IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Do you feel the momentum picking up, too? I’m still riding high from the FEMMYs… but we’re not slowing down.

Fintech Meetup is just a few weeks away, and we’ve got something special cooking on March 31 — one event in the morning, one in the evening — as we return with our Fintech Penthouse Series at Mandalay Bay.

We’ll also be recording LIVE episodes of Humans of Fintech on the show floor and in the penthouse.

And yes — you still have a chance to join us. We’re giving away VIP tickets and live podcast spots — nominate yourself here.

Then there’s the big one.

New York Fintech Week.

Today, our team did a site visit at our stunning venue — your new home for NYFTW — The Penn District by Skylight. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to walk the space.

I’m so proud to be building this alongside Fiat Growth, Frances Zelazny, and AscaleX.

Curating this agenda. Designing this stage. Bringing this ecosystem together in the global capital of finance.

It’s a career joy.

And our community bundle tickets? They’re flying.

Can’t wait to share more about what we’ve got in store for you and the partners we’re doing it with.

In the meantime, let’s get into the news. ✨

_{#SPONSORED BY FINTECH MEETUP}

🎙 Want to attend Fintech Meetup as a VIP and get featured on Humans of Fintech?

For the first time ever, Humans of Fintech is hosting the premier podcast booth on the Fintech Meetup show floor — putting the spotlight on the people building the industry.

We’re opening up a special nomination contest just for the Fintech Is Femme community.

That means:

✨ Nominate yourself (yes, really), or someone you think deserves the mic

✨ Two winners — the nominator and nominee — score FREE VIP passes

✨ The selected nominee records a live episode of Humans of Fintech with me

✨ Their story gets distributed to 100,000+ fintech leaders across our network

Translation?

• Free access to fintech’s most important conference

• Instant visibility with the people who actually move money and markets

• A permanent piece of content that lives far beyond the conference floor

If you’ve built something, learned something, or are shaping where fintech is headed — this is your moment.

🔗 Nominate now and put yourself (or someone brilliant) in the spotlight:

Already know you’re going?

🎟 Lock in your Fintech Meetup ticket here (prices go up at the end of this week):

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 Revolut Makes Its U.S. Charter Move

Revolut has officially applied for a U.S. national bank charter. The news itself isn’t surprising. The timing is.

The UK-based fintech — now serving 70 million customers across 40 markets — has filed with the OCC and FDIC to become a national bank in the United States. If approved, Revolut would move off partner banks, gather insured deposits, issue credit cards, fund lending with its own balance sheet, and control the full economics of its U.S. business.

Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky called the U.S. “a key pillar” in Revolut’s plan to reach 100 million global customers.

And they’re putting real capital behind that ambition: the company is expected to invest $500 million in the U.S. over the next three to five years, covering regulatory capital, marketing, and hiring. Sid Jajodia, Revolut’s outgoing U.S. CEO, will step into a global chief banking officer role, while former Visa executive Cetin Duransoy takes the helm in the U.S.

And Revolut isn’t alone.

Nubank secured U.S. charter approval in late January. European fintechs including Bunq and OakNorth have also entered the race for national banking licenses.

Which raises the bigger question:

If Chime and SoFi are already scaling aggressively, why are global fintech giants pushing so hard to unlock the U.S.?

Because in this market, scale earns customers — but legitimacy earns permanence.

The Credibility Unlock

Revolut and Nubank are not early-stage challengers.

Nubank serves more than 130 million customers across Latin America. Revolut has built a global footprint across Europe and beyond. They’ve already proven they can scale across fragmented regulatory systems and complex FX environments.

But the U.S. remains the most competitive, brand-sensitive, regulator-heavy banking market in the world.

Win here — and you’re not just a fintech.

You’re a global financial institution.

The U.S. Isn’t Early. It’s Just Big.

Domestically, we talk about the neobank race like it’s settled:

Chime. SoFi. Current. Varo.

But zoom out.

The largest digital banks in the world are increasingly non-U.S.

And they are now circling.

Nubank is awaiting full approval for its U.S. license — while simultaneously running the American brand playbook. It recently secured naming rights to Inter Miami’s new stadium.

The U.S. opportunity itself is obvious. As Nubank Junqueira put it, “Texas alone has a larger GDP than Brazil.” But Nubank isn’t walking away from its core markets.

Sound familiar?

SoFi did the same with SoFi Stadium.

This isn’t vanity marketing.

It’s trust acquisition, as SoFi’s Kelly Keough shared in a recent interview on Humans of Fintech.

Because in the U.S., scale alone doesn’t win. Brand familiarity does. And that trust is everything.

Why a Charter Changes Everything

For Revolut, a national bank charter means:

• Funding loans with deposits instead of partner arrangements

• Expanding margins

• Offering a full product suite

• Operating as a primary bank — not a secondary FX app

It also means scrutiny.

But if approval comes, it shifts the competitive landscape.

These companies aren’t entering as startups.

They’re entering as scaled, global operators with refined land-and-expand playbooks: start as a secondary account, win on payments and FX, layer in subscriptions, then lending, then credit.

They’ve run this before.

The Bigger Question

For years, American fintech dominated the narrative. But the fastest-growing digital banks in the world are now international.

And once they unlock the U.S., they don’t just add customers.

They complete the loop.

Global fintechs that win abroad, earn trust in America, and then compete everywhere.

Revolut just made its move.

Now we see whether U.S. regulators — and U.S. consumers — are ready to let a global player become a national bank.

#2 SoFi x Mastercard. Brex x Stifel. The Ecosystem Era Is Here.

This week’s partnerships are about rails.

First: SoFi and Mastercard.

SoFi announced an expanded partnership to enable settlement using SoFiUSD, its fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin, across Mastercard’s global payments network.

A nationally chartered, OCC-regulated U.S. bank issuing a stablecoin — integrated into one of the largest global card networks.

SoFiUSD is expected to:

• Support settlement across Mastercard’s network

• Be used by SoFi Bank, N.A. for credit and debit settlement

• Be offered through Galileo, SoFi’s tech platform, to issuing banks

• Integrate into Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network to bridge fiat, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits

“SoFiUSD is at the heart of our strategy to make it faster, cheaper, and safer for people around the world to move money,” said CEO Anthony Noto.

This isn’t crypto experimentation.

It’s regulated stablecoin settlement entering mainstream payments infrastructure.

And that same shift toward tighter, smarter financial infrastructure is happening at the startup level, too.

Brex and Stifel Bank announced a partnership pairing Brex’s AI-native corporate card and finance platform with Stifel’s $10B+ venture debt practice.

On the surface: referrals.

Underneath: stack consolidation.

Brex owns the operating layer — spend management, corporate cards, automation.

Stifel owns the capital layer — venture debt, letters of credit, structured financing.

• Software + balance sheet.

• Automation + underwriting.

• Operating stack + growth capital.

Brex also announced it is now available inside the ChatGPT app marketplace.

That means founders can check credit limits, look up expenses, review policies — directly inside ChatGPT.

AI-native finance, embedded in workflow.

Finance is no longer just a dashboard.

It’s becoming conversational. Contextual. Ambient.

And when you layer that into the Stifel partnership, you see the strategy clearly:

Brex wants to own the interface.

Stifel brings the capital.

Together, they extend across the lifecycle.

Put all of this next to Revolut’s charter application, and the pattern sharpens:

• Revolut wants regulatory control.

• SoFi is leveraging its charter to modernize settlement.

• Mastercard is bridging stablecoins into global card rails.

• Brex is embedding finance into AI workflows.

• Stifel is plugging institutional capital into the startup stack.

Different plays.

Same direction.

Fintech is entering its infrastructure era. Less “move fast and break things.” More regulatory convergence. More embedded finance. More ecosystem alliances.

#3 Stripe’s Sophie Sakellariadis on Stablecoins, Global Business, and the Financial Rails We Still Haven’t Fixed

If you want to understand why stablecoins are suddenly getting taken seriously by some of the smartest people and brands in fintech, talk to someone who has spent the last decade helping build the internet’s financial infrastructure.

That’s what stood out to me in my latest Humans of Fintech conversation with Sophie Sakellariadis, a longtime Stripe leader who helped expand the company internationally in its early years and now works on money movement, cross-border systems, and stablecoins.

What Sakellariadis made clear is that stablecoins are interesting because they solve painfully basic problems that traditional financial infrastructure still hasn’t fixed.

As she put it, “Stablecoins are really the first technology that I’ve seen since joining Stripe, which opened up a meaningful leap forward in our ability to provide services for entrepreneurs worldwide.”

That’s a big statement from someone who has spent more than a decade at Stripe.

In the interview, Sakellariadis explained stablecoins in refreshingly plain English: they are a type of crypto asset pegged to the U.S. dollar, which means they offer what she described as “all the good stuff and sort of the dream of crypto without the downside of crypto.”

In practice, that means they can be moved instantly, accessed from anywhere, and used at much lower cost — without the volatility problem that makes holding Bitcoin or other crypto assets a much riskier proposition for everyday business operations.

That distinction matters.

For many U.S.-based fintech people, stablecoins can still sound abstract or overly hyped. But Sakellariadis’s point was that this technology already makes immediate sense in places where the financial system is slower, more fragmented, and less forgiving.

She pointed to entrepreneurs in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and West Africa who already understand the value proposition because they live the pain every day.

“When you talk to entrepreneurs in places like Latin America or Southeast Asia or West Africa, they are in on the party,” she said. “They know what stablecoins are. They actively prefer to hold their funds in stablecoins.”

The most powerful moment in the conversation came when Sakellariadis told a story about her partner’s sister, who runs a graphic design business in Ghana.

A U.S. client sent her payment for a major project, and more than 15 days later, the money was still floating somewhere in the banking ether. Nobody knew where it was. To even receive the money in dollars, she had to open a U.S. dollar account in Ghana — a process Sophie described as taking six months and barely working once it was finally set up.

“It’s just wild that this is how she’s spending her time instead of building the business,” Sophie said.

That, to me, is the whole argument.

Stablecoins are not just about faster money movement. They’re about giving entrepreneurs their time back. They’re about removing friction from the basic act of running a business across borders.

The internet economy has always moved faster than the financial system built to support it. Stablecoins may be one of the first technologies that gives fintech a real shot at closing that gap.

For global founders, the unlock is obvious: 24/7 money movement, lower cross-border costs, faster access to revenue, and the ability to store value in dollars without waiting on broken legacy banking systems.

For Stripe, this is also a natural evolution of its original mission to grow the GDP of the internet. If businesses running on Stripe already power roughly 1.6% of global GDP, then making those businesses easier to fund, pay, and operate across borders is not a niche product move. It is a foundational one.

And for fintech more broadly, Sakellariadis’s point is the one worth remembering: stablecoins do not matter because the industry wants a new trend to talk about. They matter because too many entrepreneurs are still wasting time fighting the rails instead of building the future. 

Watch the full episode on YouTube or tune in wherever you get your podcasts.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Let’s keep you booked and busy. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{MARCH 6}

​This gathering is proudly hosted by Academy of Fintech member Viviane Tschanz, in partnership with Fintech Is Femme! In San Diego this week? Come through!

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] New York Fintech Week Conference 2026

See you in New York! More updates, including our agenda, speakers, and partners, are coming soon.

_FINTUNES

🎵 MARINA - FINAL BOSS

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Team Fintech Is Femme has been working out of our NYC HQ this week while everyone was in town for the FEMMY Awards, and it’s been such a joy to have our team together in person.

Fun fact: some of our teammates flew in from Mexico City and Missouri just to be here for the celebration.

And last night’s FEMMYs…

was electric.

Tables sold out. Standing room only.

A room filled with founders, operators, investors, and some of the most iconic women shaping financial services and technology.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who showed up to celebrate with us. It’s not lost on me how special it is to have women in that room who helped shape this industry — and who, in many ways, helped shape Fintech Is Femme itself.

And a huge thank you to our incredible co-hosts who made the night possible:

Candidly • Stripe • Springboard Enterprises • Spave • Aprio • Orrick

You helped us build a room that felt truly powerful.

The wisdom shared on stage

Some of the best moments of the night came from the leaders in the room.

Luan Cox taught us how to “bet on a future you can’t see yet, and build before the market wants it.”

Lule Demissie reminded us of a core truth about leadership: “Where capital flows, power lives… investing in your community is the way to success, both personal and professional.”

Asya Bradley delivered one of the most practical pieces of advice of the night: “Never be the only woman in the room,” and “always be willing to write the first check.”

And Frances Zelazny, our inaugural FEMMY MVP Award winner, reflected on something deeper about this industry: “This community represents something powerful. It is proof that people who want to see you win will help you win.”

And that, truly, is what Fintech Is Femme and the Academy of Fintech has always been about.

Fintech of the Year

One of the biggest moments of the night was awarding Fintech of the Year to Laurel Taylor and the team at Candidly — a growth-stage fintech tackling the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis.

A legend in the room

We were also honored to celebrate alongside Kay Koplovitz — the first woman in the U.S. to lead a television network.

She built USA Network, and through Springboard Enterprises has since helped create $76 billion in enterprise value across women-led companies.

Absolute legend status.

And a big announcement…

During the ceremony, we shared a special sneak peek at the upcoming New York Fintech Week.

We are honored to take the torch for this incredible ecosystem moment alongside our brilliant event co-producers: Drew Glover (Fiat Growth), Frances Zelazny, Angelique Angeles-Strauss (AScaleX)

and co-collaborators: This Week in Fintech and RevTech Labs Foundation.

For the past four years, we’ve invested deeply in New York Fintech Week — from moderating the Titans of New York Fintech panel to hosting masterclasses at Empire Startups to producing our own Leadership Summit, where 500+ of you showed up to build, learn, and connect.

Now we’re taking it to the next level.

Between the FEMMYs, our upcoming Fintech Penthouse series at Fintech Meetup, and our biggest moment of the year — New York Fintech Week — our team is running full speed ahead.

A full FEMMYs recap is coming soon.

But today, I’m still soaking it all in.

And in that spirit, I want to share a story I recently wrote in my Forbes fintech column about two founders building something incredibly important in the next era of fintech.

Let’s get into it ✨

✍🏽 _{ON FINTECH}

Kobalt Labs Raises $12.7 Million As AI Agents Hit Fintech Compliance

Kobalt Labs Co-Founders Ashi Agrawal and Kalyani Ramadurgam

Fresh off the FEMMY Awards and a week celebrating the builders shaping financial services, I found myself thinking about a story I recently reported in my Forbes fintech contributor column.

Kobalt Labs recently raised $12.7 million to automate one of fintech’s least glamorous — and most stubborn — bottlenecks: compliance work that still runs on spreadsheets, screenshots, and humans combing through hundreds of pages of documentation.

And if you zoom out, it’s a signal of where fintech is actually heading as AI agents start showing up across the financial stack.

In just the past few weeks alone, we’ve seen:

• FIS launch agentic commerce tools for banks

• Alinea Invest introduce AI-native financial education

• Startups like Phia building AI agents that influence purchasing decisions before checkout

• And companies like Anthropic pushing deeper into enterprise finance workflows

AI is clearly moving from novelty to infrastructure.

But here’s the constraint most people aren’t talking about yet:

You can’t scale AI agents if your compliance team is still manually reviewing 200-page PDFs.

The Problem Hiding Behind Fintech Growth

Kobalt’s focus is something called third-party risk management (TPRM) — the due diligence financial institutions conduct before onboarding vendors, fintech partners, or infrastructure providers.

It’s the work behind the work.

Reviewing contracts.

Security documentation.

Policies.

Disclosures.

Ongoing monitoring requirements.

Every bank that wants to launch embedded finance or partner with fintechs runs into the same reality: the compliance workload multiplies quickly.

“If you want to grow embedded finance safely, you can’t just hire your way through compliance,” said Kalyani Ramadurgam, Kobalt’s co-founder and CEO. “You have to scale with technology.”

That line stuck with me.

Because it reframes compliance from a cost center into something closer to infrastructure.

What Kobalt Is Actually Building

Kobalt’s platform uses AI to perform the first pass across large volumes of documentation — surfacing issues for human reviewers rather than forcing compliance teams to read every page themselves.

Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Ashi Agrawal said the platform has produced major speed improvements in practice: marketing reviews taking roughly 75% less time and vendor reviews shrinking from hours to minutes in some client workflows, based on internal metrics shared by the company.

But speed is only part of the value.

The other issue Kobalt is trying to solve is consistency.

In many institutions, compliance processes aren’t standardized. People learn how to evaluate vendors or disclosures from their manager, who learned it from theirs. The result is variation across teams and institutions.

