender who is ready to do this uplift.” And the collaboration that Paybby and Carver and Boss Insights have is a daily investment to make sure that things are running smoothly so businesses can apply.

Read more about the partnership between Paybby, Carver Federal Savings Bank, and Boss Insights.

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Tips & Trends of Fintech Leadership

By Charlie Burgess Posted on April 28, 2021
Categories: Diversity in Fintech, Interview, Women in Fintech

Julie Muhn chats with Rita Martins, FinTech Partnerships Lead – Innovation Finance and Risk at HSBC about her experience as a woman in fintech, trends she’s seeing across the industry, and what can be done to encourage more female founders.

Tell us about yourself and your career path to your current role.

Rita Martins: My career started with an internship at Santander in Asset Management managing mixed portfolios. After a few months, a great opportunity came up to join the consulting world. Working at Ernst and Young and later at Accenture, I travelled the world driving large scale transformation projects and advising C-Suite on the applicability of new technologies in finance. During this time, I started diving into the fintech world and noticing first-hand how fintechs were making a difference in developing countries (despite challenging conditions, everyone had a phone and used it for payments).

In 2018 I moved to HSBC, where I currently Lead FinTech Partnerships for Finance and Risk. I am responsible for managing relationships with third parties and driving collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial services SMEs.

What trends are you seeing driving fintech this year? Are they different to previous years, or when you first started in the industry?

Martins: Nowadays, fintech companies are much more mature than when I started in the industry. Fintechs discovered where they can have an impact and when to partner with others in the market.

This year we continue to see fintechs emerging in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud spaces. Additionally, there is a new trend in ESG (Environment Social and Governance), with many new fintechs researching and developing solutions in this space.

In your opinion, what is the secret to a successful partnership between bank and fintech?

Martins: There isn’t one factor but a combination of factors that lead to a successful collaboration. Before a partnership is created, both parties need to understand if their culture, goals, and strategy are aligned. An ideal partner will be someone who complements the other and brings new ideas to the table to ensure continued innovation.

After papers are signed, there needs to be an open and frequent dialogue to ensure issues are quickly solved, targets are met, and any changes needed are settled.

What is important to you to see from a fintech leader/ founder of a new start-up you’re looking to work with?

Martins: A fintech-bank partnership is much more than finding great technology; human interaction is vital. When looking for new partners, the fintech leader or founder is often the one representing the company, so in the initial discussions, we would be looking at a combination of factors:

1. Their knowledge of the technology and industry
2. Their values and how they connect with our team
3. How innovative they are and what new ideas they bring to the table
4. What their goals for the partnership are, and how flexible they are

Do you see many women leading fintechs or in senior positions? Is there enough diversity across the board in these roles?

Martins: No, there is still a noticeable lack of women and minorities in senior positions and even fewer women founders.

Typically, women who work in fintech will have roles in sales, communications, or marketing with a noticeable gap in the technology and senior roles.

So, what can the industry do to better encourage women to get involved with fintech?

Martins: I would challenge the industry to do more at the senior level. Those changes will empower young women to join the industry, retain existing leaders, and decrease the pay gap.

Two key areas that need immediate change are:

More investment needs to go into female-founded fintechs. In 2020, only 2.3% of VC capital went to female-only founded start-ups (according to Crunchbase)
Banks and fintechs boards and leadership need to be more diverse. In 2020 women represented only 14% of fintech boards (according to Oliver Wyman)

Listen to more from Rita as she looks back on her experience at FinovateEurope 2021 below

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Beyond Good and the Power of Purpose-Driven Fintech

By Charlie Burgess Posted on April 22, 2021
Categories: Book Review, Diversity in Fintech, FinovateSpring 2021, Speaker series, Women in Fintech

When we think of global corporations and business in general, do we feel pride in how we do things? Beyond Good, a new book by Unconventional Ventures co-founders Theodora Lau and Bradley Leimer, is a call to arms for business leaders to recognize how they can do well by doing good.

