eXponential Finance

Norbert Gehrke

The eXponential Finance Podcast is produced in co-operation with Tokyo FinTech (https://tokyofintech.com/), covering Finance & FinTech themes in Japan and beyond. Tokyo FinTech looks to inform, inspire and innovate in the financial services sector in Japan. Our community of more than 3,300 individual members attends regular fintech, insurtech, regtech, payments, blockchain & crypto events. We also have an established Medium Publication (https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech) and a number of international community partnerships with like-minded FinTech associations around the globe. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support read less

Padmini Gupta, Xare - Bank your tribe by xaring your cards (S3E11)
Mar 3 2023
Padmini Gupta, Xare - Bank your tribe by xaring your cards (S3E11)
Padmini Gupta is an award-winning banker and a World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow, who is now re-imagining financial services for 250 million migrant workers worldwide, and the billion people who depend on them through Rise, and now Xare.  At the heart of finance is a big secret, that all financial products were built for income earners, but only 1/3rd of the world works and they support the 2/3rds with financial products. Xare began in Jan 2021 to bridge that gap and enable the 2/3rds to better access the finance. Xare was built with the purpose to ‘reclaim the soul of banking for everyone’, and the mission to empower the one-third of the population that has an income, to share their financial resources with the two-third of the population that does not and establishing a fair financial system. We are on a mission to provide people with equal access to financial products. On the Xare platform anyone can create financial instruments to share access to their money with their loved ones, anyone, anytime and anywhere. The process is seamless, safe and instant. Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Charles d'Haussy, dydx Foundation - DAOs as an organization form at scale for humans in the algorithm age (S3E8)
Feb 1 2023
Charles d'Haussy, dydx Foundation - DAOs as an organization form at scale for humans in the algorithm age (S3E8)
Charles d’Haussy is the CEO of the dydx Foundation, an independent not-for-profit foundation created to promote dYdX, the most powerful decentralized cryptocurrency exchange protocol.Previously, Charles was Global Head of Business Development at ConsenSys, a leading blockchain engineering company and the Head of Fintech with the Hong Kong government. In our conversation, naturally, we cover the state of the dydx development from Version 3 to Version 4, the implications of moving from a Layer 2 implementation with Starkware to its own blockchain based on the Cosmos SDK, and why Charles has chosen dydx when he made a career change last year. We quickly move on towards forms of centralized and decentralized finance, and a hybrid form that Charles sees emerging. He is also optimistic with regards to Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which he sees as the right human organization form at scale for the algorithm and digital age. Our host is a little skeptical given current fragmentation trends in globalization, but in the end it is the optimists who innovate and change the world, right? Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Nick Wilde, Thought Machine - Banking as an afterthought (S3E6)
Jan 6 2023
Nick Wilde, Thought Machine - Banking as an afterthought (S3E6)
Nicholas Wilde is the Managing Director APAC at Thought Machine. In his role, Nick works with banks and fintech firms to help them implement a built-for-purpose modern core – Vault - at the heart of their business. Vault, built by former Google engineers, helps organizations to solve some of the hardest problems in banking, discard the shackles of their legacy systems and reimagine their business for tomorrow. At the Singapore FinTech Festival 2022, Nick was recognized as one of the Top Ten FinTech Leaders in Singapore. In this conversation, he shares with us his perspective on banking across the region, how incumbents vs challengers are positioned, and what drives the adoption of modern, cloud-based banking stacks, whether from a technical or business perspective. One path to implementation for incumbents is the roll up of "orphan cores" into a platform like Vault, consolidating various product-specific legacy systems that become hard to maintain onto a single core. With Standard Chartered as one of his clients, Nick also shares examples how Mox in Hong Kong has launched incrementally. Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Rob Leslie, Sedicii & Nillion - Bringing to life fast, permissionless, decentralized computation (S3E5)
Dec 8 2022
Rob Leslie, Sedicii & Nillion - Bringing to life fast, permissionless, decentralized computation (S3E5)
Rob Leslie is one of Ireland’s most well-known technology entrepreneurs. He is the Founder and CEO at Sedicii, and a Co-Founder and President of Nillion. Rob started working on zero knowledge proofs in 2011, and founded Sedicii in 2013, with the aim of creating the world's first distributed, public utility to facilitate the storage and processing of all kinds of data without the need to expose or share it, thereby protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the data. A true pioneer. Nillion allows nodes in a decentralized network to work in a unique, non-blockchain, way. While Nillion represents a revolutionary leap from a predecessor technology known as Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC), unlike SMPC, network nodes do not have to communicate with one another. Unlike blockchain, nodes do not run immutable ledgers designed to store transaction data. Instead, new Nillion technology, called Nil Message Compute (NMC), is purpose built for decentralized secure storage and computation and thus opens up new use cases (on the Nillion native network), while also enhancing existing blockchains. Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech, this is an edited recording of the second Tokyo FinTech LinkedIn Audio event. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Jan Denecke, twelve x twelve - Enabling artists & fans to shape the future of music (S3E4)
Nov 19 2022
Jan Denecke, twelve x twelve - Enabling artists & fans to shape the future of music (S3E4)
