Bill Capuzzi, CEO of Apex, on the critical infrastructure powering modern investing
Today, I sit down with Bill Capuzzi, CEO of Apex Fintech Solutions, to explore the critical infrastructure powering modern fintech investing. Bill shares the fascinating journey of Apex from its roots as a pioneer in API-enabled clearing to fractional share trading and becoming the clearing firm behind investment accounts for close to 25 million people across household names like Robinhood, SoFi, and Betterment.The conversation dives deep into what it takes to be a reliable infrastructure player in fintech, from opening accounts in seconds, to enabling investment globally, to Apex's bold expansion plans with State Street and their strategic embrace of stablecoins. Bill also pulls back the curtain on how Apex uses AI inside the company and shares his perspective on the complex plumbing that makes seamless, modern fintech experiences possible. It's a rare inside look at the unsexy but essential backbone of the fintech revolution.In this podcast, you will learn:Bill’s interesting journey from environmental scientist to fintech entreprenuer.Why he decided to join Apex ten years ago.How their capabilities were so different to the traditional custodians.What a clearing broker does exactly.How the idea for fractional share trading came about.How they have built their brand in the fintech space.Why they are seeing interest from banks and traditional wealth providers today.The only two firms that have left Apex and why they left.How they are working with the digital assets/stablecoins space today.Why they sold Apex Crypto to Bakkt in 2022.How they are growing internationally.What their partnership with State Street means for Apex.What Apex is doing to prepare for the AI-enabled future.What Bill is most excited about for the future of Apex.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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Jon Fry, CEO of Lendflow, on how AI is finally delivering on the promise of embedded lending
In this episode, I sit down with Jon Fry, CEO and co-founder of Lendflow, to explore how AI is transforming the embedded lending landscape. Jon shares his unconventional journey from building websites in college to becoming a key player in embedded lending, including the challenge of launching LendFlow in early 2020—just as COVID shut down the lending market.The conversation dives deep into how LendFlow's AI-powered platform is making lending more efficient and accessible, why the small business lending space hasn't advanced as quickly as many expected, and what survival through multiple market cycles has taught the industry's most resilient players. Jon paints a compelling vision of the next five to ten years, where AI will create truly magical lending experiences and finally deliver on the promise of embedded finance for small businesses.In this podcast you will learn:How Jon went from building website in college to starting Lendflow.What is was like launching a lending software business in early 2020.What Lendflow does exactly.Who is their core customer.What has changed in embedded lending in the last five years.How brands can customize their loan offerings with Lendflow’s platform.Why Lendflow encourages brands to connect directly with lenders.What a neutral embedded lending network is.How Lendflow uses AI and what problems it is solving.Why we are not quite ready for a fully agentic workflow yet.What a fully agentic workflow could look like in the future.Why Jon thinks lending software hasn’t developed that quickly in the past decade.What he thinks the next five to ten years holds for lending.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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Farooq Malik, CEO of Rain, on How a 4-Year-Old Fintech Became a Visa Principal Member Using Stablecoin Infrastructure
What if you could settle card transactions on weekends and holidays, reduce working capital requirements by orders of magnitude, and give fintechs global reach without the traditional banking infrastructure headaches? In this episode, I sit down with Farooq Malik, CEO and co-founder of Rain, a company that's quietly rewriting the rules of payment infrastructure by bridging traditional fintech and stablecoin technology.Farooq isn't a crypto evangelist, he comes from traditional banking and international development, but when he saw his first stablecoin transaction settle instantaneously, he had an "aha moment" about the future of money movement. Now Rain is a Visa Principal Member (a status typically reserved for banks), enabling companies to sponsor card programs directly, settle 24/7 using stablecoins, and serve customers across multiple continents from a single API. We dive deep into how this actually works, why traditional fintechs are ditching their BaaS partners for Rain's infrastructure, and why this isn't about crypto replacing fintech, it's about the next evolution of financial infrastructure that solves real operational problems.In this podcast you will learn:How Farooq first got interested in stablecoins.How he describes Rain to a fintech audience.Why they chose to start with stablecoins for card transactions.How they were able to become a Visa Principal Member.Where they can issue cards globally.How they can help their clients launch internationally.Why most new customers they are signing up are tradfi programs.Why a company like Rain is a good alternative to BaaS banks.How the flow of funds work for a Rain-powered card transaction.How Rain is able to work with capital providers directly on the blockchain.What is involved in getting a new program up and running with Rain.Why Rain is agnostic to the number of new stablecoin issuers.How they work with banks looking to offer tokenized deposits.The biggest opportunity in the future of financial infrastructure.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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Nuno Sebastião, CEO of Feedzai, on completely rethinking fraud management
Today we are focusing on financial crime and fraud management with the CEO and co-founder of Feedzai, one of the world's largest independent risk management platforms serving banks and fintechs. Nuno shares his fascinating journey from being the first Portuguese engineer at the European Space Agency to building a global fintech powerhouse with over 700 employees across four continents.The conversation explores how the fraud landscape has fundamentally shifted, where bad actors no longer target technical infrastructure but instead exploit people as the "weakest link in the chain" through AI-powered scams and social engineering. Nuno discusses Feedzai's evolution from transaction fraud monitoring to a comprehensive risk management platform, emphasizing the critical need to move from detecting fraudulent activity to understanding customer intent. He also delves into the company's TRUST framework for responsible AI, explaining why explainability is essential in financial services and much more.In this podcast you will learn:Nuno’s transition from the European Space Agency to founding Feedzai.How he Feedzai has evolved since its early days and what it does today.What an AI-generated scam looks like.Why the weakest link is us.How you can protect the less sophisticated consumers.Why detecting fraud is no longer enough.How they are able to understand the intent of the customer.How can you be proactive, combining risk management and cyber security.What their TRUST Framework for responsible AI innovation is all about.What it means to be a critically systemic vendor for banks.What Nuno learned by interviewing the likes of Richard Branson, Stephan Hawking and Steve Wozniak.Feedzai’s geographic footprint and their distributed leadership team.The scale Feedzai is at today.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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Fintech Revealed: Understanding Small Business Credit With Nav
Welcome back to the occasional series on the podcast called Fintech Revealed. This is a sponsored show where we take a deep dive into one topic with a couple of industry experts.Today, we are focusing on small business credit with Levi King, the CEO of Nav and Gerri Detweiler, a credit expert and educational consultant. We provide listeners with a clear understanding of how small business credit reporting works and why it is so different to consumer credit. We talk about open banking and how cash flow underwriting helps more small businesses get approved for credit and at a lower rate.Levi traces Nav's evolution from a credit data tracking platform to a comprehensive financial health solution that now facilitates embedded lending through partners like Fundbox, while Gerri emphasizes the educational mission of helping business owners understand their business credit profile and why scores that can vary wildly between bureaus.Both express optimism about the future of small business lending, particularly the rise of embedded financing that leverages diverse data sources from vertical SaaS platforms and the shift in lender attitudes from "extracting a pound of flesh" to genuinely advocating for small business success.In this podcast you will learn:How Nav has evolved since I last had Levi on the show in 2017.The types of small businesses that are coming to Nav.The main differences between a business and personal credit report.How Nav works with partners today.What they are doing to help small business owners get educated.What it takes to become a Nav partner today.How they integrate the huge number of small business data sources.What it is like convincing small business owners to connect their bank data.How cash flow underwriting is change the game for small business lending.How they are using AI to analyze the myriad data sources.Some of the surprising insights they have gleaned from this data.What trends they are seeing that contradict conventional wisdom.What needs to happen next to move the industry forward.Why they are optimistic about where the industry is headed.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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