Finovate Podcast

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Eko Investments is bringing investment opportunities to early-stage investors, growing individual wealth and helping FIs of all sizes retain their customers. Detailed Summary: Mart Vos, CEO of Eko Investments, joins Greg to talk about his company’s role as a leading digital investment provider for credit unions and banks. Eko’s mission stems from Mart’s personal ex...

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Vertice AI: Using AI to help smaller FI’s punch above their weight. Detailed Summary: In this episode, Greg catches up with Mitch Rutledge, CEO and co-founder of Vertice AI, who won Best of Show at FinovateFall. Mitch starts out by discussing his company’s mission to empower community financial institutions through AI-powered solutions. Vertice serves as an AI-driv...

FinovateFall Best of Show winner LendAPI on the future of lending (spoiler: it’s gonna be a lot faster) Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg interviews Tim Li, CEO and Co-Founder of LendAPI, a recent Best of Show winner at FinovateFall. LendAPI is described as a “super orchestration platform” that allows users to build various financial products through an intuitive...

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Casap on the biggest opportunity you’re missing to prove to your customers that you’re on their side. Detailed Summary: In this Finovate podcast episode, Greg interviews Shanthi Shanmugam, co-founder and CEO of Casap, a Best of Show winner at FinovateFall 2025. Shanthi explains that Casap was founded after she and her co-founder discovered that negative dispute exp...

AI is revolutionizing lending – are you ready? Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Greg Sullins, head of the U.S. Banking Center of Excellence for Newgen Software. Sullins, with 35 years of banking experience, discusses how Newgen supports financial institutions in their digital banking transformation. The conversation primarily focuses on how art...

Stablecoins, relationships, and licenses – inside the Flutterwave success story Detailed Summary: In this Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Bridgit Antwi, Head of Strategy and Planning at Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments company. Founded in 2016 by Olubenga “GB” Agbola, Flutterwave was created to solve the significant friction in facilitating financial transactions across Africa’...

The pitfalls of payments platforms that are “good enough” Detailed Summary: In this Finovate Podcast episode, host Greg Palmer interviews Rouzbeh Rotabi, Chief Revenue Officer at Qolo, about payment infrastructure modernization. Rotabi, with over 20 years of experience in fintech and payments, explains that banks face three main challenges: financial pressures to increase commercial deposits (espe...

Your new go-to-market(ing) strategy – balancing compliance and speed with agentic AI Detailed Summary: In this Finovate Podcast episode, Greg interviews Asaf Baciu, President and Co-Founder of Persado, an agentic AI platform that optimizes both marketing performance and regulatory compliance for financial institutions. Assaf explains how banks and fintechs currently face a significant challenge wi...

Fighting crime through collaboration – lessons from a retired DEA Special Agent. Detailed Summary: In this Finovate podcast episode, host Greg Palmer interviews David Tyree, a retired DEA special agent now serving as a senior advisor with Valid8 Financial. Tyree shares his extensive career journey from joining the DEA in 1998 to working in various locations including New Mexico, Oregon, Europe, We...

Supporting the gig economy and ethical AI – two massive components you can’t afford to ignore. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host interviews Tamara Laine, founder of MPWR, who shares her unique journey from professional ballerina and choreographer to documentary filmmaker, investigative journalist, and finally tech entrepreneur. Laine discusses how her extensive experi...

The importance of human-centered innovation – one banker’s thoughts on building the right kind of innovative community. Detailed Summary: In this Finovate podcast, Greg Palmer interviews Catherine Lynch, who leads digital experience and human-centered design at Citizens, a super-regional bank with approximately 1,000 branches primarily in the Northeast and $220 billion in assets. With over 20 year...

Driving innovation forward – lessons from a fintech founder turned community banker. Detailed Summary: In this episode, Christian Ruppe, Chief Innovation Officer of Colony Bank, joins Greg to discuss his journey from fintech entrepreneur to banker. Colony Bank is a $3.3 billion community bank headquartered in Fitzgerald, Georgia, with a footprint primarily in South Georgia and offices in surroundi...