Beyond Good showcases how fintech is changing business models and what every industry can learn from it. The leaders in financial services are fostering a thriving ecosystem of incumbents and startups, unlocking new possibilities to make broader financial inclusion a reality.

With a foreword from the Aspen Institute, exclusive interviews with leading B-Corps, policy makers, executives, and case studies from companies like Sunrise Banks, Ant Group, Village Capital, Microsoft, and PayPal, Beyond Good shows how everyone can contribute to a more common good. Finovate readers can also get 20% off their copy of the book, using code Inspire20.

Below are a few excerpts from our conversation with Theo and Brad on the new book and their upcoming appearance at FinovateSpring next month. For the full interview, check out the video above.

On the importance of financial inclusion

Theo Lau: “If we talk about the onset of the so-called fintech revolution, if you will, a lot of the new startups seemed to regurgitate old ideas that have already been around. They make it prettier, they create this bamboo credit card … But it that really changing our behavior, is it really changing how we work? In the West, are we really including more demographics and doing things better for them? I would argue a lot of the time we are not.”

Bradley Leimer: “Inclusivity goes much broader than just a credit card or just lending or just credit. And that’s a lot of what we discuss. There’s more to a financial relationship than one side of the balance sheet. There’s more to the financial services model than just profitability. There are longer term implications in everything we do every single day and every decision that we make.”

Why fintechs and financial services need to move “beyond good.”

Leimer: “We’ve seen a lot of stakeholder capitalism lately and examples of companies that have tried to mean more for their business model and their communities. That’s what we celebrate in the book, the shift that we can include more people in our communities in society. Especially in financial services and technology, companies we really need to focus how we can serve these larger groups. Everybody in society should be able to be a part of our business models. And that’s why we go “beyond good.”

Lau: “We want to reinforce that this is not a zero-sum game. Just because we are including more demographics and more considerations on how we conduct business doesn’t mean you’re losing. Case in point, one of the things lately we’ve been talking about is student loan debt, $1.7 trillion dollars of debt. Obviously the burden is shared across all demographics, but particularly in communities of color, among first generation college students, and among those in other less advantaged groups.
So our question is: how do we go about solving it? There are a lot of different moving parts. But for financial services, the role isn’t just to offer another loan on top of the pile of deb because that’s not solving the problem. We need to go back further to ask how we create a more equal society, more equal products, and create services to help people rethink their finances and get to a healthier financial situation.”

Join Theo Lau and Bradley Leimer at FinovateSpring May 10 through 13. For more information about our upcoming, all digital, spring fintech conference, visit our FinovateSpring hub today.

Photo by Steve Johnson from Pexels

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Banking Technology Provider NYMBUS Scores $15 Million Investment

By David Penn Posted on April 20, 2021
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Diversity in Fintech, Funding, NYMBUS, Women in Fintech

News of NYMBUS’ $15 million fundraising this week – and the company’s recent appointment of three women to key leadership positions – serves as a fitting bookend to a first quarter that began with big investment and big C-suite hires, as well.

In January, the Miami, Florida-based banking technology provider expanded its leadership team with the addition of Chief Alliance Officer Sarah Howell and Chief Product Officer Larry McClanahan. A month later, Nymbus secured a Series C investment of $53 million in a round led by Insight Partners.

“As the pandemic has pushed digital to the forefront, more banks and credit unions have turned to Nymbus as their partner for growth,” Nymbus CEO and Chairman Jeffery Kendall said when the funding was announced in February. “This new and significant investment validates a confidence in Nymbus to continue transforming the financial services industry with a banking strategy that buys back decades of lost time to speed digital innovation.”

Little did we know how quickly further valuation would arrive. This week’s investment by European private equity firm Financial Services Capital doubles its investment in Nymbus to more than $31 million. The funding gives Nymbus a total capital raised of more than $98 million.

“We look forward to continue working with Nymbus as they build out a best-in-class, cloud-native offering that is well positioned to be a leader in the industry and will transform our portfolio companies,” Financial Services Capital Managing Partner Miroslav Boublik said. He and fellow Managing Partner Matthew Hansen will join the Nymbus Board of Directors as part of the investment.