Automation, in this case, isn’t just about efficiency.

It’s about making decisions more predictable and repeatable.

And in finance, that matters.

Why This Is Really a Fintech Story

It would be easy to categorize Kobalt as just another regtech startup.

But I actually think it represents something bigger: fintech growing up.

The past decade rewarded fintech companies for building better front ends.

Better UX.

Better onboarding.

Faster payments.

The next decade may reward something different — the companies building trust infrastructure.

Because every new fintech integration increases risk.

A missing disclosure.

A weak vendor control.

A poorly reviewed contract.

These aren’t just operational hiccups. They’re the kinds of issues that trigger regulatory scrutiny and enforcement actions — the kind that can slow a company’s growth for years.

As AI tools move deeper into financial services, that risk only increases.

Agents making decisions about payments, credit, marketing claims, and financial guidance all operate inside regulated environments.

Which means governance becomes the limiting factor.

The Bigger Shift Happening in Fintech

Ramadurgam’s background explains why she’s focused on this problem.

Before starting Kobalt, she worked at Apple, where part of her role involved preventing individuals on terrorism watchlists from accessing Apple Pay. Agrawal worked at Affirm, and the two met at Stanford before joining forces and going through Y Combinator.

Even inside one of the most sophisticated tech companies in the world, Ramadurgam said compliance processes were still deeply manual.

In a separate Forbes profile tied to her Forbes Under 30 recognition, Ramadurgam described how even at Apple, the compliance process remained analog and document-heavy.

“Organizations were just throwing bodies at the problem,” she said.

That approach doesn’t scale in a world where AI agents are touching more financial decisions.

And that’s why this funding round caught my attention.

We talk a lot about AI agents that can shop for us, invest for us, and manage our financial lives.

But those systems can only move as fast as the compliance infrastructure behind them.

The bottleneck isn’t imagination.

It’s governance.

And the fintech companies that figure out how to scale both at the same time — speed and safety — are the ones that will win the next phase of this industry.

If you want the deeper reporting on Kobalt’s funding, their customers, and what the founders are building, I break it all down in my latest Forbes fintech column.

→ Read the full story here.

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY…}

Fintech Is Femme: Banking Edition Happy Hour

Our upcoming member-led event is happening this Friday — an intimate evening hosted by Fintech Is Femme for the women shaping the future of community banking.

Step into an intentional space designed for meaningful connection, elevated conversation, and real community.

This curated gathering is for founders, operators, and leaders in community banking looking to connect with peers and partners beyond the noise.

Location details will be shared upon approval.

_{NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK 2026}

FTW: NYC — a three-day, high-impact conference experience convening fintech’s most influential brands and leaders across innovation, leadership, and security in the global capital of financial innovation.

Early bird tickets are going quickly — and so are our Community Bundles, which include access to all three summits plus year-round membership to The Academy of Fintech.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: I loved this Elle story on Alysa Liu, the youngest U.S. women’s national figure skating champion in history. What struck me most wasn’t the medals — it was the mindset.

  She talks openly about burnout, stepping away from competition, and redefining success on her own terms before returning stronger.

  In an industry like fintech that rewards nonstop momentum, it’s a good reminder: sometimes the most powerful move is knowing when to pause, reset, and come back sharper.

• 🎬 Today’s Watch: In the middle of a pretty intense no-days-off stretch, I’ve been unwinding with the new season of Love Is Blind.

  Reality TV might not sound like a fintech founder’s go-to, but honestly? Sometimes the best reset is watching something completely unrelated to work.

  And there’s actually a funny parallel: the show is basically a social experiment about trust, communication, and decision-making under uncertainty — which, if we’re being honest, also describes building a startup. Sometimes you need a little escapism between building.

• 💫 Today’s Activity: After the FEMMY Awards, one thing stuck with me: how powerful it is when women intentionally open doors for each other.

  So today’s challenge is simple — make one introduction that helps someone else win.

  Introduce a founder to an investor.

  Connect two operators who should know each other.

  Send that email you’ve been meaning to send.

  In fintech, capital moves industries — but community moves people.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Donna Summer - MacArthur Park

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter or the Humans of Fintech podcast.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

It’s been a long winter — and I am so ready to celebrate together on Monday in NYC. We’ve got icons in the room, and I’m genuinely looking forward to real, quality time with this community.

What excites me most isn’t the live band and bar (though… yes). It’s not even the stage or our fabulous moodboard.

It’s the conversations. The ideas that spark. The quiet “we should build that together.” The partnership meetings happen because trust already exists in the room.

If you’ve been meaning to join us, this is your moment. Grab your ticket while you still can — and I’ll see you on the dance floor.

Let’s get into the news. ✨

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#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 Stripe, PayPal, and the Power of a Headline

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Stripe — now valued at $159 billion — was exploring a potential acquisition of some or all of PayPal, the payments giant it has spent the last decade disrupting.

The rumor cycle moved fast.

The same day, Stripe released its 2025 annual letter.

Businesses running on Stripe generated $1.9 trillion in total payment volume last year, up 34% year-over-year and equivalent to roughly 1.6% of global GDP.

More than 5 million businesses now run on Stripe directly or through platforms. Ninety percent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 80% of the Nasdaq 100 use Stripe. Twenty-five percent of all Delaware corporations are created with Stripe Atlas.

Stripe remained robustly profitable. It shipped more than 350 product updates in 2025. Its Revenue suite is approaching a $1 billion annual run rate. It acquired Privy (110 million programmable wallets) and Metronome (usage-based billing infrastructure used by OpenAI and NVIDIA).

In other words: Stripe is not playing defense.

Then came the Bloomberg headline suggesting Stripe was considering buying PayPal.

On Thursday, Semafor followed with an exclusive: PayPal is not currently in talks to sell itself and has been preparing for a potential activist campaign or unwanted takeover bid amid its share decline (PayPal stock fell more than 4% on Thursday after the report). Executives have reportedly been working with bankers for months to avoid vulnerability.

Translation: there is no deal.

And yet, the narrative took on a life of its own.

Let’s zoom out.

As Semafor pointed out, the mechanics are daunting: Stripe, as a private company, can’t use stock as acquisition currency and would need major debt financing — plus PayPal’s cooperation — to pull off a deal of this scale.

So why does the story matter?

Because headlines in fintech do more than inform. They shape perception.

Stripe buying PayPal would symbolize something bigger than M&A — it would mark the formal transition of power from legacy digital payments to programmable financial infrastructure. It would be narrative closure: the disruptor absorbing the incumbent.

But here’s the discipline required in moments like this: speculation is not strategy.

Fintech moves quickly. Media moves faster. And markets react fastest of all.

We’ve seen this before — a well-placed report becomes a thesis. A thesis becomes a talking point. A talking point becomes “inevitable.”

But nothing has happened.

Stripe’s annual letter is arguably the bigger signal. It shows a company scaling beyond payments into tax compliance, embedded finance, treasury management, fraud prevention, billing infrastructure, and wallet orchestration. It shows a company becoming a financial operating system for the internet.

That evolution may put it in competition with PayPal in new ways. It may create overlap in enterprise clients. It may even prompt strategic conversations down the line.

But rumor is not reality. Not every report signals imminent action. Not every headline deserves amplification.

The more interesting story is not whether Stripe buys PayPal.

It’s that Stripe’s scale is now large enough for the idea to feel plausible.

When a private company processing $1.9 trillion annually can be credibly mentioned as a potential acquirer of a payments incumbent, that tells you something about how much the center of gravity has shifted.

The power isn’t just in the deal. It’s in the possibility.

And in fintech, perception can move markets long before paperwork ever does.

#2 Anthropic Wants to Power the Advisor Stack

Anthropic this week launched its first wealth management–specific plugins for Claude, signaling that AI’s newest battleground isn’t consumer chat — it’s the advisor desktop.

Peter Nolan, Anthropic’s Head of Asset and Wealth Management, announced the rollout on LinkedIn, positioning the tools as foundational building blocks for RIAs, broker-dealers, custodians, and TAMPs (turnkey asset management platforms). Firms can build private plugins powered by their own data and governed by their compliance teams.

“They own what they build,” Nolan wrote.

Anthropic also announced expanded integrations with LPL Financial and Orion. LPL alone supports more than 30,000 financial advisors — making this less a proof of concept and more a distribution strategy.

The company, now valued north of $380 billion, is methodically inserting Claude into financial services workflows spanning wealth management, investment banking, equity research, and private markets — industries that collectively generate roughly $500 billion in annual revenue.

The possibilities are real. The upside is enormous.

But is the industry prepared for it?

Deploying AI inside wealth management is not the same as launching a chatbot and watching users experiment. And any firm experimenting with models like Claude has to confront the most sensitive question of all: how do you leverage AI without compromising client data, confidentiality, or regulatory obligations?

This is a sector built on fiduciary duty, regulatory scrutiny, and client trust. Advisors don’t just generate content — they interpret markets, allocate capital, and manage generational wealth. The tolerance for error is effectively zero.

To be clear, that doesn’t mean AI can’t work here. It means the bar is higher.

Gallup’s June 2025 report found that while 44% of employees say their organization has begun integrating AI, only 22% report a clear plan or strategy. Just 16% strongly agree the AI tools they’ve been given actually help them do their jobs.

The gap isn’t technical. It’s cultural.

Ahead of the Fintech Is Femme AI Summit in San Francisco last fall, I spoke with two fintech leaders who are treating AI not as a feature, but as infrastructure: Luan Cox, Founder & CEO of FinMkt, and Anna Joo Fee, Co-Founder and CEO of Goodfin.

Both operate in trust-heavy environments. Both are scaling platforms where precision matters. And both agree on one thing: AI adoption doesn’t start with tools. It starts with people. 

If you want the full breakdown of how Luan and Anna are actually making AI work inside their companies, read more here.

#3 Manny Pacquiao Enters Payments 

Eight-division boxing champion Manny Pacquiao is stepping into digital finance.

Manny Pacquiao — yes, that Manny Pacquiao — has launched Manny Pay, a new digital payments platform operating under 7th Pillar Integration Systems Corp., entering the fast-moving and highly competitive digital payments market in the Philippines.

At launch, Manny Pay functions as a payment gateway, with ambitions to expand further into digital finance.

On the surface, this reads like another celebrity-fintech crossover. We’ve seen athletes and entertainers attach their names to crypto platforms and neobanks before.

But zoom out — and this story is less about celebrity and more about geography.

The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic digital finance markets. A young, mobile-first population. One of the largest and most globally distributed diasporas in the world. Tens of billions of dollars in remittances flowing home annually. A government actively pushing financial inclusion.

And fierce competition.

Players like GCash, which has become one of the country’s dominant digital wallets, and regional super-app Grab (which just announced its acquisition of Stash) have already built enormous distribution across payments, lending, and financial services. The digital wallet ecosystem in the Philippines isn’t emerging — it’s accelerating.

That’s what makes Manny Pay interesting.

Pacquiao isn’t just a national icon — he’s a global one. His reach mirrors the migration patterns of Filipino workers and families across the U.S., Middle East, and Asia. If Manny Pay leans into cross-border payments or remittance flows, it could tap into something far more strategic than domestic checkout transactions.

Remittances are not a niche. They are economic lifelines.

Reducing friction, cost, and settlement time in those flows isn’t just a product decision — it’s infrastructure.

Of course, this is a crowded market. Brand recognition alone won’t win against platforms with deep regulatory relationships, distribution partnerships, and embedded ecosystems.

But fintech history teaches us something important: local trust matters.

In emerging markets, especially, adoption isn’t just about features. It’s about cultural fluency. Recognition. Credibility.

And this is where I think U.S.-centric fintech media (myself included) sometimes misses the bigger picture.

We obsess over Stripe, PayPal, AI infrastructure, and enterprise wealth stacks (all important, don’t get me wrong). But while we’re focused on optimizing mature markets, entire financial systems are being leapfrogged in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

This story was reported back in October 2025 — but I only recently came across it at a time when I’ve been zooming out and thinking more globally about fintech opportunities.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Let’s keep you booked and busy. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{MONDAY, MARCH 2}

[NEW YORK] ​See you soon 

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] New York Fintech Week Conference 2026

See you in New York! More updates, including our agenda, speakers, and partners, are coming soon.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Megan Thee Stallion - Bigger In Texas

Award-winning rapper, songwriter, and actor Megan Thee Stallion is making her Broadway debut next month in the Tony-winning Moulin Rouge! — and I, for one, won’t be missing it. Also… her lyrics are really hitting for me this week — all about growing, scaling, and betting on yourself.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

I hope you’re staying safe and warm if you’re in New York or anywhere along the East Coast. I have to say… a second blizzard was not on my 2026 bingo card.

But we made it through — and I’m holding out for those glorious New York spring days any minute now. (March is basically here, right?)

It’s official: tables are completely SOLD OUT for the FEMMY Awards on March 2 — our annual awards show and Women’s History Month celebration, where this community finally gets to gather IRL.

We’ve got live music. We’ve got powerhouse women. We’ve got awards. And honestly? We’ve earned a night like this. It’s been a long winter — I’ll see you on the dance floor.

General Admission tickets are now low stock but still available, and I’m thrilled to be co-hosting alongside Stripe, Candidly, Spave, Springboard Enterprises, Aprio, and Orrick.

Grab your ticket here while you can!

For today’s column, I’m drawing a line between two places you might not expect. From record-breaking wins in Milan to the women reshaping financial infrastructure, there’s a pattern emerging — and it’s worth paying attention to.

Let’s get into it ✨

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✍🏽 _{ON LEADERSHIP}

Women Are Winning — And the Fintech Market Is Finally Catching Up

Alysa Liu at the Winter Olympics

At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, U.S. women once again outperformed — securing the majority of the country’s gold medals for the third consecutive Winter Games.

Breezy Johnson in Alpine skiing. Elana Meyers Taylor in monobob. Alysa Liu in women’s figure skating. And across disciplines, the pattern held: they didn’t just win — they controlled the moment.

What felt different wasn’t just the medal count. It was the cultural narrative surrounding it. These athletes weren’t shrinking themselves to fit legacy narratives. They were visible. Vocal. Unapologetic about their ambition.

It struck me because the same shift is unfolding in fintech—and many other industries —though far fewer people are calling it what it is.

Consider the numbers.

The global fintech market is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030. Women already control an estimated $31.8 trillion in global spending and influence the majority of household financial decisions. And yet female-led fintech companies receive roughly 2–3% of venture capital funding.

We know it’s not a pipeline problem, but a market inefficiency.

Performance data I’ve reported on consistently shows female-led companies generate 35% higher ROI, burn 15% less capital monthly on average, and reach exits with stronger unit economics. In a post-2022 “flight to quality” environment — where investors prioritize durability over blitzscaling — those traits aren’t soft advantages.

They’re competitive edges.

This is why what’s happening inside fintech right now feels less like a diversity conversation and more like a structural correction.

The women building in this moment are not asking for seats. They are building the table.

On March 2, many of them will be in one room at the FEMMY Awards — not as a symbolic gathering, but as an economic signal.

Take Sheila Lirio Marcelo.

Before the care economy was quantified in the trillions, she built Care.com out of lived necessity and scaled it into a $500 million public company, becoming one of only 7 women in history to take a company public. Today, with Ohai.ai, she is tackling unpaid caregiving labor — which Oxfam once estimated would amount to $10.9 trillion annually if compensated.

She didn’t “niche down.”

She named an entire invisible economy and built infrastructure around it.

Or Lule Demmissie, former CEO of eToro U.S., who has weathered the dot-com crash, the financial crisis, and COVID volatility without theatrics. She once told me she doesn’t aspire to be a unicorn. She aspires to be a farm horse — durable, steady, built for long-term performance.

Lule Demmissie, former CEO, eToro US (center)

In an industry that once rewarded velocity above all else, that mindset now looks prescient.

Look at the broader market. The F-Prime Fintech Index rebounded to $947 billion in market cap by the end of 2025 — well below the $1.3 trillion peak of 2021, but miles above the sub-$400 billion trough of the correction.

Revenue growth across the index averaged 29%, and investors are rewarding what F-Prime calls “goldilocks” companies: steady 20–40% growth, improving margins, and credible paths to profitability.

Durability is back in fashion.

And durability has long been the operating system for many female founders.

Luan Cox built lending infrastructure through FinMkt long before “embedded finance” became a slide in every pitch deck.

Laurel Taylor embedded student debt optimization and retirement matching into the financial system itself through Candidly — delivering $2.3 billion in projected student debt impact and tens of millions in additional retirement savings.

