Fintech Builders

Avantos AI is replacing the fragmented patchwork of CRMs, task managers, and paper-based workflows that financial services firms have relied on for decades with a single operating system for client management. Built on a knowledge graph and AI-native from the ground up, Avantos models the full complexity of financial relationships — client data, the service team, and the products clients hold — as...

Most AI finance startups are chasing the same crowded ground — invoice processing, AP automation, SMB-friendly dashboards. ⁠Nominal⁠ is doing something different. ⁠Guy Leibovitz⁠ , a three-time founder with two exits, is building AI agents that replace the full manual workload of controllers and accountants — and he's selling it into mid-market and enterprise companies that nobody else is seri...

Extend's model is built on a specific bet: that banks want to offer their SMB clients a better expense management product but won't build it themselves. Extend builds that product and sells it to the bank, who then distributes it to their business customers as their own offering. In a recent episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with Guillaume Bouvard , Co-Founder, COO & CMO of Extend, to h...

Safebooks AI is building the infrastructure layer that makes agentic AI safe to operate inside the office of the CFO. Where most finance automation tools solve point problems — AP, AR, billing, reconciliation — Safebooks ingests data end to end across every system in a company's financial stack: CPQ, CRM, contract management, billing, ERP, and banking. Using graph AI technology, it normalizes...

Ed Brandman⁠ spent decades in global financial services before retiring in 2018. His last chapter before stepping away was at KKR — where he joined when the firm had just 390 people and left having helped build it into one of the most recognizable names in alternative assets. Five years later, a conversation with his son (now his co-founder) about the due diligence process pulled him back. That be...

Every year, more than half of private student loan applicants get declined. Not because they're unserious about their education — but because they narrowly miss a credit cutoff. For upperclassmen and grad students already deep into a degree, that rejection often means dropping out. ⁠Jen O'Donald⁠ spent 13 years at Sallie Mae, most recently running product, watching this gap go unsolved. So...

Savvy Wealth⁠ is an AI-enabled platform for independent financial advisors — solo operators and small teams — that handles everything from CRM and billing to compliance, investment management, and financial planning. In this episode of BUILDERS, I sat down with ⁠Ritik Malhotra⁠ , Founder & CEO, to get into the GTM mechanics behind selling into one of the most trust-locked markets in financial...

Jacob Casson⁠ spent years trying to solve cash flow for the entertainment and media industry — influencer agencies, production houses, film and TV — while nearly running his own company into the ground twice. In this episode, he breaks down how ⁠Monet⁠ evolved from a creator banking product into a financial back office and lending platform, how he recapitalized under a hostile takeover attempt, an...

The cross-border payments market remains stubbornly difficult despite billions in venture capital and countless smart founders attacking the problem. The core challenge isn't technology—it's economics. Western Union's margins weren't exploitative greed; they reflected the brutal reality of cash distribution networks, compliance infrastructure, and dual-country regulatory overhead....

Maxima is building AI agents that automate enterprise accounting while maintaining the auditability and control standards finance teams require. In a recent episode of BUILDERS, we sat down with ⁠Yogi Goel⁠ , CEO and Co-Founder of ⁠Maxima⁠ , to explore his eight-year journey at Rubrik from Series C through IPO, and how those lessons shaped his approach to solving the 70-80% of finance time current...

Rainforest⁠ enables vertical software companies to embed payment processing directly into their platforms - solving the complexity that previously forced software companies to direct customers to separate banks or resellers for payment processing. Founded by ⁠Joshua Silver⁠ , who spent nearly 20 years in payments starting with PatientCo (a healthcare billing company that scaled to process billions...

F2⁠ is the AI platform for private markets investors, automating due diligence and portfolio monitoring workflows with agentic AI. After building ARK into a digital banking platform that scaled from tens of millions to tens of billions in loan volume, ⁠Donald Muir⁠ developed AI technology to automate debt placement on ARK's marketplace. When upmarket institutional lenders requested access to t...

