Couchonomics with Arjun

Core banking is no longer a back-office topic. Cloud, payments, AI and digital assets are forcing banks to rethink the foundations of how money moves. In this episode, Arjun sits down with Vishal Dalal, Global CEO of Pismo, to unpack the evolution of modern core banking, the rise of cloud-native architectures, and why migration, resilience and payments complexity are the real bottlenecks shaping t...

Fintech is entering a new phase where technology, regulation and global markets are reshaping value at a deeper level. Arjun sits down with Sandeep Patil, Partner and Head of Asia at QED Investors, to break down how fintech is evolving beneath the surface. 🎙️ In this episode:  -Why the global fintech reset isn’t over - How stablecoins are becoming the quiet rails of global trade - How AI will resh...

What if the future of money isn’t about new currencies, but about rebuilding how value moves? Arjun sits down with Keith Grose, Senior Country Director at Coinbase UK, to explore how crypto is moving from hype to real infrastructure. They talk about the UK’s second-mover advantage in regulation, the role of stablecoins in global trade, and how Coinbase is building the bridge between traditional fi...

What if the future of money isn’t about creating new currencies, but redefining what money really is? In this episode, Arjun sits down with Tony McLaughlin, CEO and Founder of Ubyx Inc, to talk about why he believes the bank account is dead and how the next version of money could live on public blockchains. They break down what stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and CBDCs really mean, and how they c...

What if the next decade of finance isn’t about disruption, but inclusion? In this episode, Arjun sits down with Sopnendu Mohanty, Group CEO of GFTN and Advisor to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to explore how technology, policy, and people are shaping the future of global finance. 🎙️ In this episode: → The three pillars that defined the first wave of fintech: APIs, DPIs, and cloud → Why incl...

When money moves faster than ever, who really controls it?  In this episode, Arjun sits down with Arik Shtilman, Founder and CEO of Rapyd, to explore how AI and stablecoins are rewriting the rules of global payments.  From powering transactions across 100+ countries to building an AI-first infrastructure, Rapyd is proving that the next financial revolution is already underway. 🎙️ In this episode:...

What if AI ran your bank? 🤯 In this episode, Arjun sits down with Quang Nguyen, CEO of Cake Digital Bank, Vietnam’s AI-first bank that’s redefining what digital finance looks like. With only 300 employees serving 6 million customers, Cake has become one of Southeast Asia’s most efficient and innovative financial institutions — proving that the future of banking is lean, intelligent, and fully aut...

Over $80 trillion in global wealth is moving to a younger, more digital generation. But who will manage it—and how will AI, trust, and technology reshape investing? In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Caesar Sengupta, Co-Founder and CEO of Arta Finance (backed by Eric Schmidt, Peak XV, and Ribbit Capital), shares how his company is democratizing wealth management—bringing institutional-gra...

Episode 150 of Couchonomics with Arjun is here — and it’s a milestone. For the very first time, we go to Latin America. My guest: Eduardo Chedid, CEO of PicPay — Brazil’s biggest super app and one of the fastest-scaling fintechs in the world. With 60M+ customers, $1B+ in revenues, profits up 7× YoY, and 4,500 employees, PicPay is rewriting the rules of digital banking in one of the most competitiv...

Turning Savings into Wealth — Inside Chip’s Fintech Playbook  UK fintech is entering a new chapter. While funding slows, savers poured £103bn into ISAs — proving that trust, not downloads, is the real currency. In this episode, Arjun speaks with Alex Latham, Co-Founder & CMO of Chip, one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs, on: - The future of UK fintech beyond banking apps - How Chip grew fr...

Most fintechs chased hype. Abhi chased cash flow. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we sit down with Omair Ansari, Co-Founder & CEO of Abhi, one of Pakistan’s fastest-growing fintechs. Abhi began with earned wage access, giving workers instant liquidity. Today, it has scaled into payroll financing, SME lending, and invoice factoring — and even acquired a licensed microfinance bank in...

Wealth management is no longer just champagne perks and 2% fees. The new generation of investors demands digital, transparent, and affordable solutions. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Dhruv Arora, Founder & CEO of Syfe, a digital wealth management platform managing over US$10B. We cover: - Why trust is the biggest competition in digital wealth - The difference betw...