Bringing a rewarding investment experience into FI’s with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Bits of Stock. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg interviews Arash Asady, CEO and co-founder of Bits of Stock, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring 2025. Arash introduces Bits of Stock as an embedded digital wealth and financial benefits platform that empowers financial...

I swear, it wasn’t me! – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Herd Security on their anti-deepfake fraud prevention solution. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Brandon Min, founder and CEO of Herd Security, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring 2025. Brandon explains that Herd Security focuses on helping organizations build “herd...

Next-gen customer service – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Penny Finance on attracting, retaining, and serving members of the digital generation Detailed Summary: In this Finovate podcast episode, host Greg interviews Crissi Cole, founder and CEO of Penny Finance, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring in San Diego. Cole, a former Goldman Sachs financial advisor, created Penny...

Talk to me – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Illuma Labs on their AI CX and authentication agent Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Milind Borkar, founder and CEO of Illuma, a two-time Best of Show winner at Finovate events. Illuma specializes in voice authentication and fraud prevention solutions for mid-market financial insti...

I’m sold! – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Solda.ai on their award-winning solution. Detailed Summary: In this Finovate podcast episode, host Greg interviews Andrew Reese, the U.S. go-to-market lead for Solda.ai , a FinovateSpring Best of Show winner. Solda builds artificial intelligence sales representatives that help financial institutions boost revenue and cut costs by mirro...

True personalization is here – connecting with FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Finalytics on their award-winning solution. Detailed Summary: This episode of the Finovate Podcast features Craig McLaughlin (CEO) and Baron Conway (CSO) of Finalytics, a Best of Show winner at FinovateSpring. They join host Greg Palmer to talk about how their platform delivers real-time AI-driven personalization acr...

FinovateSpring keynoter Javier Perez on taking AI out of the experimental and scaling it up for maximum impact. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, Javier Perez, Global Director at VASS Financial Services, shares key insights from his recent keynote at FinovateSpring. He emphasizes that although AI holds immense potential for banks and fintechs, 85% of AI projects in the sec...

Blockchain at a key inflection point – where we are now in the innovation cycle, what’s coming next, and where to find your next opportunity. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer chats with Matthew Le Merle of Blockchain Coinvestors about the current state and trajectory of blockchain technology. He explains that his firm has invested in over 1,250 blockchain...

Exploring CU-specific fintech solutions, with a preview of the CU Spotlight session at FinovateSpring. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Nick Evens, President and CEO of Curql, ahead of FinovateSpring. Nick shares his journey from working within credit unions to leading Curql, a strategic investment fund focused on credit union innovation. He ex...

Building and growing winning teams – thoughts from a seasoned fintech leader on managing high-performing engineering teams. Detailed Summary: In this episode Naga Rishyender, Manager of Software Engineering at Discover Financial Services, shares his thoughts on building and managing high-performing engineering teams in the fast-evolving fintech space. He begins by discussing his career journey—fro...

Former pro athlete and founder of the Male Mogul Initiative Walter Mendenhall on the recent acquisition of Help With My Loan, and the importance of fair access to credit. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer talks with Walter Mendenhall, founder of the Male Mogul Initiative, a Chicago-based nonprofit aimed at empowering young men through leadership, entrepren...

Innovate without needing to update your legacy tech stack. FinovateEurope Best of Show winner Tweezr explains how. Detailed episode description: In this episode, Greg sits down with FinovateEurope Best of Show winner Tweezr to learn more about their innovative approach to maintaining and modifying complex legacy systems. Co-founders Ohad Kotler and Lior Vernia created Tweezr to help financial inst...

FinovateEurope Best of Show winner Keyless on using facial recognition without storing sensitive biometric data on a specific device. Detailed Summary: In this episode, Tobin Broadfoot and host Greg Palmer highlight the challenges of traditional authentication methods, such as remembering passwords and using SMS one-time passcodes, which are both inconvenient and vulnerable to security breaches. K...