Turnstile is reimagining quote-to-cash for the modern B2B world, where negotiated agreements create operational chaos that standard pricing never does. After selling Second Measure to Bloomberg, co-founders ⁠Michael Babineau⁠ and Lillian Chou experienced the irony firsthand: running a data analytics company while managing their own revenue operations through spreadsheets and manual processes. That...

tiun is building auth and payment infrastructure that consolidates two traditional categories into one streamlined solution. By combining social login with instant payment functionality, tiun eliminates the standard account creation and credit card entry flow, reducing user onboarding to a two-click process. Operating as merchant of record, tiun serves online entertainment businesses, content crea...

ZayZoon pioneered the earned wage access category a decade ago and has become the leading embedded provider through partnerships with over 300 payroll companies. With over $50 million raised and a team of 200, ZayZoon now serves 15,000+ businesses across the US. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, I sat down with  Tate Hackert , Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of  ZayZoon , to unpac...

Carmen Li  spent decades in financial services across trading floors and data companies before spotting a massive inefficiency in the AI/compute economy. After managing global data partnerships at Bloomberg, she witnessed AI startups struggling with unpredictable compute costs that could swing their margins from healthy profits to devastating losses overnight. Drawing parallels to how airlines hed...

Atlas Invest is revolutionizing real estate financing as a marketplace connecting borrowers with institutional investors. With $13 million in funding, the platform provides an alternative to inefficient traditional lending models by offering borrowers quick, simple financing while enabling investors to access what Tal calls "the holy grail of asset classes" - real estate-backed bridge lo...

Tilled has pioneered "PayFac as a Service," creating a new category in the payments space that allows vertical software companies to embed payments within their platforms without becoming registered payment facilitators themselves. With over $40 million in funding, Tilled offers an alternative to industry giants like Stripe, providing better economics while maintaining high-quality devel...

Foundersuite has established itself as the leading platform for startups raising capital, with $13 million in funding and a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline the fundraising process. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I sat down with  Nathan Beckord , CEO of  Foundersuite , to explore how his extensive background in investment banking and startup advisory evolved into build...

Routable is revolutionizing accounts payable automation by bridging the gap between finance teams and engineering requirements. With $100 million in funding, Routable has built a platform that handles everything from basic invoice processing to complex mass payouts, focusing on companies where AP is central to their business model. In this episode of Category Visionaries, I sat down with  Omri Mor...

Patricia Montesi  leads  Qolo , a modern cloud-based financial payments platform that has raised $30 million to reimagine payment processing infrastructure. In this episode of Category Visionaries, Patricia shares insights from building a platform that combines card issuing, bank payments, and ledger capabilities to help both fintech companies and traditional banks modernize their payment systems...

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, I sat down with  Steffen Vollert , Co-Founder and Interim CEO of  Volt , to explore their journey building a global real-time payment network. With over $87 Million in funding, Volt has evolved from a European open banking solution to a worldwide payment infrastructure platform, connecting major payment systems like Pix in Brazil and PayTo in Australia....

Auquan is revolutionizing financial services by automating the labor-intensive, data-heavy workflows that consume valuable time for investment professionals. With $8 million in funding,  Auquan  is building an AI-powered intelligence platform that transforms how financial firms extract insights from unstructured data. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we spoke with  Chandini Jain  about her...

Canopy , an API-first loan management and servicing platform, has raised over $30 Million to revolutionize how companies manage and service loans. In this episode of Category Visionaries,  Matt Bivons  shares his journey from designer to founder, and how Canopy is transforming loan servicing from a cost center into a profit center. With over five years of experience serving B2B lenders, Canopy&#39...

Pier  is revolutionizing credit infrastructure by enabling companies to launch compliant credit products through their API-first solution. Having raised $2.5M from notable investors including Y Combinator, Airbnb, OpenAI, Experian, and Morgan Stanley, Pier is transforming how businesses offer innovative credit solutions to their users. In this episode of Category Visionaries,  Jessica Zhang  share...