Also joining “Team Nymbus” is Veeva Systems co-founder Matt Wallach, who will serve as a Strategic Advisor. Nymbus will benefit from Wallach’s experience in co-founding one of the leading cloud software companies in life sciences. Founded in 2007 and, 14 years later, the first publicly traded company to transition into a public benefit corporation, Veeva now has a market capitalization of more than $40 billion and 975+ customers in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as in emerging biotech.

As mentioned, Nymbus’ funding announcement comes on the heels of the company further bolstering its leadership ranks with a trio of new, C-suite hires. The women – Trish North as Chief Customer Officer, Michelle Prohaska as Chief Compliance Officer, and Crina Pupaza as Chief People Officer – bring years of customer success, risk management, and people-centered programming experience to a company that has seen significant growth as banks turn increasingly toward digital transformation of their outdated legacy systems.

“In order to help our partner institutions serve the unique financial needs of niche audiences, success begins with diversity in our own Nymbus leadership,” Kendall said last week when the appointments were announced. “I’m incredibly proud of the impactful effort we are making to recruit a balanced male to female representation into our C-suite, and beyond confident of the value that Trish, Michelle, and Crina will each uniquely provide to both our team and partner clients.”

Photo by Abdullah Almutairi from Pexels

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Avanti Closes $37 Million Round En Route to Digital Asset Bank Launch

By David Penn Posted on March 29, 2021
Categories: Daily news, Funding, Women in Fintech

Avanti Financial Group has put the final touches on a deal that will bring the firm that much closer to its goal of launching a digital asset bank.

Late last week, Avanti announced that it had closed a Series A round, raising $37 million from a wide swathe of institutional investors, cryptocurrency companies, family offices, and angel investors.

The investment takes Avanti’s total capital to $44 million. Launched last year, Avanti secured $5 million in angel funding last June in a round led by the University of Wyoming Foundation and featuring participation from Morgan Creek Digital, Blockchain Capital, and Digital Currency Group. The new financing will fund the necessary regulatory capital for Avanti’s digital asset bank, as well as support engineering and operating expenses.

“Our roadmap includes offering API-based U.S. dollar payment services for wires, ACH, and SWIFT; issuance of our tokenized, programmable U.S. dollar called Avit; and custody and on-/off-ramp services for bitcoin and other digital assets,” Avanti founder and CEO Caitlin Long said. Long highlighted the number of customer inquiries (2,500+) that Avanti had received since it secured a bank charter back in the fall of 2020 and said that those looking to become a part of the firm’s digital asset bank should expect a launch “soon.”

Headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Avanti sees itself as a bridge between traditional banking and a world in which digital assets are bought, sold, and trusted as thoroughly as fiat currencies. A software platform with a bank charter, Avanti gives customers a strong regulatory environment compared to other digital asset companies, including a full-reserve requirement for dollar deposits and resources like its tokenized dollar, Avit, to help solve painpoints in the payments process.

Trace Meyer, who formed the consortium that led Avanti’s Series A, praised Avanti’s “potent, institutional-quality human capital.” A Bitcoin investor and early adopter, Meyer emphasized that both smart regulation and “experienced, competent operators” are critical to the institutionalization of digital assets, and said that Avanti was “well-positioned to competently answer questions that most in the industry have not even thought about.”

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Luvleen Sidhu on Working with Big Banks, Google, and Why She Chose a SPAC

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on March 11, 2021
Categories: Speaker series, Women in Fintech

Luvleen Sidhu, CEO of BM Technologies (formerly known as BankMobile), is now one of the youngest female founders and CEOs of a public company.

Since she co-founded BM Technologies in 2014, the company has made major news headlines. We recently spoke with Sidhu to get the background behind some of those decisions and to get her opinion on what it takes to compete in the fintech world as an ethnic minority and a woman.

First off, give us some background on BM Technologies (BMTX) and how it differentiates itself from other challenger digital banking platforms.