Asya Bradley operates at the intersection of venture, infrastructure, and global payments. At Stripe, she works with some of the most ambitious fintech founders in the world. Through her investing and LP work at places like Kinship Ventures, she helps determine where capital flows next.

Susan Langer built Spave around a behavioral truth economists are finally quantifying: generosity compounds. In a market obsessed with extraction, she designed a model around contribution — and customers respond accordingly.

And then there is Kay Koplovitz.

Before fintech debated dual-revenue models, Kay invented one for cable television. She built USA Network into a prime-time leader and later founded Springboard Enterprises, which has helped create more than $76 billion in value across 900+ women-led companies, with 28 IPOs and over 240 exits, including icons like Canva’s Melanie Perkins.

That is capital and infrastructure formation.

Springboard is now building a fintech cohort alongside Luan Cox and Fintech Is Femme, at a moment when the arbitrage is clear: women founders, with superior performance metrics and direct insight into the dominant consumer segment, remain dramatically underfunded.

Markets eventually correct inefficiencies.

The question is who moves early.

What feels different about this moment — much like those Olympic wins — is the absence of apology.

These leaders are not flattening their edges to fit. They are embedding impact into underwriting models. Embedding inclusion into risk frameworks. Embedding purpose into revenue strategy.

They are rejecting false binaries.

• Profit and responsibility.

• Scale and stewardship.

• Innovation and regulation.

As Lule once told me, we live in the era of “yes, and.”

Fintech’s first era was access.

The second was scale.

The third — the one we are entering — is durability.

Durable infrastructure. Durable margins. Durable trust.

The women in this room are not a side narrative to that story. They are central to it.

The Olympics gave us a metaphor. Fintech is giving us the data.

The women are winning.

And, since math doesn’t lie, the market is starting to notice.

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY…}

A huge shoutout to this year’s FEMMY co-hosts — and the powerful networks they’re bringing into the room:

✨ Laurel Taylor (Candidly)

✨ Asya Bradley (Stripe)

✨ Kay Koplovitz (Springboard Enterprises)

✨ Susan Langer (Spave)

✨ Allie Coleman (Aprio)

✨ Courtney Kearns (Orrick)

When leaders like these convene their communities, it’s more than a guest list — it’s an ecosystem of partners coming together.

Fintech Is Femme: Banking Edition Happy Hour (ICBA LIVE)

I’m excited to announce our upcoming member-led event during ICBA LIVE — an intimate evening hosted by Fintech Is Femme for the women shaping the future of community banking.

Step away from the conference floor and into a more intentional space designed for meaningful connection, elevated conversation, and real community.

This curated gathering is for founders, operators, and leaders in community banking looking to connect with peers and partners beyond the noise.

Location details will be shared upon approval.

_{NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK 2026}

Introducing FTW: NYC — a three-day, high-impact conference experience convening fintech’s most influential brands and leaders across innovation, leadership, and security in the global capital of financial innovation.

Early bird tickets are going quickly — and so are our Community Bundles, which include access to all three summits plus year-round membership to The Academy of Fintech.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: Stripe published its 2025 annual letter to the Stripe community, outlining what was a strong year for businesses on Stripe and the broader internet economy. 

• 🎬 Today’s Watch: If you have somehow missed it, Alysa Liu’s gold-medal winning free skate at the Winter Olymicsis taking over the internet for a reason - what a joy to watch someone love what they do and do it so well!

• 💫 Today’s Activity: I made my stand-up comedy debut on Saturday at Second City — and it was so much fun. When I signed up for the seven-week course, I knew balancing it with founder mode wouldn’t be easy, but carving out space for a hobby (and doing something I’ve always wanted to try) felt important. Huge shoutout to my classmates if you’re reading this — I hope I successfully converted you into the fintech fam. 

_FINTUNES

🎵 JADE - Lip Service

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter or the Humans of Fintech podcast.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

One (of the many) things I’ve learned building Fintech Is Femme: you cannot do it alone.

The rooms, the partnerships, the sponsors, the speakers — none of it happens in isolation. It takes community. It takes trust. It takes people who believe in the mission enough to build alongside you.

It’s been a grind over here at Fintech Is Femme HQ as I build out the agenda for the largest event yet, FTW: NYC during New York Fintech Week.

And while I’m deeply grateful that I’ve been content directing financial services conferences since my first editor job at a finance magazine in New York (yes — including a massive Las Vegas conference with thousands of attendees), every year feels like starting from zero again. Bigger vision. Higher stakes. More moving pieces.

Still, there’s something I love about it.

Designing rooms with intention. Bringing together leaders who don’t just want to be seen, but want to partner, build, and actually move capital and innovation forward together.

And then, in the middle of it all, a little reminder of why we do this: Fintech Is Femme was named one of FinTech Magazine’s Top 10 Fintech Influencers alongside some truly global leaders in our space.

That recognition belongs to this community as much as it does to me. We’ve built this together. Want to hang out with us? The FEMMY Awards are just around the corner on March 2.

Let’s get into the news. ✨

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What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

F-Prime Index Shows Fintech’s “Quiet Year” Wasn’t Quiet at All

Audience during the Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit during New York Fintech Week 2025.

It’s looking increasingly clear that 2025 may go down as the year fintech grew up — when high-growth companies that cemented their place in the digital economy stopped being labeled “startups” and started entering incumbent territory.

The F-Prime Fintech Index — which tracks 54 public fintech companies, including Adyen, Coinbase, SoFi, Shopify, and Nubank — rebounded to $947 billion in market cap by the end of 2025, still below the $1.3 trillion peak of 2021 but well above the sub-$400 billion trough of 2022–2023, according to F-Prime’s 2026 State of Fintech Report.

In other words, the mania is gone. The sector is maturing.

The average company in the index grew revenue 29% year-over-year, with multiples settling around 5.6x revenue. Not bubble territory. Not distress. Something more telling: normalization.

While the Fintech Index added more than $200 billion in market cap last year, the recovery hasn’t been evenly distributed. F-Prime reports that a handful of companies — including Robinhood, Shopify, and Nubank — accounted for nearly 80% of the index’s market cap gains in 2025.

That concentration signals a market that’s still selective.

The end of “growth at all costs”

You’ve probably heard this phrase thrown around a lot lately — and for good reason. What investors reward now, especially after the valuation reset a few years ago, are the “goldilocks” companies, as F-Prime calls them.

Not quite hypergrowth, not quite stagnation.

But steady 20–40% growth, improving margins, and a clear, credible path to profitability.

That shift changes how fintech gets built.

The 2026 playbook is about durability. Improve net income margins. Lower customer acquisition costs. Make cross-sell real. Earn trust instead of renting it.

In the 2021 hype cycle, teams optimized for speed: ship features, buy growth, figure out unit economics later, raise another round, repeat.

In the new era, the winners are optimizing for durability: better margins, cleaner underwriting, disciplined CAC, real distribution, real risk controls.

F-Prime notes that net income margins improved across every sector versus the 2021 era. Translation: the “boring” work is back in fashion—and it’s what creates category leaders.

A decade of winners is now visible

The fintech wave of the 2010s has officially produced its first generation of giants. The new incumbents are already here.

Companies like Nubank, Stripe, Affirm, Toast, and Robinhood aren’t scrappy insurgents anymore. They are institutions — with scale, brand, and regulatory gravity.

If measured against U.S. standards, Revolut, SoFi, and Nubank would now rank in the top 1.5% of American banks by deposits if they were chartered in the U.S. Each holds nearly $30 billion in deposits.

History offers a useful analogy. Fidelity and Charles Schwab began as discounted alternatives to legacy brokers. They were once dismissed. They now define wealth management infrastructure.

Fintech’s version of that transition didn’t happen overnight — it happened right in front of us, headline by headline, quarter by quarter.

The question isn’t whether fintech will produce giants. It already has.

The more relevant question is who owns the next layer.

Over the past decade, roughly $1.8 trillion in venture capital has flowed into fintech, generating an estimated $2.4 trillion in returns. But an additional $4.2 trillion in liquidity remains locked in private companies, with fintech representing about $600 billion of that — including private leaders like Stripe ($107B), Revolut ($75B), and Ramp ($32B).

In other words: we’ve minted giants. But the exit cycle isn’t finished.

Crypto moved inside the system

One of the clearest shifts in our industry is crypto’s repositioning.

Stablecoins surpassed $1 trillion in monthly volume in 2025, according to F-Prime’s report. Regulatory posture shifted meaningfully. Dozens of crypto ETFs have been launched. The asset class stopped behaving like a side experiment and started behaving like infrastructure.

What matters here is not speculation. It’s integration.

Crypto is not overthrowing traditional finance. It’s being absorbed into it. And once absorbed, it changes how money moves — faster settlement, programmable transfers, global liquidity without traditional rails.

When infrastructure changes, power shifts. Stablecoins may be the clearest example of a true “killer use case” in crypto, as F-Prime notes. In a recent Substack, the firm highlighted how stablecoins could reduce the cost of sending $200 internationally from roughly $20–$30 via traditional bank transfer to less than $1.

AI hasn’t transformed fintech — yet

If 2025 belonged to AI headlines, it did not yet belong to AI in financial services.

F-Prime is clear that fintech lags other sectors for understandable reasons: regulation, sensitive data, low tolerance for error. Finance cannot “move fast and break things.” It holds people’s money.

“Financial services are responsible for more than 20% of GDP in the US,” the company noted, “but the industry currently has one of the lowest adoption rates for AI agents.”

But the report points toward 2026–2030 as the period when AI-native systems begin replacing legacy workflows.

And the most disruptive possibility isn’t better chatbots. It’s agentic commerce: autonomous agents that discover, negotiate, and transact on behalf of users, which I’ve written about further in my Forbes fintech column.

If checkout becomes protocol instead of click — if agents decide where your money goes — then payments, distribution, and customer ownership get rewritten.

Why It Matters

Fintech is entering its third act, as I wrote about in my Tuesday column.

The first era was access: unbundle the bank, digitize everything.

The second era was scale: land grab, platforms, growth curves.

The third era — the one we’re entering now — is durability.

Durable margins. Durable infrastructure. Durable trust.

The giants have emerged. Now we find out who builds systems strong enough to last.

And it looks like the companies that will lead in the third era are building the boring, hard things—risk controls, underwriting discipline, compliance, unit economics, and real customer trust—while quietly positioning for agentic workflows and programmable money.

Humans of Fintech: SoFi’s Kelli Keough on building a consumer brand people trust

If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to build an iconic consumer fintech brand—one that scales, stays profitable, and earns real trust—this episode is your playbook.

I sat down with Kelli Keough, EVP and Group Business Unit Leader at SoFi, where she oversees the products millions of members use to spend, save, invest, and protect.

And her edge is refreshingly human: Kelli started in psychology, which means she doesn’t just build financial products—she builds for behavior.

In our conversation, Kelli breaks down why most financial institutions still misunderstand customers (hint: people don’t think in “checking vs. savings vs. investing”—they think in goals), how SoFi approaches unit economics without sacrificing the member experience, and what it means to build trust when you’re handling what she calls “the most sacred thing”: people’s money.

We also get into:

• Why the future belongs to fintechs that design around verbs, not product silos

• How SoFi’s flywheel lowers acquisition costs by getting members to adopt multiple products

• What actually changes consumer behavior in uncertain markets (and why “fatigue” isn’t the story)

• The coming shift as people start asking money questions in LLMs—and what fintechs must do to stay relevant

• The leadership principle she’s carried from Schwab to SoFi: build through the client’s eyes

Watch it if you’re building consumer fintech, marketing one, or trying to understand what “trust + scale” really looks like in 2026.

P.S. There’s still time to apply for a chance to win complimentary VIP tickets to Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas — and record a live episode of Humans of Fintech with me. Apply here.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Let’s keep you booked and busy. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24}

[VIRTUAL] ​

Excited to be in conversation with GTM expert and friend Christine Farrier Rosemin, Principal at Sursum Advisory. We’ll dive into media strategy, partnerships, and how to build relationships that drive real results — and long-term impact. Join us!

Accounting for Growth: Media and Influencer Partnerships · Luma

Accounting for Growth Series Even firms that are performing well are looking for new and smarter ways to grow. If partnering with a media platform or…

luma.com/s884ymgu

_{MONDAY, MARCH 2}

[NEW YORK] ​Celebrate Women’s History Month at the FEMMYs

The room is filling up, and we do have a limited capacity! So proud to co-host this evening with our incredible supporters Candidly, Stripe, Springboard Enterprises, Aprio, and Spave.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Fintech Is Femme produces the Official New York Fintech Week Conference 2026

See you in New York! More updates, including our agenda, speakers, and partners, are coming soon.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Ruby Ibarra - Bakunawa ft. Ouida, Han Han & June Millington

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Before we get into today’s column, I have something fun to share: I just finished my final stand-up comedy class. Yes, really.

For the past seven weeks, I’ve been secretly taking stand-up classes here in NYC — partly to sharpen my storytelling and stage presence, partly to force myself to have a hobby as a founder (which, let me tell you, is much easier said than done).

Maybe one day I’ll write about how stand-up comedy is basically B2B sales with better lighting. (Kidding. Sort of.)

But for now, there’s plenty happening in fintech — and two powerhouse interviews from the past have been top of mind as I think about where this industry is headed next.

Let’s get into it ✨

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✍🏽 _{ON LEADERSHIP}

Stripe’s Asya Bradley and Candidly’s Laurel Taylor Are Building Fintech’s Third Era

Before fintech had multi-billion dollar exits and Super Bowl ads, it had a core mission.

Access.

Then it had a second act: scale. Embedded finance. Infrastructure. APIs as the new oil.

Now we’re in something different. A third era.

And if you want to understand where it’s going, watch the women building it.

In October, I interviewed Asya Bradley on stage in San Francisco.

Bradley has spent two decades inside fintech’s engine room. She helped architect early banking-as-a-service models. She co-founded neobank Kinly. Today, she leads venture capital partnerships at Stripe — arguably one of the most consequential infrastructure companies in modern fintech.

From that vantage point, she sees hundreds of companies claiming to “do AI.”

During our interview, she leaned forward and said something that hasn’t left me:

“If we don’t take a strong leading role in AI, we’ll end up doing what fintech did in the beginning — building things we didn’t necessarily need, and then trying to catch up.”

It wasn’t dramatic. It was matter-of-fact.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Phase One: Access

The first era of fintech cracked open the system.

According to data from Plaid’s Fintech Effect report, fintech adoption has helped increase access to financial services by double digits across underserved communities over the last decade. 

Millions of Americans who were once unbanked or underbanked now use digital tools to move money, save, invest, and build credit.

That mattered. It still does.

But access alone doesn’t build wealth.

Phase Two: Scale

The second era was about infrastructure.

APIs. Banking-as-a-Service. Real-time payments. Platforms powering platforms. Stripe became the rails for global entrepreneurship. Fintech companies stopped asking, “Can we build this?” and started asking, “How fast can we scale it?”

Efficiency became the metric.

Speed became the culture.

Which brings us to now.

Phase Three: Intelligence

Bradley’s point wasn’t that AI is dangerous. It’s that AI is decisive.

“If you can’t explain what AI does in your product in one sentence,” she told me, “you’re probably not using it.”

That line has become my personal litmus test.

At Stripe, Bradley works with founders integrating AI not as a marketing term, but as infrastructure — underwriting, fraud prevention, onboarding, compliance. Not replacing humans. Augmenting them.

“I don’t believe in using AI to replace humanity,” she said. “AI is here to amplify it.”

Amplification is different from automation.

And that’s where Laurel Taylor comes in.

Laurel Taylor, Founder & CEO, Candidly (center)

Taylor didn’t enter fintech because it was trendy. She entered because she saw a clear business model to solve the $1.8 trillion student debt burden, shaping an entire generation’s financial trajectory.

What she understood early — and what too few people talk about — is that student debt isn’t just a monthly payment problem. It’s a compounding problem. Years of missed investing. Missed retirement growth. Missed wealth.

So she built Candidly.

Rather than chasing direct-to-consumer downloads, she embedded Candidly into employers, retirement platforms, and financial institutions. She built distribution into infrastructure.

And now she’s applying AI to one of the most consequential personal finance problems of our time.

Candidly’s AI-powered tool, Cait, doesn’t trade stocks or generate headlines. It analyzes repayment plans, retirement match provisions under SECURE 2.0, tax-advantaged savings vehicles, and guides borrowers toward decisions that could change the arc of their financial lives.

