Arjan Schütte, Founder of Core Innovation Capital, on investing in financial empowerment
One of the fintech investing pioneers is Arjan Schütte, the founder and managing partner of Core Innovation Capital. He has been around fintech for more than two decades and has been an active investor for most of that time. I am way overdue in getting him on the show.In this conversation, we explore why 50% of Americans still live paycheck to paycheck despite fintech's growth, the dramatic transformation AI will bring to financial services (moving from advice to actionable help), and emerging opportunities in small business enablement, healthcare-finance intersections, and retirement solutions. Arjan also reflects on early investment wins like NerdWallet and Ripple, lessons learned from setbacks like Synapse, and how his recent year-long family journey around the world opened his eyes to innovative financial models like Australia's superannuation system that could revolutionize wealth creation for America's middle class.In this podcast you will learn:How Core is different from other VC firms.How fintech has improved the underbanked population in this country.Why fintech hasn’t made a bigger difference for financially fragile people.Some of the business models that work for serving this population.A look at some of his successful early investments.What he missed when he decided to invest in Synapse.What is different in the fintech space today than a decade ago.How he views AI when looking at early stage companies today.The different verticals within fintech where there is most interest today.Arjan’s perspective on the fintech IPO window.What he would do if he had a magic wand to help lower and middle income consumers.What he learned traveling around the world with his family for a year.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes
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Tim Newell, CEO & Founder of GreenFi, on building a climate-friendly fintech
In this episode, I'm joined by Tim Newell, CEO and founder of GreenFi, a climate-focused fintech that emerged from the ashes of Aspiration's consumer banking business. Tim brings a fascinating fintech and climate tech pedigree, having previously sold a solar financing company to SolarCity, run financial products at both SolarCity and Tesla, and even survived five years working for Elon Musk. When Aspiration decided to pivot away from consumer banking to focus on global carbon markets in 2022, Tim saw an opportunity to acquire and restructure their consumer business. Through a complex licensing deal, he successfully transitioned over 98% of Aspiration's customers to his new platform while radically downsizing from 400 employees to just 40.GreenFi targets the 100 million Americans who cite climate as a significant worry, about 40% of U.S. adults, offering them banking products that guarantee their deposits won't support fossil fuels, automatically offset carbon from gas purchases, and enable tree planting through everyday transactions. We dive into how Tim thinks about the intersection of fintech and climate action, the challenges of building a sustainable business model in today's capital environment, and his ambitious vision to become "Patagonia for your bank account.”In this podcast you will learn:Tim’s deep background in financial technology and climate tech.What was involved in Aspiration’s pivot away from consumer fintech to the carbon markets.How Tim was able to spin out the consumer fintech business from Aspiration.How GreenFi grew out of that business.The product set for GreenFi and near term product roadmap.The huge percentage of deposits that moved over from Aspiration to GreenFi.The specific ways they are making their financial offerings carbon-friendly.Who makes up their target market.How the swing in Washington against climate initiatives is impacting GreenFi.How they restructured the business to a radically different cost base.How they are offsetting their own carbon footprint.The process for raising their $17 million seed round.Their different revenue streams.The scale that GreenFi is at today.Tim’s vision for GreenFi.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes
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Carol Hamilton, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Provenir, on AI-powered risk decisioning
In today's episode, we have Carol Hamilton, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Provenird. She discusses how AI-powered decisioning platforms are transforming risk management across financial services. She explores the critical balance financial institutions must strike between managing evolving risk threats and maintaining seamless customer experiences, a challenge that has become increasingly complex in today's uncertain macroeconomic environment. She explains how Provenir's platform helps organizations make intelligent decisions across the entire customer lifecycle, from onboarding and fraud prevention to collections, by orchestrating real-time data and AI to provide contextual insights that enable both risk mitigation and opportunity optimization. The conversation delves into key findings from Provenir's 2025 Global Risk Decisioning Survey, revealing that over half of respondents struggle with data integration, while 60% find it difficult to deploy and maintain risk models. Hamilton emphasizes how generative AI is being leveraged not just as a trend but to drive tangible outcomes, speeding up decision-making processes, enhancing model explainability, and analyzing unstructured data. Looking ahead, she describes 