Luvleen Sidhu: BM Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American: BMTX, BMTX.W) is among the first neobanking fintechs to go public and is one of the largest digital banking platforms in the U.S. (with over 2 million accountholders), providing access to checking and savings accounts, personal loans and credit cards. We are on a mission to utilize technology to provide millions of Americans with a better banking experience, especially around affordability, transparency and more consumer-friendly products. We are proud to share that we were named the “Most Innovative Bank” by LendIt Fintech in 2019 and we continue to stay true to our mission of being a customer-centric focused company committed to innovation, and financially empowering millions of Americans.

We are a profitable and high-growth company and have been able to build this strong foundation through our Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) strategy, which enables the acquisition of customers at higher volumes and substantially lower expense than traditional banks. This allows us to provide low-cost banking services to low/middle-income Americans. Today, the BankMobile BaaS platform is provided to colleges and universities through BankMobile Disbursements and serves over two million account-holders, providing disbursement services at 722 campuses, covering one out of every three students in the U.S.

Additionally, BM Technologies executed an agreement with Google to introduce digital bank accounts, which will be available to its customers. We also expanded our white label strategy with T-Mobile for the launch of T-Mobile MONEY.

Tell us about why you chose to offer not only B2C banking products and services, but also banking-as-service tools?

Sidhu: When we launched our company over six years ago, we actually only had a B2C banking product. However, fairly early on, we realized we were not growing at the exponential rate that we had anticipated and our customer acquisition cost was high. This caused us to pause and reevaluate our strategy. We recognized that there was an opportunity to pivot our strategy to a B2B2C model where we could lower our customer acquisition cost to less than $10 and in return still deliver a tech-enabled banking experience to millions of Americans through our distribution partners. This has been critical in our growth and our success as a company.

BM Technologies has its roots in the traditional banking world, having been developed internally by Customers Bancorp. How did that relationship shape BM Technologies?

Sidhu: Customers Bancorp gave us an extremely solid foundation as a company. Even when we launched in 2015, Customers Bank had $6.5 billion in assets. My father, Jay Sidhu was then the CEO of Customers Bank and cofounded BankMobile with me. Richard Ehst, then President of Customers Bank, also helped guide me, along with other members of the company’s leadership team. Having the chance to work with banking veterans provided us with immense knowledge of the industry, which helped us be successful.

BM Technologies is one of the 11 financial institutions collaborating with Google to pilot its Plex bank accounts. What benefits does this partnership offer BM Technologies? Are there any challenges with the new partnership?

Sidhu: This collaboration is mutually beneficial and is differentiated from the others because of our unique college student acquisition funnel. This means we are bringing to Google Plex potentially millions of student customers.

For us, the collaboration offers additional brand equity since Google is one of the leading technology companies in the world and has chosen BM Technologies to work with.

Why did BM Technologies choose to go the SPAC route to become a public company? What opportunities will this offer?

Sidhu: We decided to go the SPAC route because it was a more efficient way for us to take the company public. Our ultimate goal is to add a new white-label partner and gain at least a million new bank customers each year and most importantly provide them with the most financially empowering banking experience. We also plan to use our new funds to continue to focus on innovations and expand our product offerings.

As not only an ethnic minority but also a woman, what have you learned about what it takes to compete in the fintech world?

Sidhu: It takes a lot of determination, flexibility and a “can-do” attitude. I have been raised by two parents who have always supported and encouraged me and given me the tools and resources to succeed. This has helped me throughout childhood and adulthood and has given me a strong foundation to launch my own company. “Never give up” is a motto that my father said to me since I was a young child and one that I truly believe in. There have been obstacles along the way, but by continuing on despite them and overcoming them, I feel I have been able to be competitive.

In general, what developments can we expect in the challenger banking space in 2021?

Sidhu: I think that challenger banks will continue to grow their customer base, becoming increasingly popular with consumers across the country. More and more people are turning to digital banking, and the pandemic accelerated this trend. Challenger banks are nimble and consistently creating new services, which are attractive to Americans. I also believe that more challenger banks will go public this year.

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