This year, Candidly released its 2025 Annual Impact Report. The gains:

• $2.3 billion in projected student debt impact

• $66 million in projected additional retirement savings

• A 121% increase in new employers offering the platform

What’s also notable is how it’s used:

• 71% of users click through to relevant next steps when prompted by Cait — materially higher than traditional product exploration rates, according to the company’s 2025 Annual Impact Report. 

• 61% of returning users explore new financial topics through it, suggesting that guidance, when contextual and continuous, actually changes behavior.

That’s the difference between adding “AI as chatbot” and building financial agency.

When Taylor told me, “AI doesn’t just need to be embedded in products — it needs to be embedded in the boardroom,” she wasn’t talking about tech stacks. She was talking about governance. Responsibility. Alignment.

Because this third era isn’t about adding AI.

It’s about deciding what we want AI to do.

If the first era was about inclusion and the second was about scale, this third era is about intentional intelligence.

Fintech no longer sits at the edge of finance. It is finance.

Which means the stakes are higher.

The question isn’t: Can we build it?

It’s: Should we build it this way?

Bradley is asking that from inside Stripe’s global infrastructure machine.

Taylor is answering it from inside employer-sponsored wealth ecosystems.

Both are building companies that don’t treat AI as spectacle — but as leverage in service of real financial outcomes.

And both will be in the room on March 2 in New York City at the second-annual FEMMY Awards.

Not as honorees alone — though Asya is receiving the Vanguard Award this year — but as co-builders of the room.

Why the Room Matters

Over the past two years, building Fintech Is Femme and The Academy of Fintech, I’ve watched this dynamic unfold in real time. Partnerships move faster when trust is built face-to-face. Capital allocators commit with greater conviction when relationships are formed offline. 

Operators share the insights that never make it to a public stage — the real lessons, the real numbers, the real strategy.

Content may spark the right attention.

Community builds the right deal flow.

Nothing meaningful in fintech happens alone. It happens in rooms — rooms where partnerships are negotiated, revenue pipelines are accelerated, and influence compounds quietly but powerfully.

That’s why we built The Academy of Fintech. And it’s why the FEMMYs are not only an awards ceremony — they are a convening of the leaders shaping fintech’s third era in real time.

This year’s co-hosts and their networks include:

• Laurel Taylor (Candidly)

• Asya Bradley (Stripe)

• Kay Koplovitz (Springboard Enterprises)

• Susan Langer (Spave)

• Allie Coleman (Aprio)

They aren’t just attending.

They’re building the stage.

We have a few tables left for March 2.

If you want to be in the room where fintech’s third era is being built — not just observed — now’s the moment.

Because access was step one. Scale was step two.

Intelligence — applied with intention — is next.

And the leaders shaping it are already in the room.

Join us – let’s build. 

🎤_{ON HUMANS OF FINTECH}

The App That’s Delivered $1 Billion in Student Loan Savings

Throwback episode of Humans of Fintech featuring Laurel Taylor.

🎥 Watch the full episode here.

_{NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK 2026}

Haven’t you heard? Finech Is Femme, Fiat Growth, and Identity Strategies are producing this year’s official New York Fintech Week Conference.

Introducing, FTW: NYC, a three-day, targeted conference experience bringing fintech’s most influential brands and leaders together across innovation, leadership, and security — in the global center of financial innovation.

Interested in sponsoring? I’m already in conversations with iconic brands to shape this stage. Reply to this email and let’s make sure your company has a standout presence at New York Fintech Week. We’re running low on inventory — now’s the time to chat!

Interested in speaking? I love hearing smart, compelling content pitches. We design each stage in close collaboration with our core partners, then thoughtfully expand the lineup with voices that bring fresh perspectives, credibility, and substance to the conversation.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: My colleague keeps leaving book recommendations at my apartment — and one I fully intend to read (someday, when I come up for air) is The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Which feels especially on-theme considering I’m also planning my own wedding this year. Timing? Impeccable. Bandwidth? Questionable.

• 🎬 Today’s Watch: I finally watched Marcello Hernandez’s Netflix special — and it’s so good. Smart, sharp, culturally on point. Sharing a clip I found online below, but I highly recommend watching the full set if you need a laugh this week.

• 💫 Today’s Activity: Speaking of stand-up… I’ve been quietly taking comedy classes here in NYC for the past seven weeks 👀 And this Saturday, I might be performing for the first time. If you’re around and want to see me attempt jokes instead of fintech analysis, reply to this email and I’ll send you the details.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Victoria Monét - Stop

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter or the Humans of Fintech podcast.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

We are in full build mode over here — and I can feel the momentum.

Tables for the FEMMY Awards on March 2 are going fast (which makes my heart very happy), New York Fintech Week just officially entered its next era, and the conversations happening behind the scenes right now? Let’s just say… this industry is not slowing down.

If you care about where fintech is going — culturally, globally, structurally — today’s edition is for you.

Alright, there’s plenty to discuss, so let’s get into the news. ✨

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#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 Alinea Invest Launches Crypto With Built-In Education Rails

Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Anam Lakhani and Eve Halimi of Alinea Invest

Alinea Invest is adding cryptocurrency to its investing app, but with a requirement: users must complete a quiz before they can buy.

The New York-based wealth platform announced last Tuesday that it is launching crypto investing through a partnership with infrastructure provider Zerohash. At launch, users will have access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Binance Coin.

Before purchasing any asset, they must complete a short in-app lesson and quiz that explains what they’re investing in.

The move comes as crypto increasingly shifts from niche exchanges to mainstream investing platforms.

According to the Zerohash platform data shared through Alinea’s partnership:

• 70% of crypto transactions in 2025 occurred on traditional brokerages and investing apps, rather than crypto-native exchanges.

• 44% of investors aged 18–40 now hold crypto.

• 84% plan to increase their holdings in the next year.

• 64% of younger investors would consider leaving a platform that doesn’t offer crypto.

Crypto isn’t a rebellion against traditional finance anymore. It’s being folded into diversified portfolios.

And when something becomes “normal investing,” product design changes.

The first wave of crypto inside brokerage apps prioritized speed:

• Frictionless onboarding.

• Fast trading.

• Risk-forward culture.

Alinea is betting on something different.

“We’ve seen that crypto is often the first touchpoint for new investors,” co-founder Eve Halimi told me. “But access without context doesn’t build confidence.”

Instead of removing friction, they’re adding intentional guardrails.

Users receive:

• An AI-powered lesson on the asset

• A short quiz to confirm understanding

• Then the ability to purchase

Not gamified speculation. Guided participation.

And Alinea isn’t small anymore:

• $10.4M Series A in 2025

• $4.8M in monthly net revenue (January)

• ~$58M revenue run rate

• 2M+ downloads

• 160,000+ funded accounts

• Built with just 13 full-time employees

“Robinhood was built for traders,” co-founder Anam Lakhani said. “We’re building for investors.”

That’s the real story.

Crypto’s second act isn’t about speed. It’s about integration.

If you want the full breakdown — including the competitive positioning and what this signals for crypto’s role inside AI-native investing platforms — read the full Forbes piece here.

#2 MrBeast Just Bought a Fintech Company. Yes, Really.

Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast

The largest creator on the planet just acquired a fintech company.

Beast Industries — the holding company behind MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) — announced it is acquiring Step, the financial technology platform focused on teens and young adults.

If you zoom out, this is one of the most culturally important fintech acquisitions we’ve seen.

Because this isn’t a bank buying a fintech.

It’s a media empire buying a financial infrastructure layer. The most-watched creator on the planet now owns a financial services company.

Beast Industries has over 450 million subscribers and generates 5+ billion monthly views across channels.

That’s distribution power most fintech companies can only dream about.

Why It Matters

Step isn’t new to the fintech scene. Founded by CJ MacDonald and Alexey Kalinichenko, the company built a financial platform designed for the next generation — focusing on financial literacy, credit building, and accessible money management.

They’ve amassed 7+ million users and attracted celebrity investors like Stephen Curry, Charli D’Amelio, Justin Timberlake, Will Smith, and The Chainsmokers.

I interviewed CJ back in 2023 on Humans of Fintech, and what stood out to me then — and still does — was this:

Step wasn’t trying to be a “cool card for teens.” It was trying to be a gateway to financial adulthood.

Credit building. Behavioral education. Early trust.

Now layer that with MrBeast.

Jeff Housenbold, CEO of Beast Industries, framed the acquisition around financial wellness, which is great. But strategically? This is about distribution.

Mr. Beast doesn’t just have an audience.

He has:

• Extreme trust

• Behavioral influence

• A philanthropic narrative

• And the ability to move millions of people into action instantly

Traditional fintech spends millions to acquire customers through ads.

Mr. Beast has 450 million subscribers who voluntarily show up.

If even a fraction of that audience converts into Step users, this could be one of the most efficient customer acquisition plays we’ve ever seen in consumer fintech.

And here’s the bigger unlock:

Creators are no longer just marketing channels.

They’re becoming financial infrastructure owners.

The Creator Economy Is Merging With Fintech

We’ve seen creators launch funds. We’ve seen them launch CPG. We’ve seen them launch credit cards.

But outright acquisition of a fintech company? That’s a new level.

This move signals something deeper: Financial services is no longer just about banks and fintech startups.

It’s about culture.

The next wave of fintech growth may not come from another neobank trying to out-feature the last one.

It may come from creators who already own attention — and are now monetizing it through regulated financial rails.

And yes, that comes with serious responsibility.

But if executed well?

This could reshape how Gen Z and Gen Alpha engage with money entirely.

The Long Game

CJ said in the release: “Our goal has always been to improve the financial future of the next generation.”

Pair that with Beast’s philanthropic brand and scale, and you start to see the long game:

• Financial education embedded inside entertainment.

• Credit-building tools tied to influence.

• Money management becoming culturally relevant — not intimidating.

This isn’t just fintech acquiring users.

It’s culture acquiring fintech.

And whether you love it or side-eye it, one thing is clear:

The walls between media, creators, and financial infrastructure are officially gone.

Fintech is culture.

And culture just bought a bank-adjacent platform.

#3 Grab Just Bought Stash—And Built a Global Wealth Engine

Big fintech M&A is back — and this one crosses oceans.

Grab, Southeast Asia’s super app powerhouse, announced it is acquiring U.S.-based investing platform Stash in a deal valuing the company at $425 million at closing.

And this isn’t just a geographic expansion.

It’s a financial services acceleration play.

Let’s unpack it.

Why This Deal Actually Matters

Grab isn’t just a ride-hailing app anymore.

It serves 50+ million monthly transacting users across Southeast Asia, offering mobility, delivery, payments, lending, insurance, and digital banking in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Now it’s adding U.S. investing infrastructure to the mix.

Stash brings:

• $5 billion in AUM

• 1+ million paying subscribers

• A subscription-based model

• Adjusted EBITDA-positive performance

• Projected $60M+ EBITDA by 2028

In other words: this isn’t a struggling fintech exit.

It’s a profitable, AI-powered investing platform getting plugged into a global ecosystem.

The AI Layer Is the Real Story

At the center of Stash’s growth is its AI Money Coach — a regulated, auditable AI financial companion that helps users take real financial action.

Since launching in late 2024:

• Roughly 1 in 2 users take a positive financial action the same day

• Engagement is up nearly 40% in 2025

And critically, it’s built with compliance first.

In a world where AI agents are being duct-taped onto financial apps, Stash built its system for regulated financial services from the start.

Grab sees that.

Anthony Tan, Grab’s CEO, called this a “milestone” in Grab’s evolution as a trusted financial services provider — not just for subscription revenue, but for fintech know-how.

Translation: this is about exporting investing infrastructure globally.

Southeast Asia ↔ U.S. Innovation Flow

What I love about this deal is the direction of power.

For years, U.S. fintechs expanded outward.

Now we’re watching an APAC tech giant acquire U.S. wealth infrastructure.

And it’s happening at a moment when global fintech leaders are openly saying there is massive innovation happening outside the U.S. — particularly in embedded finance, super apps, and ecosystem-driven lending models.

Grab has already proven it knows how to:

• Use behavioral and ecosystem data to underwrite

• Serve informal economy workers

• Build financial rails for the underserved

Stash has proven it knows how to:

• Monetize retail investing via subscription

• Deploy AI inside regulated environments

• Drive daily financial behavior change

Put those together, and you don’t just have geographic expansion.

You have a potential template for globalized, AI-powered financial guidance.

And Notice What’s Not Happening

Stash isn’t being absorbed and rebranded.

Post-closing, it remains a standalone U.S. entity.

That’s strategic.

Grab gets:

• High-margin recurring revenue

• Investing infrastructure

• AI compliance design

• U.S. regulatory expertise

Stash gets:

• Balance sheet strength

• Long-term capital

• A technology powerhouse behind it

• Optionality to expand into Southeast Asia later

This is ecosystem-building, not consolidation for the sake of scale.

The Bigger Signal

For fintech leaders watching this:

1. Subscription-based wealth models are attractive again.

2. AI-native investing tools are moving from “nice feature” to core differentiator.

3. The next wave of fintech M&A may be cross-border, not domestic.

We’re entering a phase where financial services companies are less defined by geography and more by infrastructure capability.

Grab didn’t just buy Stash.

It bought a global wealth blueprint.

And if the super app model ever extends deeper into investing and long-term financial planning across emerging markets, this deal will look like the moment that strategy crystallized.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Let’s keep you booked and busy. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{MONDAY, MARCH 2}

[NEW YORK] ​Celebrate Women’s History Month at the FEMMYs

On March 2 in New York City, we’re celebrating Women’s History Month with the Second Annual FEMMY Awards—a gala-style evening honoring the women actually building the future of fintech.

The FEMMYs are produced by The Academy of Fintech, a community I built around one core belief: the most enduring fintech businesses are built through relationships, trust, and proximity. That’s exactly how I built Fintech Is Femme—side by side with the women in this community.

The Academy is our digital and IRL home for doing that work together.

Membership includes:

• A private Slack of operators, founders, investors, and leaders

• Monthly virtual salons and masterclasses with the women shaping the industry

• Consistent access to rooms where relationships compound into real opportunities

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to step deeper into the fintech ecosystem—this is it.

Join us by attending the FEMMYs, hosting a table, or becoming part of The Academy of Fintech in the way that feels right for you.

If you’re interested in a table, please REPLY TO THIS EMAIL or reach out to me directly, and I will get you all set up.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Fintech Is Femme produces the Official New York Fintech Week Conference 2026

The rumors are true: Fintech Is Femme is leading and producing the official New York Fintech Week Conference—and we’re putting our own spin on the largest gathering of fintech leaders in the financial capital of the world.

To anchor NY Fintech Week, we’ve created: FTW: NYC Fintech Week, a first-of-its-kind, 3-day conference experience built around earned trust, cultural relevance, and real business outcomes. The program brings together Fintech Is Femme’s media-powered community, Fiat Growth’s deal-flow ecosystem, and Frances Zelazny of Identity Strategies as the week's independent authority on identity and security.

Across three cornerstone events—The Fintech Summit by Fiat Growth, The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit, and The Fintech Security Summit—FTW convenes the founders, operators, investors, and global brands actively shaping the next generation of financial services.

Early bird tickets are now live. Grab yours while they last.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Cardi B - Pretty & Petty 

Mood of the week.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Big moment today: we officially dropped the press release announcing that Fintech Is Femme, alongside our partners at Fiat Growth and Identity Strategies, is producing FTW: NYC — the Official New York Fintech Week Conference, taking place April 28–30, 2026, in the heart of Manhattan.

It’s truly an honor to carry forward a decade-long New York Fintech Week legacy originally built by Empire Startups — and to reimagine what’s possible when content, community, and culture come together with real intention. You can explore the event site for a first look at what we’re building.

This is very much a build-it-together moment — and we’re just getting started. As always, reply to this email if you want to build this one with us.

Today, though, I get to do one of my favorite things: spotlight an iconic woman in fintech you need to know about.

Let’s get into it ✨

_#SPONSORED

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✍🏽 _{ON LEADERSHIP}

The Long Game: How Luan Cox Pioneered One of Fintech’s Most Profitable—and Most Influential—Infrastructure Platforms

Luan Cox, Founder, President & CEO of FinMkt at the Fintech Is Femme AI Summit in SF, October 2025

Before Luan Cox ever built fintech infrastructure, she learned how to compete.

At four years old, she picked up a tennis racket. By her teens, she was nationally ranked, traveling constantly, and living what she now calls “a full-time job before most kids know what a job is.” Burnout came early — and with it, a question that would quietly define the rest of her career: What do you do when the path you trained for disappears?

