London Fintech Podcast

I am delighted to welcome Rich Wagner chairman of the Emerging Payments Association to discuss “fair access to the payments network for Fintechs”. The EPA which is based in London, in passing houses the worlds only incubator for PayTech Fintechs This is a real hardcore topic a long way aways from the fluffy bunnies and […]

What is corporate venturing perchance you ask? One definition is an “internal VC arm of a corporate” – although this hides some major differences with VC per se. In London Fintech Podcast episode 48 I am delighted to welcome Ben Luckett MD of Aviva Ventures to dive into corporate venturing. For the company doing it […]

I am delighted to welcome Jake Wombwell-Povey co-founder and CEO of Goji to dive into the fascinating subject of –the Innovative Finance ISA. Goji’s aspiration is to take P2P into new investor markets and their first focus is on providing a white-label/back-office IFISA solution to existing platforms. The IFISA might be unknown off these shores […]

This week we have a super-clear dive into Fintech Payments companies with Hiroki Takeuchi CEO and co-founder of GoCardless.  GoCardless, founded in 2011, are experts in recurring payments (where they process over $1bn per annum (via the direct debit "pipes"). Their clients range from gyms and scout groups include the UK Government, Tripadvisor, Virgin, the Financial Times and Funding Circle – so c...

I am delighted to welcome Stephane Dubois founder and CEO of Xignite on the show to take a deep-dive into APIs which are not only the very Lego building blocks of Fintech but also set to become even more important with forthcoming legislation around opening up banking data. In this show I also share some exciting developments in making the London Fintech Podcast more interactive - see below for de...

Today I am delighted to welcome Alex Langridge Director of The Up Group on the show to talk about the very hot topic of whether Fintechs can grow up without, as it were, turning into their parents. Less metaphorically what will mean that Alternative Finance remains alternative and doesn’t just end up like a Moorish […]

On London Fintech Podcast episode 43 I am delighted to have Ruzbeh Bacha CEO and founder of CityFalcon on the show. CityFalcon’s mission is to democratise access to financial news thereby creating a level-playing field for all investors whether retail or institutional. They provide comprehensive real-time and relevant financial news which is free for consumers […]

This is London Fintech Podcast episode 42, the answer to life, the universe and everything. Well a bit of everything anyway. And I have the pleasure to be joined today by – er – myself. In the now traditional (um – can doing something twice be a tradition?) first podcast of the year step away […]

In a Fintech Era when Big Data is all the rage Equity Crowdfunding rather looks like a very poor relation indeed. Less Small Data even and more No Data. As I have written about in The Strange Case of Missing Data on UK Equity Crowdfunding none of the platforms, the UK Crowdfunding Association or the FCA appear to be providing or asking for even the bare minimum, I am pleased to be joined in this c...

In episode 40 it’s a good time to turn to the response of the banking sector (used here as a proxy for all FS incumbents) to the Fintech revolution – both Fintech’s #newFS and its #newTech/#newIT side. I couldn’t think of anyone better to discuss this with than Anna Irrera who is perhaps the only […]

In this episode we are taking a break from talking to the biggest players in London Fintech and dive instead into the far more numerous, if lower profile, world of small Fintechs. Given the outburst of tech and business creativity right now there have been plenty of new and young companies forming in this sector […]

I am delighted to be joined by Peter Renton to discuss some key highlights from the Lendit Europe 2015 conference, especially for those of you who weren’t there and even for those of you who were as in the afternoon it split into two streams. Peter was back on the show in LFP015 way back in last December wearing his Lend Academy hat relating to us the amazing story of the development of P2P in the...

Platform Black is the UK's second largest invoice discounting marketplace having traded over 2,000 invoices and recently passing the £100m mark.  On the show John Regan an Angel Investor who co-seed-funded PB joins us to discuss its journey and in particular a much-rumoured about (in cognoscenti circles) problem with a default/recovery. He also takes this chance to talk about crises in general and...

I am delighted to be joined by Chris Rieche CEO and co-founder of iwoca. Iwoca is a Fintech lender but not a P2P.  They raise finance and then can lend it out themselves – a direct lending model which has many advantages as we will hear. iwoca lends up to £100k to small businesses in the UK, Poland, Spain and Germany at rates varying from around 13-40% p.a and has around 100 employees in London. I...

On the show today I am delighted to be joined by John Goodall CEO and co-founder of Landbay, a member of the P2PFA of leading UK P2P/marketplace lending platforms. Landbay connect retail and institutional lenders with loans assets in the UK residential buy-to-let mortgage market. They have a well-secured “belt and braces” approach as not only do they have a first charge (mortgage) over an asset (“...

Funding Circle need no introduction being the heavyweight SME marketplace lender in the UK and the only global player to have a large footprint in both the UK and the US.  Those on the conference circuit may be more familiar with Andrew’s co-founders, ...

In a world where Fintechs are on a rapid startup-scaleup-mature company growth curve how does legal risk look? In a totally new scene how can we know how well legal structures may, or may not survive events that have never happened? I am delighted to be able to be joined today to discuss these issues and more by one of the City's most prominent Fintech lawyers Jon Segal Partner who heads the Finte...

WorldRemit is one of the world’s leaders in the key sector of remittances. Remittances, to cut to the chase, is largely the province of often poor migrant workers sending their money home. To date this has been dominated by large players such as Wester...

I am delighted to be joined by Rich Wagner founder and CEO of Advanced Payment Solutions (APS). In a world where some of the largest Fintechs were formed only a few years ago it’s rare to meet one that has been going for 11years, APS is one of Europ...

As this is London Fintech Podcast episode thirty and as it’s a big round number I am especially delighted to be joined by one of the giants of the London Fintech scene Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of MarketInvoice. Not only do we do a deep-dive int...

New entrants into Fintech need a twist.  ArchOver has an innovative (a word oft used but rarely accurate) and very interesting innovation of combining Credit Insurance with Secured SME marketplace lending.  Additionally they innovate by not just using single invoices as security (which is common) but by the whole set of invoices (ie "accounts receivable"). This model they call "secured and insured...

David Stevenson is a journalist extraordinaire and writes for a number of leading publications including the Adventurous Investor Column in the FT, the Investors Chronicle, Money Management and Investment Week, where he’s the contrarian columnist.  He also runs the AltFi empire that spans conferences, news and as we heard in LFP010 with Rupert Taylor, AltFi Data. He has also authored a number of b...

Insurance Fintech is something of a dog that doesn't bark much.  As Steven Mendel, CEO and founder of Bought By Many a rare example of a successful and innovative insurance fintech, says, the key players in this sector across the whole of europe can be...

I am delighted to be joined on the show today by Mike Laven CEO of Currency Cloud (who have always been my “Fintech insiders” Fintech of choice). Currency Cloud has done $10bn of business which is a big number on anyone's scale. It’s a rare guest in...

I am delighted to be joined on the show today by Goncalo de Vasconcelos CEO and founder of Syndicate Room who are one of my must-know-about equity crowdfunding platforms as they have originated an "investor-led" model of equity crowdfunding which has s...