Episodes

Equity Crowdfunding is one of the key areas in which the UK has a great lead and so we have a special, longer than usual, episode. I am delighted to be joined on the show today by Karen Kerrigan Legal and Finance Director at Seedrs (who were the first equity crowdfunders to be FCA authorised in the UK). Karen is also a lawyer and a Director at the UK Crowdfunding Association and so an ideal person to take us on a deep dive into the scene. I first met Karen at a breakout group in the London Fin...

Innovation may be great but it leads to challenges – for #newFS how to get it out there (I think the “how to do it” is going well right now”). For #oldFS the challenge is “how to absorb it”. This bridging is being done by both new and established firms. In LFP002 Warren Bond of matchi.biz (a smallco/fintech) discussed their dating/database approach to bridge. In this episode Samad Masood who previously ran Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab and is now Open Innovation Lead at Accenture shares ...

The New Year is a time of reflection, a time for looking forwards and a time to take stock. So in this light this will be a special, somewhat off-piste episode with just me at the microphone. This episode has three parts: In Part 1 I talk about some of the behind the scenes stories that go into making the LFP and share some of my thoughts about the challenges of the creative journey – a journey which many fintechs will have been through and are going through. In Part 2 I discuss the five the...

This is a mega-episode Xmas present special for London Fintech Podcast listeners The world of Fintech has changed forever with this month’s successful twin IPOs on the NYSE of Lending Club and On Deck – both with valuations in ten figures. It’s certainly an epochal shift for Alternative Finance Lending & Borrowing (P2P) around the world. UK Fintech does not exist in a vacuum and it’s important to understand how other markets are evolving. Naturally in a world of globalisation the US market and ...

In the hot Fintech sector there are few places hotter than being a Fintech in a 3 month accelerator program. But what are they? What’s the inside track? What works well, what is surprising and how is it all changing? Plenty of dynamics to discuss in today’s episode with Nektarios Liolios, the co-founder of Startupbootcamp Fintech. Prior to that he had over a decade’s FS experience and in particular spent several years In charge of Swift’s Innotribe Startup Challenge. Many of you may not be famil...

For me Alternative Finance is the most exciting sector in Fintech by far in terms of near term impact as competition for the “Old FS” and as choice for both borrowers and lenders. In this episode I am delighted to be joined by Christian Faes CEO of Lendinvest. In the world of Fintech froth that has been 2014 Lendinvest and Christian are the real deal. In this episode we “kick the tyres” of P2P and have an organic conversation exploring some key angles in the sector right now. There is plenty...

Like a huge boulder dropped into the middle of a pond the ripples from Fintech spread far and wide and have plenty of implications, opportunities and threats for surrounding professions. Consultancy is one of these – many have become “too like” the “Old FS” sector they serve. Re-inventing this is a major opportunity. I am delighted to be joined today by Farid Tejani founder of Ignitr to discuss this and how Ignitr are going about “Innovation Software Engineering” – he has a whole career’s worth...

GLI FInance’s Platforms The Economist has described the emergence of huge numbers of Fintechs as a Cambrian Explosion. Will this be followed by a Mass Extinction? I am delighted to be joined on the show today to discuss this by a uniquely qualified individual who has a background in solid BigCos, has co-founded a successful Fintech and advises key government departments on UK Fintech including the current Blackett review on Fintech. This week she has been appointed as Head of Public Affairs an...

Alternative Finance is, in essence, Finance not provided by banks (and in a Fintech context, finance provided by “Fintechs”). As such it is one of the sexier sectors in terms of being a direct competitor to banks. It is an incredibly key, and an incredibly exciting sector. It’s also complex and the devil definitely lies in the detail. So I am delighted to have as a guide on this show Rupert Taylor, CEO of AltFi Data. AltFi are perhaps the key player in the Alternative Finance sub-sector of Fint...

There are relatively few Fintech Founders/Co-Founders, even less that have done it for over a decade and even less that have formed two consecutive Fintechs. I am delighted to welcome such a rare individual on the show today – WIlliam Lorenz. In 2002 he co-founded Ixaris – a pre-paid VISA & MasterCard card provider which was well-ahead of its time – which he led through many funding rounds and substantial increases in business. He is currently co-founder and COO of Kwanji, a Fintech of aro...

I have given this episode a huuuge write-up as it’s such a vital topic. So if you don’t want to read 2,500 words, listen instead Let’s simplify a Fintech’s journey into three schematic stages: Stage 1: “turning an idea into a product” Stage 2: “turning a product into a business” Stage 3: “turning a business into a grown-up business” (IPOs, M&As etc) In recent months I have come to see as London Fintech’s greatest strength in-depth right now as Stage 1. We could call this a F...

Special agent Michael Nulty (well in his dreams anyway :-D) Wisdom is massively under-rated in our data-driven society. Data, information, even knowledge can be learned. Wisdom however has to be absorbed. Wisdom is the hard-earned distillation of decades of life experience. So in this summary today I can only scrape the surface with a precis of information and knowledge. As always I just pick out a few points here – it’s a wide-ranging conversation. To absorb the wisdom you will need to liste...

Although this episode is entitled “innovation in insurance” – there is much food for thought of far wider applicability. Fintech narratives often slip into “disrupting banking” – whereas this is just a part of Financial Services – insurance is another vast part. There is another narrative that assumes innovation is the preserve of the “t-shirts” not the “suits” – whereas in practice in the sector as a whole there has been massive (excess even?) innovation in recent decades. Furthermore there ...

There are some huge misunderstandings in the Fintech scene right now. Innovation is (often) misunderstood. The importance of domain expertise and experience is (often) misunderstood. Also what’s happening with emerging market currencies and the London Fintech scene as a whole? On this show today I am delighted to welcome a serial FX entrepreneuer – Jon Vollemaere CEO of R5FX.com (which is all very synchronicitous as this is episode 005 :-)) – to discuss all of these issues. Wearing his day j...

In LFP001 – Fintech The 30,000 Feet Overview I mentioned that the first reference I had seen of the word Fintech in its modern sense was by a man in a pub 3yrs ago, Eddie George was that man (and you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out which pub ). He talks about the journey from a beer in a pub to now running the worlds largest Fintech professional network. New Finance has getting on for 3,000 members, events in London, New York, San Fransisco, Paris and looking to open in Toronto an...

Should have gone to Specsavers? Hysteria The Daily Mail hasn’t yet written about how Bitcoin causes cancer. I’m rather surprised given the hysterical tone of much Bitcoin coverage. “It’s going to a million dollars!”. “It’s going to zero!”. “It’s the future of money!”. “It’s a scam!”. “It’s for drug dealers and terrorists!” . And those comments are just from the sober broadsheets [And just in passing the currency accepted by terrorists and drug dealers worldwide is a wad of US$ bills – nothing i...

This week I have the great pleasure of being in conversation with Warren Bond, co-founder of matchi.biz. It’s a great way to start the London Fintech Podcast interviews as both this podcast and matchi.biz are about bridging the worlds of suits and t-shirts, of incumbents and innovators. If matchi.biz continue to deliver on their promise and scale successfully they will be that rarest of things – a real game-changer. This is a must-listen to show for any Fintech aiming to sell into banks. Match...

When I told folks I was going to be launching a FinTech Podcast the most common reply was “What’s FinTech?” and “What’s a Podcast?”. Hardly auspicious beginnings Well if you are here then you know what a Podcast is – it’s an audio file you can listen to online or download and listen to offline. Even better you can subscribe on your smartphone via an app such as iTunes or (my favourite) Pocket Casts. These will periodically check for updates and ensure that your commutes or long car drives are ne...