She found her answer, improbably, in the movie Wall Street.

“I saw it and thought, that’s it,” Cox told me. “I didn’t even fully know what a stockbroker was — I just knew I wanted to be in finance.”

That pivot set her on a collision course with every major wave of modern fintech — often years before the market realized what it was becoming.

Selling Before the Internet Had a Name

Cox graduated from the University of North Texas in the early 1990s, racing through school in three years out of financial necessity. The job market was brutal. She landed at Jefferson Pilot, one of the largest insurance companies in the country, selling annuities, mutual funds, and life insurance — at an age when most of her peers were still ordering drinks.

“I had to figure out how to sell life insurance to people who didn’t think about dying,” she said. “So I went to bars. I’d ask my friends, ‘You don’t need life insurance now—but do you plan on getting married? Having kids?’ Then I’d show them the math. What happens if you wait versus buying now.”

It worked.

Her pitch was simple, relentless, and effective. Within a year, Cox landed in the top 2% of sales across the company — a pattern that would repeat throughout her career: find friction, remove it, execute relentlessly.

Then came the internet.

In the mid-1990s, Cox joined a tiny Dallas startup experimenting with something no one quite understood yet: online investing. She asked for a title no one had ever heard of — Internet Director — and was promptly sent on the road to pitch mutual fund companies on digital advertising.

“They’d look at me like I was speaking another language,” she said. “Half of them didn’t even have a website.”

That work led her to Silicon Valley — and to Quote.com, one of the earliest companies to put real-time stock quotes on the internet. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Quote.com was building what Cox describes as “Bloomberg-quality data for everyday investors.”

The incumbents laughed — until they needed it.

Schwab, Fidelity, and E*TRADE soon realized that if retail investors were going to trade online, they needed content, analytics, and infrastructure. Cox helped pioneer what would later become SaaS licensing for financial data — embedding Quote.com’s technology directly inside brokerage platforms.

“We didn’t just build a product,” she said. “We built the pipes.”

A Pattern Emerges: Build First, Wait Second

That pattern — building infrastructure before the market asks for it — became Cox’s signature.

After senior leadership roles at Screaming Media (which became part of Dow Jones, which later sold to YellowBrix) and Interactive Data, where she helped build a managed solutions business from zero to tens of millions in revenue, Cox and her longtime collaborator Sri Goteti saw another shift coming.

Peer-to-peer lending. Crowdfunding. The early signs of capital democratization.

They launched Crowdnetic with a bold thesis: become the Bloomberg of private markets. They aggregated data from hundreds of crowdfunding platforms, built indexes used by CNBC and Dow Jones, and even piped data into Thomson Reuters terminals.

“And yet,” Cox said, “no one wanted to pay us.”

So they pivoted — not because the vision was wrong, but because the timing was.

FinMkt and the Long Bet on Platforms

That pivot became FinMkt.

Instead of selling data, Cox focused on a harder, messier problem: point-of-sale lending. 

Consumers juggling multiple loan applications. Merchants logging into eight different lender portals. Lenders operating in silos, optimizing for themselves — not the borrower.

FinMkt built a multi-lender “waterfall” platform that allowed borrowers to receive the best offer across lenders in real time — with FinMkt handling KYC, fraud, compliance, and orchestration.

Once again, the industry said no.

“Every lender told us nobody would ever want a platform,” Cox said. “So we waited.”

That wait paid off when Renewal by Andersen — a home improvement giant driving billions in annual loan volume — issued an RFP for exactly what FinMkt had already built. FinMkt won.

Suddenly, lenders had no choice but to integrate.

Today, FinMkt powers financing for some of the largest home improvement companies in the U.S., employs more than 160 people, has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies, and has grown profitably — having raised just $15 million total.

“We were forced to be capital efficient,” Cox said. “Female founders don’t get the luxury of burning cash.”

The Innovator’s Advantage

Cox doesn’t romanticize waiting — she weaponizes it.

While others chased headlines, she built moats. While competitors copied, she kept moving. 

FinMkt is now pushing into captive lending — enabling large merchants to become their own lenders, cutting fintech middlemen out entirely.

“Why shouldn’t they own the paper?” she asked. “They already generate the volume.”

It’s disruptive. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s exactly why Cox is this year’s Innovator of the Year at the FEMMY Awards on March 2 in New York City. 

Because innovation, in fintech, rarely looks like hype. More often, it looks like patience — paired with conviction.

“I’m always thinking five steps ahead,” Cox said. “Not when it will happen — just that it will.”

And when the market finally catches up?

She’s already built the platform.

What Leaders Can Learn From Luan Cox

1. Build for where the market is going — not where it is.

Cox didn’t wait for validation. She built infrastructure years before the industry admitted it needed it. Her advantage wasn’t timing — it was conviction paired with patience.

2. Waiting isn’t passive if you’re building moats.

While others chased headlines, Cox used the “waiting years” to perfect technology, hire loyal teams, and deepen her understanding of how money actually moves. When the market finally turned, she was ready — competitors weren’t.

3. Capital efficiency is a strategic weapon, not a constraint.

FinMkt raised just $15 million and grew profitably, a reminder that discipline can outperform scale. “Female founders are forced to build differently,” Cox said — and that difference can become the edge.

4. Don’t confuse rejection with irrelevance.

Every lender told her no. Years later, those same institutions came back asking for the platform they once dismissed. Innovation often looks like persistence long before it looks like success.

5. Power comes from owning the rails, not the noise.

Cox didn’t build a flashy consumer brand. She built the pipes behind the scenes — the systems that make other businesses run. In fintech, infrastructure is influence. 

Want to Meet Women Leaders Like Luan?

Join us on March 2 in New York City for the FEMMY Awards, kicking off Women’s History Month with a night celebrating the women actually building fintech’s future.

• Meet founders, operators, and innovators like Luan Cox

• Cocktails, community, and industry-shaping conversations

• Where leadership, legacy, and deal-making collide

Join us at the FEMMY Awards by attending, securing your Academy of Fintech membership, or purchasing a table and co-hosting with us!

🎤_{ON HUMANS OF FINTECH}

Meet the Engineer Who Shaped Fintech’s Events & Narrative

Sanjib Kalita, Chairman of Fintech Meetup, Opens Humans of Fintech Season 10

Before fintech became an industry, it was an idea — and Sanjib Kalita has spent his career translating complex systems into stories people can actually understand.

In the Season 10 premiere of Humans of Fintech, Kalita opens up about his journey from engineering the Google Wallet to ecosystem builder, why narrative matters as much as infrastructure, and how fintech’s next chapter will be written by those who can think long-term and connect technology, trust, and people.

🎥 Watch the full episode here — this one is equal parts thoughtful, honest, and essential viewing for anyone building in fintech today.

Oh, and if you want a chance to win VIP tickets to Fintech Meetup, be sure to nominate yourself or a colleague here.

_{NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK 2026}

Haven’t you heard? Finech Is Femme, Fiat Growth, and Identity Strategies are producing this year’s official New York Fintech Week Conference.

Introducing, FTW: NYC, a three-day, targeted conference experience bringing fintech’s most influential brands and leaders together across innovation, leadership, and security — in the global center of financial innovation.

Interested in sponsoring? I’m already in conversations with iconic brands to shape this stage. Reply to this email and let’s make sure your company has a standout presence at New York Fintech Week.

Interested in speaking? I love hearing smart, compelling content pitches. We design each stage in close collaboration with our core partners, then thoughtfully expand the lineup with voices that bring fresh perspectives, credibility, and substance to the conversation.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: ICYMI, I interviewed Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, the founders of Phia, for Forbes—exploring how AI agents are reshaping fintech and redefining what comes next. Read it here.

• 🎬 Today’s Watch: Bad Bunny didn’t just headline the Super Bowl halftime show—he redefined what it means to be proud of where we came from. A celebration of all Americans, culture without translation, and success without assimilation. If you’re looking for a real snapshot of the modern American Dream, this was it. Watch the full performance here.

• 💫 Today’s Fit: If you’re coming to the FEMMYs on March 2, consider this your style inspiration. My dress is ready, the mood is set, and we’re about to kick off Women’s History Month in the most iconic way.

_FINTUNES

🎵 BAD BUNNY - DtMF

From Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”), this track turns nostalgia into movement — a song that keeps you dancing while gently reminding you not to rush past the moments worth remembering.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter or the Humans of Fintech podcast.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Time is flying—and while it always does, it’s moving especially fast as we’re deep in build mode, bringing our upcoming content and events to life. My mom used to say it’s better to be busy than bored… and I clearly took that to heart 😅

Here’s what’s coming down the pipeline:

• The FEMMY Awards, kicking off Women’s History Month, and onboarding new members to The Academy of Fintech

• Fintech Is Femme at Fintech Meetup, bringing back the Fintech Penthouse Series and live recordings of the Humans of Fintech podcast (want to win free tickets? Click here)

• Building the new New York Fintech Week 2026 conference April 28-30

And that’s just the beginning—more to come soon.

Alright, let’s get into the news ✨

SPONSORED BY GEORGETOWN McDONOUGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 

Last week, I hosted a virtual event with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business that felt less like a panel and more like a real-time business class for the future of fintech.

The speakers set the tone: Sandra Waliczek (World Economic Forum), Jocelyn Byrne Houle (Capital One Ventures, former Securiti.ai exec), and Karen Snow (former Nasdaq Global Head of Listings, now CEO of Rose & Co. Capital) — all Georgetown alumni now operating at the center of global finance.

The lessons were clear:

1. Regulation is a competitive advantage if you know how to navigate it. 

2. AI fails when organizations aren’t built to support it. Leadership is key. 

3. And durable leaders design careers for volatility, not hype.

That intersection of technology, global policy, regulation, and capital markets is exactly where fintech is headed — and exactly what the Georgetown MBA is designed around.

If you’re a founder, operator, or leader who wants to:

• Navigate AI, globalization, and regulation with confidence

• Build products — and a career — that stand the test of time

• Use fintech as a force for both economic inclusion and long-term growth

It’s worth taking a closer look at the Georgetown University McDonough MBA.

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 Nubank Is One Step Closer to a U.S. Bank Charter — And CEO Cristina Junqueira Is Playing the Long Game

Cristina Junqueira, co-founder and CEO of the emerging US business, Nubank

Brazilian fintech giant Nubank just crossed a major threshold in its long-game U.S. expansion.

Last week, Nu received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to form a de novo national bank, Nubank — a milestone that puts the company on a path toward operating as a federally regulated U.S. bank offering deposits, credit cards, lending, and digital asset custody.

Founded in 2013, the company already serves more than 127 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.

Speaking at Bloomberg’s Women, Money & Power event in London, co-founder and CEO of the emerging US business, Cristina Junqueira, was clear that the decision to pursue a U.S. bank charter is deliberate — and intentionally slow.

“This is, of course, a long-term process,” Junqueira told Bloomberg in an interview published in October 2025. “Regulatory filings do take their time, and it’s a process that we take very seriously.”

Nu first applied for the charter in September 2025, fully aware that U.S. approval requires years of strict supervisory conditions, capitalization commitments, and governance oversight — plus parallel sign-off from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. 

The company has now entered the OCC’s bank organization phase, and regulators require the bank to be fully capitalized within 12 months and operational within 18 months.

Why It Matters

Unlike fintechs that have historically tried to scale first and deal with regulation later, Nubank has consistently taken the opposite approach.

“We were never the type of company trying to avoid regulation,” Junqueira said. “We’ve always embraced it.”

That posture has already paid off elsewhere. Nubank operates as a fully regulated financial institution in Brazil, is progressing through bank authorization in Mexico, and now sees the U.S. as its fourth major regulatory market.

Junqueira has relocated to Miami to oversee the effort and will serve as CEO of the U.S. bank. Former Central Bank of Brazil president Roberto Campos Neto will chair the board.

The U.S. opportunity itself is obvious. As Junqueira put it, “Texas alone has a larger GDP than Brazil.” But Nubank isn’t walking away from its core markets.

“Our priority continues to be Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia,” she said, noting that even in Brazil — where Nubank serves more than 60% of the adult population — there is still significant room to deepen customer relationships and expand product usage.

So why the U.S., now?

Early customers will likely be Nubank users already living and spending in the U.S. — hundreds of thousands, according to Junqueira, who are familiar with the brand and willing to adopt early.

“We already have hundreds of thousands of Nubank customers living and working in the United States,” Junqueira said. “We have more than four to five million customers downloading the app and making purchases regularly in the U.S., coming from Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.” 

There is an expectation that a fair number of those customers will be early adopters. But Junqueira is explicit that the longer-term ambition goes beyond the Latin American diaspora.

“The pain points we solve — convenience, transparency, no fees — those are fairly common,” she said. “That has the possibility of resonating with a much wider American audience.”

If fully approved, Nubank would become one of the few non-U.S.-founded fintechs to successfully navigate the American bank charter process.

For fintech leaders watching closely, the lesson isn’t that Nubank is “coming for U.S. banks.” It’s that the next phase of global fintech expansion will be defined less by speed — and more by who’s willing to earn legitimacy the hard way and play the long game.

#2 What Michael Lewis Really Thinks About This Market Moment

Event photo courtesy of SoFi

On Wednesday, SoFi hosted a live recording of The Important Part, featuring Liz Thomas (SoFi’s Head of Investment Strategy), Tom Lee (Managing Partner and Head of Research at Fundstrat), and Michael Lewis — the New York Times bestselling author behind The Big Short, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and Liar’s Poker, whose work has become a kind of cultural lie detector for finance when the stories get too clean.

The hour-long conversation ranged from AI and markets to crypto, the Fed, and prediction markets — but the throughline for fintech leaders was sharper:

When systems break, it’s rarely because people didn’t have data. It’s because incentives rewarded denial.

“When people are giving you advice and people are doing things… think about what are their incentives like?” Lewis said. “Why are they saying what they’re saying? What is their book? Are they talking their book?”

That’s not just media literacy. It’s product strategy. It’s risk management. It’s governance.

Tom Lee: “When We Say It’s a Bubble… It Usually Isn’t Yet”

Lee opened with a line every macro person in the room recognized:

“Bull markets don’t die of old age. They get killed by the Fed.”

But his most useful AI-market insight wasn’t a victory lap about productivity — it was a warning about timing and crowd psychology. When the room started circling the “AI bubble” conversation, Lee offered a contrarian rule of thumb:

“When people say something’s a bubble, it’s probably not a bubble. It’s going to be a bubble. When we say, of course, it’s not a bubble…”

That’s a subtle point, but it matters for fintech leaders building and budgeting right now: the risk isn’t just overexuberance — it’s mistaking narrative fatigue for fundamental weakness. Markets can keep funding the buildout longer than operators expect, and then reprice brutally when the story shifts from “promise” to “proof.”

And yes, job displacement came up — but in a way that underscored how hard this transition will be to manage responsibly. If AI adoption accelerates while institutions lag on reskilling, wage growth, and consumer stability, fintech will feel it first: in credit performance, fraud pressure, and customer trust.

Lewis: The Real Excess Is Speed + FOMO + Bad Incentives

Lewis resisted being cast as a market forecaster:

“I have no idea what’s gonna happen… and actually don’t think anybody else [does].”

But he did name the repeatable patterns he’s seen across boom-and-bust cycles:

1. FOMO makes people move before they understand.
   
    “There is feeling that if you don’t grab it, you’re gonna miss it… [so] act before you actually know very much,” he said.
   

2. Incentives protect upside and outsource consequences.
   
   On the post-2008 trader mentality:
   
    “It wasn’t my fault… everybody was doing it.”

For fintech leaders, this is the governance takeaway: if your system rewards speed over accountability, you’re not innovating — you’re accumulating hidden risk.

The Most Revealing AI Moment: Lewis’ Dinner With Sam Altman

Lewis shared a telling story about having dinner with Sam Altman while reporting and pressing a simple question:

“If your machine is so smart… why [not] have your machine write the biography?”

Altman’s answer, via Lewis:

“It’s not smart enough. It’d be a really bad book.”

Lewis pushed: when will it be?

“Maybe a couple of years.”

This landed because it cuts through the noise: today’s models can generate output, but they still struggle with the human parts that matter most in finance — context, judgment, trust, and accountability.

Black Swans: Quantum, AI, and “What Happens When the Customer Isn’t Human?”

The most fintech-relevant part of the night wasn’t a price target — it was the discussion of structural risks.