💡 Africa’s fintech story is no longer a local experiment — it’s a global test case for the future of inclusion, innovation, and capital flows. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Yustus Aribariho, Co-Founder of Furaha Financial (part of SC Ventures by Standard Chartered). Yustus is now on a mission to unlock education financing and opportunity across Sub-Saharan Africa. We...

Stablecoins are no longer on the sidelines — they’re stepping into the core of global finance. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we're joined by Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Global Policy at Circle, for his second appearance on the show. Speaking from Washington, DC, Dante brings a timely perspective on how digital finance is evolving — and why it matters now...

Fraud just had its AI upgrade. It’s faster than your payments and industrialised at a global scale.  Welcome to the Scamdemic — a global wave of scams and financial crime growing faster than almost any asset class. We’re joined by Simon Taylor, Head of Strategy at Sardine and Co-Founder of 11:FS. Together, we unpack how fraud has evolved, why it’s so hard to stop, and what financial institutions,...

Is today’s financial system fit for a digital-first world? Not quite — and Siddharth Shetty is here to tell us why. In this episode of Couchonomics, Arjun speaks with Finternet Labs CEO Siddharth Shetty, one of the architects behind India’s UPI and  Account Aggregator framework, to unpack the vision for Finternet — a universal financial infrastructure layer designed to empower users, build trust,...

The future of payments won’t be card-swiped or cash-counted — it’ll be fast, digital, and deeply integrated. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Floris de Kort, CEO of Thunes, joins to unpack what it really takes to build a global payments network across 130+ markets, from wallets to banks to mobile rails. What’s inside: - Why real-time payments still face real-world friction - How Thunes...

Crypto isn’t dead, it’s going institutional.  In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Rifad Mahasneh, CEO of OKX MENA, joins the show to unpack what real digital asset adoption looks like beyond the headlines. We explore how OKX is building for scale, trust, and regulation - especially in the UAE, where crypto is becoming infrastructure, not just innovation. 🎯 What’s inside:  • Post-FTX trust...

💸 What’s the real fintech miracle? Lending to SMEs — and staying alive 9 years later. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Nikhilesh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO of Validus, Southeast Asia’s largest SME financing platform. We unpack how Validus scaled to $5B+ in credit across the region by avoiding the hype and building disciplined, anchor-based lending models that actually w...

AI isn’t a campaign. It’s a core banking reset. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Amith Rajan, CEO of Neo Ventures and Head of Digital Wholesale Banking at Mashreq, for a candid conversation on how AI, tokenization, and infrastructure transformation are reshaping the banking stack from the inside out. We unpack: - Why "rip and replace" is a myth and what real le...

The core of banking is broken, and duct-taping legacy systems won’t fix it. This week on Couchonomics with Arjun, I’m joined by Myles Bertrand, CEO of Tuum, the modular core banking platform built in Estonia and now scaling across Europe and the GCC. Tuum isn’t selling digital lipstick. They’re rebuilding the real plumbing of modern banking — one composable, cloud-native layer at a time. 💡 In thi...

In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we sit down with Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, the UK’s only publicly listed fintech venture capital firm. From going public to backing infrastructure instead of hype, Tim shares what permanent capital allows that traditional VC structures don’t and why he believes the next decade of fintech will be won with discipline, not just disruption. What...

The next banking stack won’t just be fast — it has to be human. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Nick Drewett, Chief Commercial Officer at Engine by Starling, joins the conversation to share what it actually takes to launch and scale a digital bank — not in theory, but in practice. Engine is the tech spinout from Starling Bank - one of the world’s first profitable digital banks - and it...

There’s a $260B SME financing gap in MENA, and most players are still offering copy-paste solutions. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Craig Moore, Founder and CEO of Beehive, shares how one of the region’s original fintechs is tackling real problems with real results. Since 2014, Beehive has built a lending model that combines technology, regulatory know-how, and operational depth to se...

The Venture Model Broke. But Startups Are Still Building. In this episode, Arjun is joined by Devin Kohli, General Partner at Outward VC, for a candid conversation on what’s next for venture capital. They unpack: - Shifting VC trends in Europe, MENA, and the USA - Outward’s bets on Curve, Vauban, Bud & more - AI hype vs. real vertical value - Tokenisation, digital assets & future financial...