Jan Denecke is the Co-Founder and CEO of twelve by twelve, a Berlin-based startup at the intersection of Web3 and music. We will discuss in depth about what impact Web3 technologies will have, and also about how regulated securities token can support project financing in the music industry. twelve x twelve combines expertise from different markets into an innovative online platform that transforms music into digital collectibles and community-accessible digital assets to be marketed to music fans, collectors and crypto enthusiasts. The name twelve x twelve derives from the vinyl. The twelve inch by twelve inch masterpiece that carries both delectable sounds and visuals on its cover, finds itself at the grass root of their cause: in a world of streamed content and blurred ownership, twelve x twelve are shaping the Web 3.0 revolution and hope to reignite appreciation for music and visual arts in a whole new way. Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech, this is an edited recording of the second Tokyo FinTech LinkedIn Audio event. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Adrien Barthel, Sleek - The startups' plumber: going from an idea to an operating company in hours (S2E49)
Sep 13 2022
Adrien Barthel, Sleek - The startups' plumber: going from an idea to an operating company in hours (S2E49)
In this episode, we talk about Sleek, the SMEs’ all-in-one digital platform, helping over 6000+ entrepreneurs to start and manage their businesses. Sleek effectively operates as the SMEs’ co-pilot for all back-office processing, so that the entrepreneurs can focus on growing their business. Sleek is registered with the company registry and tax authorities of Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom. They are also regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Payment Services Act, and have recently been issued a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license. Sleek has raised a USD 25m Series A in December 2021 from investors White Star Capital, Jungle Ventures, and EDBI.  Adrien Barthel is a co-founder of Sleek, and the Chief Growth Officer. In addition to covering the company from its origins in Singapore through the expansion in different markets, and the building of a FinTech stack by obtaining the MPI license, we also talk to Adrien about the business intelligence generated on its platform, in comparing the Singapore and Hong Kong ecosystems, and some on-the-ground intelligence how the HK has reacted in the face of security laws and the pandemic (spoiler alert: Cathay Pacific's layoffs during the pandemic led to a spike in new entity formation). Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Franz Waldenberger, DIJ - Monetary policy under Kuroda & the future of financial systems (S2E48)
Sep 2 2022
Franz Waldenberger, DIJ - Monetary policy under Kuroda & the future of financial systems (S2E48)
In this episode, we first have the opportunity to discuss Japan's monetary policy under Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda, whose term expires next year, contrasting Japan's zero-interest-rate policy with the increasingly highly inflationary environment in the rest of the world. In the second part, we discuss certain aspects of the book "The Future of Financial Systems in the Digital Age", such as the payment system in Japan, and the approach to digital currencies. Professor Franz Waldenberger has researched the Japanese economy since 1992, when he joined the German Institute of Japanese Studies (DIJ) as a senior research fellow, focusing on Japanese industrial organization, the employment system, and the financial system. Since 1997, as a professor for the Japanese economy at Munich University, Franz has extended his area of research to include corporate governance, Japan’s international economic relations, and most recently, fiscal and monetary policy. In 2014, he returned to Japan to head the DIJ as its Director. Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Mariana Franza, Uala - If you are not in the traditional banking system, you cannot have Netflix (S2E46)
Aug 3 2022
Mariana Franza, Uala - If you are not in the traditional banking system, you cannot have Netflix (S2E46)
In this episode, we explore the Latin American FinTech ecosystem through a conversation with Mariana Franza, Chief Operating Officer at Uala, a fintech app focused on driving financial inclusion. Founded in 2017 in Argentina, Uala started as a payment wallet, and has just obtained a banking license in its home market. Uala expanded to Mexico in 2020, where it is also currently in the process of acquiring a bank, and to Colombia in 2022, where it applied for a banking license organically. "65% of our active users have never had a credit history." "Cash is our worst enemy since it does not allow an economy to develop." "In 2021, we digitalized USD 1bn in Argenina." "Our lending facility grew 24 time year-on-year, even in a high inflationary environment." "Of Latin America's 650m population, 25 percent are deemed as 'young', and approximately 50% are unbanked." Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support
Bruno Diniz, Spiralem - Pioneering is hard but it pays off: A deep dive into Brazil FinTech (S2E42)
Jan 18 2022
Bruno Diniz, Spiralem - Pioneering is hard but it pays off: A deep dive into Brazil FinTech (S2E42)
In this episode, we are going to take a close look at the FinTech ecosystem in Brazil. If you have not had this market on your radar screen yet, that likely changed with the record-breaking IPO of Nubank on the New York Stock Exchange towards the end of last year, making the company the largest digital banking platform outside of Asia. The second focus of our conversation will be the work of the Brazilian Central Bank, which has been executing on a variety of initiatives at once, from Open Banking to a fast payments system called PIX, to a pilot of a central bank digital currency to commence soon. Bruno Diniz is a partner at Spiralem Innovation Consulting, and Director of the Financial Data & Technology Association (FDATA) for Latin America. Bruno is also a columnist for magazines such as Exame magazine, FEBRABAN's Noomis portal and Cointelegraph, in addition to being a professor of innovation focused on the financial market at the USP/ESALQ MBA, speaker and author of the books "O Fenômeno Fintech" and " The New Financial Logic". Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com You can also find us on.... Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exponentialfinance/support