On crypto, Lee flagged quantum as a non-theoretical threat:

“If quantum can break encryption… your Bitcoin will never be safe.”

And then came a broader question that should be on every fintech roadmap: what happens when AI becomes a primary actor in the economy?

Lee framed it provocatively — that AI could eventually operate with its own validation systems:

“What if AI gets so smart that they’re all running their own blockchain?”

Whether or not that exact scenario plays out, the implication is clear: identity, authentication, and trust infrastructure will matter more than ever when the ‘user’ is an agent.

Prediction Markets vs. Sports Gambling: One Is Signal, One Is Social Risk

The closing segment was unexpectedly blunt.

Lee argued prediction markets can be powerful information tools:

“Prediction markets are actually really useful… it’s the closest thing to a crystal ball.”

Lewis drew a hard line on the broader sports betting boom:

“It’s not good for the society… it’s especially predatory towards young men.”

For fintech leaders, the lesson is bigger than gambling: financialized behavior scales fast — and the downstream consequences land in credit, fraud, and consumer harm.

Why this mattered for fintech leaders

If you strip the night down to one durable lesson, it’s this:

In moments of technological acceleration, the biggest risk is believing the cleanest story — instead of interrogating the incentives underneath it.

Or, in Lewis’ words:

“Think about… their incentives… what is the motive here?”

The hopeful part: this is exactly where fintech can lead.

Because the next era will reward the companies that build trustworthy systems: transparent incentives, resilient identity infrastructure, and products that help consumers navigate volatility instead of amplifying it.

And credit to SoFi for putting a conversation like this onstage: not just market talk, but the kind of cross-current discussion (trust, incentives, policy, and technology) that executives actually need right now.

#3 Fintech Meetup Chairman Sanjib Kalita’s Playbook for Building What Lasts

For the Season 10 kickoff of Humans of Fintech, I sat down with Sanjib Kalita—Fintech Meetup Chairman, former Google Wallet operator, and a rare fintech leader who’s lived on both sides of the equation: building the rails and building the narrative around them.

Early in the conversation, Sanjib dropped a line that perfectly captures the founder whiplash: “At a large company, there’s a lot of people listening to you, but you don’t know what to say—whereas at a small company, you know what to say, but no one’s listening.” It’s funny because it’s true—and it’s also a blueprint for how founders should think about distribution, signal, and momentum.

He also got real about the early grind: “There were moments where I had 20 bucks in my pocket in New York City… and I was still happier then than when I had my corporate job.” Not because struggle is romantic—but because building something of your own can feel like agency.

One of my favorite segments was his “Intel language” story: he created a testing language in the 90s, went back decades later, and learned engineers were still using it—because he paired the tech with clear, visual documentation. The lesson: products don’t scale on code alone. They scale on communication that gives other people power.

Sanjib’s biggest fintech responsibility right now? Simple—and hard: “Think long term.” Not “hit the next metric,” not “raise the next round”—but build something that earns trust over years.

And the rapid-fire closer was the cleanest definition of success I’ve heard in a while: “Love what you’re doing, love the impact you’re having, and love who you spend time with.”

🎧 Listen to the full episode here (and watch on YouTube) for the stories, the playbook, and the real talk.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Let’s keep you booked and busy. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{MONDAY, MARCH 2}

[NEW YORK] ​Celebrate Women’s History Month at the FEMMYs

On March 2 in New York City, we’re celebrating Women’s History Month with the Second Annual FEMMY Awards—a gala-style evening honoring the women actually building the future of fintech.

The FEMMYs are produced by The Academy of Fintech, a community I built around one core belief: the most enduring fintech businesses are built through relationships, trust, and proximity. That’s exactly how I built Fintech Is Femme—side by side with the women in this community.

The Academy is our digital and IRL home for doing that work together.

Membership includes:

• A private Slack of operators, founders, investors, and leaders

• Monthly virtual salons and masterclasses with the women shaping the industry

• Consistent access to rooms where relationships compound into real opportunities

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to step deeper into the fintech ecosystem—this is it.

Join us by attending the FEMMYs, hosting a table, or becoming part of The Academy of Fintech in the way that feels right for you.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Fintech Is Femme produces the Official New York Fintech Week Conference 2026

The rumors are true: Fintech Is Femme is leading and producing the official New York Fintech Week Conference—and we’re putting our own spin on the largest gathering of fintech leaders in the financial capital of the world.

To anchor NY Fintech Week, we’ve created: FTW: NYC Fintech Week, a first-of-its-kind, 3-day conference experience built around earned trust, cultural relevance, and real business outcomes. The program brings together Fintech Is Femme’s media-powered community, Fiat Growth’s deal-flow ecosystem, and Frances Zelazny of Identity Strategies as the week's independent authority on identity and security.

Across three cornerstone events—The Fintech Summit by Fiat Growth, The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit, and The Fintech Security Summit—FTW convenes the founders, operators, investors, and global brands actively shaping the next generation of financial services.

We’re deep in build mode—and early momentum is strong.

Early bird tickets are now live. Grab yours while they last.

_FINTUNES

🎵 BAD BUNNY - NUEVAYoL

Concerts on Sunday!

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Hope you’re staying warm wherever you’re reading from. Over here in Brooklyn, it’s full-on winter — but the upside is that event season is officially heating up!

I’m especially excited to kick off Women’s History Month with the FEMMY Awards on March 2, celebrating powerhouse women in fintech like Asya Bradley, Frances Zelazny, and Luan Cox. You can register here — it’s going to be a special night with live performances, endless martinis, and celebrating in community.

Early bird tickets for New York Fintech Week and our third-annual Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit are live and already moving, so grab them while you can.

And ICYMI, today’s column dives into our first-ever collaboration with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business — a milestone moment and a great look at where fintech leadership is headed.

Alright — let’s get into it. ✨

P.S. It’s content and event-planning season. If you’re looking to plug into everything we have coming up — from Fintech Meetup to New York Fintech Week — check out our media kit here, then reply to this email or fill out the form. I would love to build something great with you in H1.

_{#SPONSORED BY FINTECH MEETUP}

🎙 Want to attend Fintech Meetup for FREE and get featured on Humans of Fintech?

Let’s be real — Fintech Meetup is where fintech deals actually happen. 

And this year? Humans of Fintech is taking it over.

Well, the podcast booth that is. 

For the first time ever, Humans of Fintech is hosting the premier podcast booth on the Fintech Meetup show floor — putting the spotlight on the people building the industry, not just the logos.

We’re opening up a special nomination contest just for the Fintech Is Femme community.

That means:

✨ Nominate yourself (yes, really), or someone you think deserves the mic

✨ Two winners — the nominator and nominee — score FREE VIP passes

✨ The selected nominee records a live episode of Humans of Fintech with me

✨ Their story gets distributed to 100,000+ fintech leaders across our network

Translation?

• Free access to fintech’s most important conference

• Instant visibility with the people who actually move money and markets

• A permanent piece of content that lives far beyond the conference floor

If you’ve built something, learned something, or are shaping where fintech is headed — this is your moment.

🔗 Nominate now and put yourself (or someone brilliant) in the spotlight:

Already know you’re going?

🎟 Lock in your Fintech Meetup ticket here (prices go up at the end of this week):

_{ON INNOVATION}

Fintech Business Class: What Three Leaders at the Center of Digital Finance See Coming Next

Quick note for anyone exploring an MBA: This conversation was hosted in partnership with the Georgetown McDonough School of Business, whose MBA curriculum emphasizes global policy, innovation, regulation, and the use of fintech to drive economic inclusion. All three guest interviews below are Georgetown alumni.

In 1960, Rita Zekas Sielicki became the first woman to graduate from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, paving the way for future generations. 

For much of the last decade, fintech has been framed as a story of speed: faster payments, faster onboarding, faster growth. But the most important conversations in financial services right now are about pairing velocity with readiness.

That tension was on full display last week during a virtual event I hosted with Georgetown McDonough School of Business, where three leaders operating at very different layers of the financial system—global policy, enterprise AI, and capital markets—offered a clearer picture of where fintech is actually headed.

Before the interviews began, I opened with a reminder that often gets lost in the “future of finance” narrative: women didn’t enter fintech—they built it.

From Ada Lovelace’s first algorithm to Grace Hopper’s COBOL, the infrastructure of modern finance has always been shaped by women, even when their contributions were written out of the record.

That historical context mattered, not as inspiration, but as framing. Because the challenges fintech faces now—regulation, scale, trust, long-term value—are not new. What’s new is how compressed the timelines have become.

So, how do we prepare for this new era where velocity meets momentum?

From Experimentation to Infrastructure

Sandra Waliczek, Blockchain and Digital Assets Platform Lead, World Economic Forum

​Sandra Waliczek, who leads the Blockchain and Digital Assets Platform at the World Economic Forum, joined the conversation directly after Davos. Her takeaway from the week was not enthusiasm—it was maturation.

“Davos last week was definitely a momentous week,” she said, pointing to “geopolitics, the economy,” and the digital assets agenda all colliding at once.

After years of pilots and proof-of-concepts, Waliczek said the conversation around blockchain and digital assets has shifted decisively toward implementation. Regulatory clarity, she argued, is changing who shows up—and how serious they are.

“That regulatory clarity is providing more of a shift and acceptance… across these large financial institutions,” she said. And in Davos, you could “sense a shift in the conversations.”

The significance isn’t that stablecoins or tokenized assets are “winning.” It’s that no single model is. Waliczek described a future where multiple forms of digital money—stablecoins, deposit tokens, central bank digital currencies—operate in parallel, with interoperability becoming more important than dominance.

“We’re not clear yet… is there a winner in digital payments,” she said, adding that the more realistic scenario is that “most of these digital payments will be operating in parallel.”

Where she does see momentum is tokenization—particularly when it moves from crypto-native firms into market infrastructure.

On tokenization of real-world assets, she pointed to movement from major institutions: “We’re seeing… tokenization of stocks, bonds, commodities, private equity.” The latter categories remain experimental, but the direction is clear—legacy institutions aren’t just observing anymore.

The deeper issue, in Waliczek’s view, is how we build systems that scale without leaving countries behind. Interoperability, she emphasized, isn’t just technical—it’s regulatory and geopolitical.

“This technology has the most net benefit when we’re able to have that interoperability,” she said, specifically calling out the need for alignment “from a regulatory perspective, but also a technical perspective.”

That matters most for inclusion. Developing economies, she noted, have the opportunity to leapfrog legacy infrastructure entirely—if new rails are built with access and participation in mind.

“They actually have the opportunity to leapfrog existing financial systems,” she said. And even within developed economies, the promise is practical: reducing friction, cost, and time in financial transactions.

The lesson for fintech leaders is uncomfortable: scale without coordination doesn’t compound. It fragments.

Why AI Pilots Rarely Survive the Enterprise

Jocelyn Byrne Houle, investor, founder, and product leader

If Waliczek’s perspective highlighted progress, ​Jocelyn Byrne Houle’s underscored friction.

An investor, founder, and longtime operator in highly regulated environments, Houle has held key roles as an Operating Partner at Capital One Ventures, investing across data, AI, and cybersecurity, and as an early executive at Securiti.ai, which was acquired last month for $1.8 billion.

She has seen firsthand why AI adoption stalls inside financial institutions—not because the models fail, but because organizations aren’t built to support them.

The gap, she explained, isn’t a lack of vision. It’s execution.

“There’s just a lot of excitement in the executive suite around AI,” she said. But “these timelines… aren’t realistic to those who have to implement and adopt in reality on the ground.”

That’s the pattern she’s spent her career trying to bridge: how you get from a proof of concept—often “100k… 500k”—to something “distributed throughout the organization.”

And when companies can’t make that leap, she said the failure points are remarkably consistent: “It’s really around data, identity, and processes.”

Houle also made a point that many fintech leaders still underestimate: scaling AI isn’t like scaling SaaS.

“In the world of AI, you’ve got… afterthoughts that are required to be thought about earlier,” she said, naming GPU cost and orchestration—then tightening the focus where regulated industries always get stuck: “Are you keeping that data safe?”

Her most structural insight was about non-determinism—an issue that becomes existential the moment AI touches customers.

“We really don’t know how it’s working. That’s by design,” she said. But in a “highly regulated organization,” the question becomes how you monitor outputs continuously when there isn’t “one place to monitor it.”

Her metaphor landed because it translates abstraction into operations: “In the old days… you would have your coffee and then your milk and then your sugar. In the world of AI, we’ve mixed these together, and you can’t… pull it out after the fact.”

That’s the reality leaders are walking into: upfront planning becomes mandatory, not optional. Monitoring becomes core infrastructure, not a compliance add-on.

And then, Houle dropped the line every buyer and board member should tattoo on their forehead:

“Please don’t tell people you can have it up and running in 20 minutes,” she said. “That is my biggest red flag.”

Because that promise isn’t optimism—it’s context failure. “That founder… has never implemented in a complex financial [institution] before,” she added. Not that they can’t—but they don’t understand the terrain.

Still, her closing message wasn’t caution. It was momentum.

“You can’t let the fear stop you,” she said. “You got to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

Designing Careers That Outlast Cycles

Karen Snow, CEO, Rose & Co. Capital

​Karen Snow, CEO of Rose & Co. Capital and former Global Head of Listings at Nasdaq, brought the conversation back to fundamentals: timing, preparation, and endurance.

Snow has advised thousands of companies through IPOs and market transitions, and her message was consistent with the other speakers’ themes. Markets open and close. Technologies rise and fall. What lasts is readiness.

Borrowing Houle’s framing, Snow echoed: “Don’t let the fear stop you.” Especially, she added, because “women… tend to over prepare for things and not trust enough in our own abilities and confidence and networks.”

Her model for major career moves was deliberately unglamorous—which is why it was so useful. She framed transitions around two lenses: setup and timing.

“Do you have the right product service?… the right business model?… the right partners and talent?” she asked. And then: is it the right time “for you personally,” and “the right time in the marketplace”?

Because the reality is not linear. “There’s going to be some real ups and some real downs,” she said, “and you really have to have the confidence to endure them.”

When we moved into long-career design—what lasts beyond one job—Snow reframed a career as compounding infrastructure.

“Sometimes I think people think about careers as… their job,” she said. “And it’s actually this continuous thing.”

She described treating each role as a “stepping stone,” asking what she wanted to extract: visibility, skill-building, network, and reputation. Over time, those inputs create optionality—so you’re not waiting to be chosen. You’re choosing.

That’s how you get to what she called “being in command.”

On IPO readiness and exits, Snow’s most pointed observation was that too many companies treat going public as an endpoint rather than a transformation.

“You’re not going to be successful if you haven’t planned for what’s to come,” she said. Public markets require operational discipline—forecasting accuracy, stable KPIs, tight positioning, and long-term investor relationships.

Then she turned to education—the part everyone wants to dismiss until they need it.

An MBA, she argued, “schools you across all the disciplines really quickly”—leadership, strategy, accounting, finance, marketing—skills you may not use immediately, but “as you rise through the ranks, you’re going to use all of those things.”

What Ties It All Together

What made these conversations compelling wasn’t that they agreed. It’s that they converged.

Across global policy, AI infrastructure, and capital markets, the same themes surfaced repeatedly: coordination over disruption, preparation over speed, trust over hype.

Fintech’s next phase will not be won by the fastest mover. It will be won by institutions and leaders who understand how technology reshapes systems—not just products.

That’s why partnerships between industry and education matter more now than they did a decade ago. Not because universities can predict the future, but because they create space to interrogate it.

I really appreciated Georgetown’s role here. By convening leaders across policy, technology, and capital—and by producing alumni who can move across those layers—it reflects something fintech often lacks: time to think.

The irony is that fintech’s greatest challenge may no longer be innovation. It may be synthesis—connecting ideas, disciplines, and incentives before fragmentation sets in.

For leaders paying attention, the message from this “business class” was clear: the future of finance won’t be decided by tools alone. It will be shaped by the institutions—and people—ready to integrate them responsibly.

And readiness, as these leaders reminded us, is never accidental.

(If you’re interested in the Georgetown McDonough MBA—especially if you’re drawn to the intersection of fintech, regulation, innovation, and global economic inclusion—it’s worth a look. This event was a strong snapshot of the kinds of leaders the program cultivates. Check it out here.)

Kick Off Women’s History Month In The Room That Matters

We’re opening Women’s History Month the only way that makes sense:

by celebrating the women actually shaping fintech’s future — together, in one room.

The FEMMY Awards aren’t just a gala. They’re a convening of builders, decision-makers, and power players across fintech — founders, operators, investors, and executives who don’t just watch the industry evolve, but actively move it forward.