2025 as "the year of intelligent decisioning," where organizations can move beyond traditional rules-based systems to achieve the perfect contextual understanding needed for hyper-personalized customer interactions that unlock value while effectively managing risk.In this podcast you will learn:What Provenir does exactly.The types of risk decisions they help their customers make.The biggest pain points in risk management for financial institutions today.The different geographies where Provenir operates.Why they have focused on enterprise businesses.How they approach the tension between preventing fraud and seamless customer experiences.How their clients are managing risks in today’s uncertain environment.The different types of simulations they can run inside their platform.How they are using generative AI in their decisioning engine.How their approach differs from others in the market.The purpose of their 2025 Global Risk Decisioning Survey.Some the of the core findings from the survey.How they help their clients deploy their risk decisioning models.How they are working with lenders with credit risk and detecting fraud.What they mean by calling 2025 the “year of intelligent decisioning.”How they approach product development given the different needs of their customers.What is next for Provenir.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes
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Penny Lee, CEO of the Financial Technology Association, on the changes in Washington
To say it has been a busy year for fintech policy folks would be a gross understatement. With the change in administration to Trump 2.0, we have a 180-degree different perspective on most fintech issues than the previous administration. And there have already been many actions taken by the Trump White House that will have far-reaching implications for fintech.To help us unpack all these issues, I invited back to the show, Penny Lee, the CEO of the Financial Technology Association (FTA) and one of the leading voices in Washington for our industry. In addition to navigating all the complex regulatory changes, the FTA is also putting on their annual CEO Summit this month and, as of this writing, tickets are still available.In this podcast you will learn:The state of play in Washington today and its implications for fintech.Why rescinding the 1033 rule would be such a big deal.How they will be fighting this in court.Why this will be in the court system for a while, whoever wins the initial decision.Where the FTA stands on payments modernization.Penny’s thoughts on the remittance tax provision of the Big Beautiful Bill.The BNPL bill that was passed in New York and its impact on the industry.What the FTA is doing with Earned Wage Access initiatives in the states.The state of play for AI regulation in the states as well as the federal level.The prospect for a federal AI bill this year.Details of the annual FTA CEO Summit in Washington happening on June 25.Who is going to be on stage from industry and government.What else FTA members are doing while they are in DC.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes
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Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, CEO of Flutterwave, on creating African payments infrastructure
Africa is quietly becoming one of the hottest areas for fintech investment. I am overdue to focus on Africa here on the podcast, so when the chance to interview the CEO of the largest African fintech presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity. In a similar way to Latin America, Africa has leapfrogged from offline financial infrastructure to mobile-centric and the one company that has made much of this leapfrog possible, at least when it comes to payments, is Flutterwave.My next guest on the Fintech One on One podcast is Olugbenga Agboola, who goes by GB, the CEO and Founder of Flutterwave, the most valuable fintech in Africa. I think of Flutterwave as a cross between Stripe, Shopify and Wise, and the technology they have built has revolutionized cross-border payments in Africa. It is hard to overstate how important this one company has been to the growth of fintech in Africa.In this podcast you will learn:What drove GB to found Flutterwave.A short history of fintech innovation in Africa.How he describes Flutterwave today.The geographic footprint of Flutterwave.How they enable African small businesses to accept cross border payments.The evolving payment behaviors for both consumers and small businesses.What they are ultimately solving for in Africa.What GB means when he says “payment is partnership”.How the money moves internationally.Why they decided to rebuild the entire stack of their API suite.How they are ensuring compliance across their wide network.How they incorporate financial inclusion into their company goals.Why they are an inaugural partner of the Circle Payments Network.How they are investing in cybersecurity and anti-fraud tools.How they are supporting the next generation of African fintech leaders.GB’s vision for the future of payments in Africa and for Flutterwave.Connect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes
Fintech is eating the world. Join Peter Renton, Co-Founder of Fintech Nexus, every week as he interviews the fintech leaders who are leading the transformation of financial services. If you want to understand what the future will look like for lending, payments, digital banking and more tune in to Fintech One•On•One (formerly the Lend Academy Podcast).
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