And this night is powered by The Academy of Fintech — our private membership community.

I built the Academy for people who want more than surface-level networking or hot takes. It’s for leaders who want access, insight, and relationships that compound over time.

What Membership Really Unlocks

• A private Slack with founders, VPs, investors, and operators across fintech

• Monthly salons and masterclasses with industry leaders and decision-makers

• Exclusive fireside chats you won’t find on a public stage

• 40+ on-demand lessons designed to accelerate influence, not just knowledge

• Early access + preferred pricing for all in-person events — including complimentary access to the FEMMY Awards and priority access to New York Fintech Week

But here’s the real differentiator: the room.

This is proximity to people who can change your trajectory — leaders from companies like Stripe and Mastercard are already inside. Conversations here turn into partnerships, roles, deals, and long-term collaboration.

If you’re looking for a high-signal, low-noise community built for people actually doing the work — not just talking about it — membership is now open.

Or secure your Academy membership + complimentary FEMMY Awards ticket directly on the FEMMYs event page.

This is the room. Hope to see you in it. ✨

_{THE OFFICIAL NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK CONFERENCE: APRIL 28-30}

In 2024, Fintech Is Femme launched its first Leadership Summit, creating a space where senior leaders and decision-makers could gather, connect, and set a new standard for the industry.

In 2025, the vision expanded. Fintech Is Femme introduced both the Leadership Summit and the Fintech Security Summit, hosting them at The Times Center — inside the New York Times Building — signaling that these conversations now belonged at the center of business, media, and power.

In 2026, the industry is ready for more.

Now, Fintech Is Femme presents FTW: NYC — the official New York Fintech Week conference — bringing three summits under one roof at 2 Penn, a modern, iconic space on the Madison Square Garden campus, purpose-built for impactful gatherings of leaders.  

Across three cornerstone events — The Fintech Summit by Fiat Growth, The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit, and The Fintech Security Summit — FTW convenes the founders, operators, investors, and global brands actively building the future of financial services. Not talking about it. Doing it.

While behind the scenes, creative partners Ascalex and The Bench helped shape the flow, design, and feel of the experience — ensuring the environment matched the caliber of the conversation.

This is where the industry gathers in the heart of Manhattan to set the agenda for the year ahead — powered by trusted voices, sharp strategy, and high-intent relationships.

FTW is about showing up to build — an economy where everyone wins.

Interested in sponsoring? I’m already in conversations with iconic brands to shape this stage. Reply to this email and let’s make sure your company has a standout presence at New York Fintech Week.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: Our Head of Digital Content (aka our resident Gen Z at FIF HQ) gifted me Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation — and it’s a gentle reminder I want to lean into more this year: reading purely for fun and creative joy.

• 🎬 Today’s Watch: We dropped our first scripted short film, Fintech Fever Dream—and yes, I’m biased, but it’s a must-watch. A creative take on biometrics and a glimpse into the kind of fintech storytelling we’re building next. If you want to follow our journey creating more video content, subscribe to our YouTube channel!

• 🌍 Today’s Activity: A very on-brand IKEA run this weekend to keep building out the Fintech Is Femme HQ content studio. Desks, lights, little details that make a space feel intentional—and yes, the walls are officially purple. Because if you’re going to build the future of fintech media, you might as well do it in a room that feels bold, creative, and unmistakably us.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Olivia Dean - Nice To Each Other

Been listening to this queen for years, and watching a hardworking woman get her flowers never gets old.

This year, she took home Best New Artist at the Grammys — proof that “new” doesn’t mean overnight. It means years of showing up, refining your craft, and staying the course long before the spotlight finds you and the world catches on. 👑🎶

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter or the Humans of Fintech podcast.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Quick update before we dive in: the FEMMY Awards are officially moving to March 2, kicking off Women’s History Month with a room full of the most powerful women in fintech — exactly how it should be.

If the date shift makes it easier for you to join us, I hope to see you there. You can find event details, table hosting, and Academy of Fintech memberships on the FEMMYs event page. For sponsorship questions, you can always reach me or email collab@fintechisfemme.co.

And yes — New York Fintech Week (April 28–30) planning is in full swing, including a killer opening interview for the Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit. If your company wants to make a splash during the big week, you know where to find me.

Alright — let’s get into the news ✨

#SPONSORED

🎙 Humans of Fintech Is Taking Over Fintech Meetup

For the first time ever, Humans of Fintech is hosting the premier podcast booth at Fintech Meetup—where the fintech industry actually does business.

This isn’t just another conference. Fintech Meetup brings together leaders from banks, fintechs, credit unions, and investing firms for 50,000+ one-to-one meetings designed to drive real partnerships and real ROI.

And this year, we’re spotlighting the humans behind the headlines.

🎧 Nominate Someone to Be Featured on Humans of Fintech

In partnership with Fintech Meetup, we’re launching a special nomination contest for the Fintech Is Femme community.

Here’s how it works:

• Nominate yourself or a colleague to be featured in a live recording of Humans of Fintech on the Fintech Meetup show floor

• All nominees receive discounted Fintech Meetup tickets

• Two winners — the nominator and the nominee — receive FREE VIP tickets

• The selected nominee records a live podcast episode with Nicole Casperson, with their story and insights distributed across the Humans of Fintech network of 100,000+ fintech leaders

Ready to step into the spotlight?

Because fintech is built by humans — and their stories deserve the mic.

Ready to join Fintech Meetup now? Secure your registration here.

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 Phia’s $35M Raise Signals How AI Agents Reshape Fintech

Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, Co-Founders, Phia

This week, fashion-tech startup Phia announced a $35 million Series A at a $185 million valuation to build what it calls the “AI alignment layer for commerce.”

While the headline reads like a consumer commerce win, I couldn’t help but see implications that run much deeper for fintech.

Phia — co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni — is an AI shopping agent embedded directly into users’ natural shopping flow, helping them make better purchasing decisions in real time.

The round was led by Notable Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, following rapid early traction: more than 1 million users and partnerships with 6,200+ retail brands, influencing billions in annual consumer spend.

But this isn’t just about shopping.

Earlier this month, I interviewed Stephanie Ferris, President and CEO of FIS, who described this moment as “generational” for financial services. She told me AI agents will increasingly initiate and execute transactions on behalf of consumers — and that banks need new infrastructure to remain relevant when that happens.

That’s why FIS recently closed its $13.5 billion acquisition of Global Payments’ Issuer Solutions business and announced a new “agentic commerce” offering for banks, built in partnership with Visa and Mastercard.

If FIS is building the rails for a world where AI agents transact, Phia is shaping the layer that determines which transactions happen at all.

That distinction matters.

Phia’s growth highlights something fintech has long promised — but often struggled to deliver: helping people make better financial decisions. While fintech has over-optimized the last mile — payments, rails, checkout — Phia is winning earlier, by shaping where money flows before a transaction ever happens.

What if fintech’s next moat isn’t the transaction itself — but the decision at the moment of purchase?

That’s where intent comes in — and why intent may become one of the most valuable layers in fintech as AI agents shift from passive tools to active participants in the economy.

Phia operates upstream from payments, but downstream from decision-making — exactly where fintech has historically struggled to create real leverage. Instead of optimizing for checkout speed or discounts, the company focuses on confidence, value, and trust before money ever moves.

As Kianni told me, “Shopping is already a financial decision. It’s about making each dollar go as far as possible.”

One insight Phia uncovered early: resale value acts as a proxy for financial intelligence. If a $500 handbag resells for $400, the consumer hasn’t really spent $500 — they’ve converted cash into a durable asset.

That framing flips consumption into capital allocation.

The results are telling. Brands working with Phia report higher conversion rates, larger order values, and dramatically lower return rates — metrics that signal better decision-making, not just more transactions.

For fintech leaders watching agentic commerce evolve, that distinction matters.

Phia’s growth has also been fueled by founder-led distribution rather than paid acquisition, with over 2 million followers and 430 million views across owned platforms, including the founders’ podcast The Burnouts.

In an agent-driven economy, audience, distribution, and trust-based intent are emerging as real moats — not just nice-to-haves.

The Series A builds on early momentum. Last September, Phia raised an $8 million seed round led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from operators and cultural leaders including Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner, Sara Blakely, Michael Rubin, Desiree Gruber, and Sheryl Sandberg — a signal of how closely commerce, culture, and financial decision-making are converging.

The takeaway for fintech:

The next phase of competition won’t just be about rails, speed, or access. It will be about who influences decisions before checkout — and who earns trust at scale.

Read my full Forbes analysis on what Phia’s raise signals for fintech and agentic commerce here.

#2 Tala Expands To Vietnam With $100M Partnership

Shivani Siroya, Tala’s founder and CEO

I’ve been covering Tala for years — and this week’s news feels like an important signal for where global financial inclusion is headed. 

Tala announced a $100 million partnership with ASEAN banking group CIMB to launch digital credit in Vietnam, marking the company’s entry into one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing markets. It also makes Tala the first U.S.-based fintech startup to offer regulated digital credit access in the country, according to the announcement.

On the surface, this is a market expansion story. But look closer, and it’s also a case study on financial inclusion at scale. 

Vietnam has made significant progress on digital banking adoption, but access to affordable, flexible credit remains limited for many consumers. Tala’s model — AI-driven underwriting, fast decisioning, and fully digital disbursement — is designed for exactly that gap.

Through the partnership, eligible customers can access a flexible line of credit with limits of up to VND 30 million, customizable repayment schedules, and the ability to repay early without penalties. Everything runs through Tala’s app, while CIMB provides the licensed banking infrastructure and regulatory framework.

This is not Tala’s first time doing this well.

The company has spent the last decade building and refining this playbook across emerging markets, including the Philippines, where it has served roughly four million customers and disbursed more than $2 billion in credit. Globally, Tala has now reached nearly 13 million users and deployed more than $7 billion across three continents.

What stands out — especially if you’ve followed fintech’s last wave of global expansion — is what Tala isn’t doing.

It’s not trying to bypass banks.

It’s not launching a standalone lending product and hoping regulators catch up.

And it’s not chasing growth for growth’s sake.

Instead, Tala is embedding its technology into the financial system — partnering with a major regional bank that brings regulatory expertise, local market knowledge, and scale.

Shivani Siroya, Tala’s founder and CEO, said in the announcement that this partnership is about delivering safe, affordable credit to people who don’t have it today — and doing so responsibly.

Why This Matters

This deal reflects a broader shift in fintech’s global strategy.

The next phase of expansion isn’t about disruption narratives — it’s about distribution, trust, and regulatory alignment. Especially in emerging markets, fintechs that succeed will be those that know how to scale their impact with the right ecosystem partners. 

Tala’s Vietnam launch also reinforces that access to responsible credit remains one of the most powerful tools for economic mobility — and one of the hardest to deliver well.

By pairing AI-native underwriting with a licensed banking partner, Tala is showing what inclusive, sustainable fintech infrastructure looks like in practice.

#3 Georgia Fintech Academy Impact Report Shows Education’s Role in Building Future Fintech Talent

Laura Gibson-Lamothe, Executive Director, Georgia Fintech Academy

As AI, automation, and digital finance continue to reshape how money moves, the industry is facing a hard truth: we can’t build the future of fintech without dramatically increasing fintech literacy.

Not just for engineers or bankers — but for the next generation of workers who need to understand finance and technology and how the two intersect.

That’s why the Georgia Fintech Academy’s 2025 Impact Report stands out.

Launched in 2019 by the University System of Georgia and housed at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, the Academy was designed around a simple idea: fintech education can’t be siloed, optional, or exclusive. It needs to be accessible, practical, and closely aligned with workforce demand.

Fintech is still a relatively new discipline in higher education. Most professionals working in the industry today learned on the job. But as the pace of innovation accelerates—especially as AI is reshaping roles faster than org charts can keep up—that model no longer scales.

In 2025, the Georgia Fintech Academy reached more than 2,500 students across all 26 public institutions in Georgia, delivered 70 speaker and industry events, and saw engagement grow more than 13% year over year. Since launch, its programs have reached over 17,000 participants.

More importantly, education is translating into employment.

The Academy supported approximately 780 internship placements across fintech, banking, payments, and financial services-adjacent companies. Based on follow-up data, an estimated 250+ students converted those internships into full-time roles — creating early-career pathways in an industry that often struggles to hire talent with real-world readiness.

That conversion rate matters.

Fintech leaders regularly say the same thing: finding people who understand compliance and data, payments and product, risk and innovation is incredibly hard. The Georgia Fintech Academy’s model — combining curriculum, employer partnerships, and hands-on experience — is one way to close that gap.

Executive Director Laura Gibson-Lamothe emphasized that progress at this scale requires sustained collaboration between academia and industry, with employers actively investing time, mentorship, and expertise — not just job postings.

The bigger takeaway for fintech:

As new technology reshapes financial services, fintech literacy is becoming a core workforce requirement, not a niche skill set. The future of fintech won’t be built solely by specialists — it will be built by teams that understand how money, technology, regulation, and data work together.

Check out the full report here.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Let’s keep you booked and busy. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{MONDAY, MARCH 2}

[NEW YORK] ​THE FEMMY AWARDS: Presented by the Academy of Fintech

Last year, I quietly launched The Academy of Fintech.

No big campaign. No flashy ads. Just word of mouth.

Fast forward: it’s now 200+ founders, operators, investors, and banking leaders who don’t just work in fintech — they shape it. This is the group text you want to be in. The rooms where conversations turn into real opportunity.

And on March 2 in New York City, we’re bringing that energy together for the Second Annual FEMMY Awards — officially kicking off Women’s History Month with a can’t-miss, gala-style night celebrating the women actually building fintech’s future.

This isn’t a sit-in-your-seat awards show.

It’s a room.

Founders. CEOs. Investors. Operators. Decision-makers.

The kind of night where introductions matter and the after-conversations last all year.

For many, the FEMMYs are also the front door into The Academy of Fintech — a community that lives far beyond one night through:

• a private Slack,

• monthly virtual salons and masterclasses,

• and consistent access to rooms where relationships compound.

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to step deeper into the fintech ecosystem — this is it.

Join us by attending the FEMMYs, hosting a table, or becoming part of the Academy in the way that feels right for you.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Meet FTW: A three-part Summit Series premiering at New York Fintech Week

https://fintech-week.co/new-york/

Welcome to FTW: New York — the official three-day, three-summit of New York Fintech Week.

After two years of rapid growth from our flagship Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit — and the breakout success of the Fintech Security Summit — we’re leveling up.

This year, we’re expanding with intention and impact.

In partnership with leaders across venture, go-to-market, identity, and security, FTW: New York brings together three focused summits, each designed to go deeper, move faster, and deliver real ROI for the people actually building fintech.

Here’s how it breaks down:

Tuesday, April 28

🔥 The Fintech Summit — hosted by Fiat Growth Ventures & Drew Glover

Where growth, go-to-market, and scale take center stage.

Wednesday, April 29

💜 The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit — hosted by me, Nicole Casperson

The room where leadership, influence, and the future of fintech collide.

Thursday, April 30

🔐 The Fintech Security Summit — led by Frances Zelazny

A deep dive into identity, trust, and the infrastructure protecting fintech’s next era.

🎟️ Early bird tickets are live now.

Whether you’re coming for one day or the full three-day experience, this is the week to show up.

Interested in sponsoring or making a serious splash during New York Fintech Week?

Reply to this email, and I’ll get you connected — inventory is limited and moving fast.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Joyce Wrice - Break Me In

New song alert.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Like many of you, I’m feeling distracted and heavy with everything happening in the world right now.

As someone who reads Fintech Is Femme and shows up here week after week, you matter deeply to me. I want this to remain a space where people feel safe, seen, and respected. Fintech Is Femme was built by children of immigrants, immigrants, and people who have had to fight for space, opportunity, and dignity. That perspective isn’t incidental—it’s foundational. As a company, we believe ICE has no place in our communities.

I believe diversity—in all its forms—is what drives real innovation. Many of the most iconic fintech companies were built by founders who had firsthand experience with economic pain, broken systems, and a deep desire to fix what wasn’t working. Those are the stories I’ve spent years reporting on—and the leaders I profile in my book Fintech Feminists.

When things feel overwhelming, I’ve learned that the most meaningful response is action—one step at a time, at the pace you can manage. Building what we’re building together matters. Creating economic access, community, and opportunity is one of the most powerful ways to push back against injustice.

Today’s story is a reminder of the economic power we risk losing—and the role fintech can play in creating pathways to stability, ownership, and wealth.

P.S. Major event update: We’re officially moving the FEMMY Awards to March 2, kicking off Women’s History Month with a big, intentional celebration.

We realized our original date, February 16, fell on Presidents’ Day and posed challenges due to school closures—so we listened, adjusted, and leaned into something even better. What better way to open Women’s History Month than with a gala celebrating the women shaping fintech?

Let’s get into it. ✨

_#SPONSORED

What Will Your Retirement Look Like?

Planning for retirement raises many questions. Have you considered how much it will cost, and how you’ll generate the income you’ll need to pay for it? For many, these questions can feel overwhelming, but answering them is a crucial step forward for a comfortable future.

Start by understanding your goals, estimating your expenses and identifying potential income streams. The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income can help you navigate these essential questions. If you have $1,000,000 or more saved for retirement, download your free guide today to learn how to build a clear and effective retirement income plan. Discover ways to align your portfolio with your long-term goals, so you can reach the future you deserve.

Get The Guide

_{ON INNOVATION}

Immigrants Are America’s Secret Sauce: How Fintech Can Help Us Tap Into This Economic Power

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy—33.3 million of them, to be exact. They employ around 61.6 million workers and account for 44% of the country’s economic activity, according to the Small Business Administration.

What many overlook, though, is that a significant portion of these businesses are immigrant-owned.

Immigrants are the driving force behind much of America’s growth and innovation. For centuries, immigration has been the secret sauce of American prosperity—fueling everything from billion-dollar tech startups to small businesses. Yet, despite this, immigrants have long been scapegoated and misunderstood.

A persistent myth is that immigrants are a drain on the economy. In reality, they are an economic engine. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that immigration—documented or not—will boost America’s GDP by $7 trillion over the next decade.

That’s a massive number, a long-term benefit we can’t afford to ignore.

Undocumented immigrants, in particular, pay billions in taxes but don’t receive any government benefits, making them a net positive for the economy.

So, where does fintech come into play? Immigrants are more than just contributors—they’re entrepreneurs. Immigrants are 80% more likely to start businesses than U.S.-born citizens.

In fact, 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants, and 55% of America’s billion-dollar startups have an immigrant founder.

According to the New American Economy, over 3.2 million immigrants run their own businesses, comprising one in five entrepreneurs in the U.S. These businesses employ nearly 8 million American workers and generate $1.3 trillion in total sales.

And these aren’t just mom-and-pop shops.

Immigrant-founded companies, like Uber (co-founded by Canadian immigrant Garrett Camp) and Avant (co-founded by refugee Al Goldstein), are valued in the billions, employing thousands nationwide.

What is the collective value of the 50 largest immigrant-founded companies? A staggering $248 billion. That’s more than the combined market value of the publicly traded companies in countries like Argentina, Colombia, and Ireland.

America’s ability to attract international talent, especially international students, has played a critical role in this entrepreneurial boom. About 22% of billion-dollar startups were founded by people who came to the U.S. as students.

Then there’s the next generation—immigrants’ children. Six billion-dollar companies were started by immigrants who came to the U.S. as kids, including Affirm, Discord, and Warby Parker. Another company, GreenSky, went public recently, with a valuation of $2.9 billion.

Then there’s Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder and former CEO of Care.com. In the 1970s, when Lirio Marcelo was six, her family of eight immigrated from the Philippines to the United States. She later became the first Asian American woman to take a company public and the seventh woman in history to do so. In 2020, she oversaw the acquisition of Care.com by IAC for a staggering $500 million.

Immigrant entrepreneurs are at the heart of American innovation and job creation. And fintech is uniquely positioned to support them.

Immigrants also power industries like farming and construction, which rely on undocumented workers.

These labor-intensive sectors are essential to the economy, yet their workers lack access to basic financial tools. That’s where fintech comes in. Immigrants need products tailored to their needs, from remittances to affordable credit access, small business lending, and digital banking.

Immigrants make up 15% of the U.S. population, but they represent a vast untapped market for fintech.

Second-generation immigrants, in particular, are becoming economic powerhouses.

As a child of an immigrant mother, I can’t help but feel proud. These young people are not just filling jobs; they’re leading in technology, finance, and entrepreneurship. They are shaping the future of American business.

Fintech has a huge opportunity to serve this growing, dynamic demographic.

Immigrants want better financial services—solutions that suit their unique realities. Whether it’s easier access to banking, credit, or remittances, fintech companies that understand this will tap into a massive market while transforming the financial landscape for millions.

In short, if fintech wants to lead the next decade of growth, it can’t afford to ignore the immigrant community.

They are the future of America’s economy—and by building products that serve their needs, fintech can play a central role in this growth.

3 Founders Building for Immigrants

Nina Mohanty, Founder, Bloom Money

Jean Smart’s story is a perfect example. Growing up as the daughter of Korean immigrants in Los Angeles, she witnessed firsthand the challenges of entrepreneurship—long hours, language barriers, and financial insecurity.

Like many immigrant families, her parents’ retirement plan was built on the hope that their children would succeed.

But after working on Wall Street, Smart realized that small businesses, especially those owned by minorities and immigrants, lacked access to retirement planning. She founded Penelope in 2022, a platform to make retirement savings accessible to small businesses, particularly microenterprises.

“I want my daughter to be able to build on the generational wealth I’m handing down to her,” Smart said.

Penelope’s platform provides affordable, user-friendly retirement solutions to small businesses owned by women, minorities, and immigrants. Smart has already raised $5 million from investors like Altari Ventures and Gaingels.

Similarly, Sofiat Abdulrazaaq saw an opportunity to serve immigrant communities in the food truck industry.

The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Abdulrazaaq understood the challenges these entrepreneurs faced—especially when it came to finance. Her company, Goodfynd, started by developing a payment platform for food trucks, many of which are run by immigrants sharing their culinary heritage.

“Running a business takes complex staffing and management,” she said. “Small businesses don’t have the time and resources for that.”

Goodfynd’s fintech solutions simplify operations for mobile vendors, many of whom are women and people of color. Abdulrazaaq has raised $6 million to continue her mission.

Nina Mohanty’s company, Bloom Money, takes a different approach—digitizing the traditional Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA) model, widely used in immigrant communities.

Her platform allows people from similar cultural backgrounds to save and lend money within their communities, helping them build credit and wealth.

As for cementing Bloom’s target audience, Mohanty believes in the concept of "building your perfect customer," recognizing that today's underserved immigrant communities represent tomorrow's prime customers.

This mindset opens up a realm of possibilities, from addressing specific needs like immigration or legal fees to supporting small business growth.

The opportunity here is enormous, dwarfing the reach of traditional banking. One of my favorite quotes from Mohanty, shared in my book Fintech Feminists, perfectly captures why building for this demographic isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a major market opportunity.

“I hope that the incumbents are paying attention,” she said. “We’re coming for their immigrant customers.”

These women—Jean, Sofiat, and Nina—are just three examples of startup founders building fintech solutions that serve immigrant businesses.

By doing so, they’re transforming the financial landscape and proving that fintech doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all—it can be deeply personal and community-driven.

14 Reasons Immigrants Will Drive Industry Growth

Before I go, I want to be sure you have all the key insights from this column in an easy-to-access list. 

1. High Entrepreneurship Rates: Immigrants are 80% more likely to start a business than U.S.-born citizens, making up over 3.2 million entrepreneurs.

2. Economic Impact: Immigrant-owned businesses generate $1.3 trillion in sales and employ nearly 8 million Americans.

3. Underserved Market: Immigrant entrepreneurs face barriers to financial services, offering fintech a chance to provide accessible solutions.

4. Increasing Financial Inclusion: Immigrants are often excluded from traditional banking. Fintech can democratize access to financial tools.

5. Diverse Consumer Base: Immigrants offer fintech companies a chance to cater to a vibrant, evolving market.

6. Boosting Local Economies: Immigrant businesses strengthen local economies. Fintech can help them scale.

7. Innovation Through Diversity: Immigrant entrepreneurs bring fresh ideas, especially in niche markets. Fintech can fuel that innovation.

8. Support for Minority Entrepreneurs: Many immigrant entrepreneurs are women or people of color, who face unique challenges. Fintech can provide tools to help them thrive.

9. Culturally Relevant Products: Fintech can offer multilingual, simplified financial tools that meet immigrant communities’ specific needs.

10. Building Trust and Loyalty: Tailored solutions can help fintech companies build long-term loyalty within immigrant communities.

11. Tapping into Niche Markets: Immigrants create niche markets. Fintech can develop services to support these industries.

12. Stimulating Job Creation: Immigrant entrepreneurs are major job creators. Fintech can provide tools to help them expand.

13. Supporting Economic Mobility: Fintech helps immigrants build wealth and thrive, supporting their long-term success.

14. Global Expansion Potential: Immigrant communities are globally connected, offering fintech opportunities for international growth.

Bottom Line

Immigrants are nearly twice as likely to start a business as native-born Americans. The evidence is clear: limiting immigration means fewer startups, fewer jobs, and less innovation.

By tailoring fintech products to meet the needs of immigrants, companies can help millions of people achieve financial stability while tapping into one of the most entrepreneurial and fast-growing segments of the U.S. population.

The future of fintech is tied to immigrants. It’s time we embraced that reality.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published January 28, 2025, in the Fintech Is Femme Newsletter.

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY}

NEW DATE ALERT ✨

The FEMMY Awards are officially moving to March 2, kicking off Women’s History Month with a celebration of the innovators, vanguards, and MVPs of the Fintech Is Femme community.

As we gear up for this milestone night, I want to share a bit more about The Academy of Fintech—our private membership community.

I built the Academy for founders, operators, investors, and leaders who don’t just want to keep up with fintech—but want to help shape what’s next, together.

Membership includes a private Slack community, monthly virtual salons and masterclasses, exclusive fireside chats, and 40+ on-demand lessons designed to accelerate your career and influence.

Members also receive early access and preferred pricing for in-person events, including the FEMMY Awards (complimentary) and New York Fintech Week.

But the real value is the room—the relationships and proximity that turn conversations into real opportunity. Leaders from companies like Stripe and Mastercard are already inside.

If you’re looking for a thoughtful, high-signal community built for people actually doing the work, membership is now open.

👉 Learn more and apply at https://www.fintechisfemme.co/the-academy-of-fintech-community

Or secure your membership plus a complimentary FEMMYs ticket directly on the FEMMYs event page.

_{NEW YORK FINTECH WEEK APRIL 28-30}

It’s official — I’m starting to build out the agenda and key partnerships as Fintech Is Femme becomes the official New York Fintech Week conference of the week with the 3-day Fintech Week: NYC event, succeeding the Empire Startups Conference.

I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with standout brands and humans to build a true home base for the fintech ecosystem during New York Fintech Week.

This year, we’re expanding beyond a single day to three full days of programming, co-hosted with leaders across venture capital, growth, identity, and security—designed to meet the moment the industry is in right now.

👉 Learn more on our event page.

If you’re planning to attend just our flagship Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit, grab a 1-Day pass while early bird pricing is still available. Or join us for all three days and let’s build together all week long.

Interested in sponsoring? I’m already in conversations with iconic brands to shape this stage. Reply to this email and let’s make sure your company has a standout presence at New York Fintech Week.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: I stumbled upon How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty & Female Creativity by Jill Burke in a home library collection. I haven’t started it yet, but I’m already hooked by the premise—an alternative history of the Renaissance told through beauty manuals and creative expression, spotlighting the actresses, authors, and courtesans who quietly rebelled against the misogyny of their time. Sound familiar?

• 🍿 Today’s Watch: Loved this interview with Michelle Obama on Call Her Daddy. Hearing her speak so candidly about staying grounded, going high, and navigating power as a disruptor feels both timely and deeply human. And this quote: “If you can’t beat them, work their fascination to your advantage.”

• 🌍 Today’s Activity: Road trips and weekends away. Spent the weekend at a farmhouse in upstate New York, braved a snowstorm on the way home, and was reminded how even a short escape with close friends can do wonders for rest and perspective.

_FINTUNES

🎵 no na - work

I discovered an Indonesian girl group this week, and their song perfectly captures how I feel about working and building Fintech Is Femme daily.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Our world is moving fast right now — from market-shifting headlines and power conversations unfolding at Davos this week, to real momentum building closer to home across the fintech ecosystem. It’s one of those moments where you can feel the industry recalibrating in real time.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been deep in build mode too — locking in key moments for New York Fintech Week and opening up memberships and table-host opportunities for the Second Annual FEMMY Awards & Gala, happening February 16 in New York City.

The FEMMYs aren’t just an awards night — they’re a rare room. Founders, operators, investors, and decision-makers come together to celebrate leadership, build real proximity, and set the tone for the year ahead.

If you care about where fintech is going — and who’s shaping it — this is where the community shows up.

More event details (and our mood board) below.

Now, let’s get into the news. ✨

#SPONSORED

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#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 Capital One to Acquire Brex in $5.15 Billion Deal

In one of the most consequential fintech deals of the year, Capital One announced on Thursday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Brex in a $5.15 billion cash-and-stock transaction, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed in Capital One’s earnings release.

The deal is expected to close mid-2026, subject to regulatory approval, and Brex Founder & CEO Pedro Franceschi will continue to lead the company inside Capital One.

At face value, this looks like a legacy bank buying a once-high-flying fintech.

In reality, it’s something far more strategic.

Capital One isn’t just acquiring a corporate card platform. It’s buying its way into:

• $13B+ in Brex-managed deposits

• A deeply embedded startup and SMB customer base

• And one of the most advanced AI-native B2B finance stacks in fintech

Brex describes itself as a modern platform that combines corporate cards, automated expense management, secure real-time payments — and increasingly, AI agents that automate spend controls and financial workflows.

That matters.

Why Capital One Wanted This Fintech

“Since our founding, we set out to build a payments company at the frontier of the technology revolution,” said Richard Fairbank, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Capital One. “Acquiring Brex accelerates this journey, especially in the business payments marketplace.”

Fairbank went further, calling Brex’s path “one of the rarest journeys in fintech” — a vertically integrated platform built from the bottom of the tech stack to the top.

That framing is telling.

This isn’t about slapping a fintech brand onto a bank balance sheet. Capital One is explicitly buying product velocity, software DNA, and AI-native architecture — then pairing it with scale, underwriting sophistication, and regulatory durability.

And this comes just months after Capital One’s $35 billion acquisition of Discover, which gave the bank its own payments network to compete directly with Visa and Mastercard.

Put together, Capital One is assembling something bigger than a card business: an end-to-end operating system for business money.

What This Means for Brex — and Its Customers

Brex built its reputation by rethinking how modern companies manage spend, rewards, and cash — especially startups that traditional banks struggled to serve.

Now, that “startup for startups” is becoming infrastructure for the mainstream economy.

Franceschi framed the deal as a way to “maximize founder mode” at scale — combining Brex’s payments and spend-management expertise with Capital One’s brand, balance sheet, and long-term investment mindset.

Brex doesn’t disappear here. It gets institutionalized in the U.S. mainstream economy. 

The Bigger Signal: Fintech M&A Has Changed

This deal reinforces a pattern we’ve been tracking all week.

Fintech M&A in 2026 is no longer about survival.

It’s about strategic inevitability.

Banks aren’t acquiring fintechs to look innovative. They’re acquiring them to:

• Lock in deposits

• Own distribution

• Control data

• And defend relevance as finance becomes more automated, agentic, and software-led

Just days ago, we saw FIS make the same kind of move — doubling down on issuing infrastructure and agentic commerce. Capital One is applying the same logic to business payments and spending.

Different segment. Same playbook.

Why It Matters

Fintech is entering a convergence era.

Speed alone isn’t enough.

UX alone isn’t enough.

Capital alone isn’t enough.

The winners will be the institutions that can combine technology, trust, AI, and scale — and deploy all four at once.

Capital One buying Brex is proof that the most important innovations have become too central to sit outside the system — and that banks willing to buy their future.

That’s the signal fintech leaders should be paying attention to.

Editor’s note: This is a developing story, and I will continue to follow it and provide more insights. 

#2 Bank Leaders Are Pushing Back on Trump’s Credit Card Cap — Fintechs Are Leaning In

Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup

Two headlines dominated conversations at the World Economic Forum this week after Donald Trump arrived in Davos: geopolitical posturing (including renewed talk of Greenland) and a domestic proposal with real economic implications — a 10% cap on credit card interest rates starting in January 2026.

At first glance, the idea sounds consumer-friendly. Credit card APRs have climbed into the high-20% range for many borrowers, and frustration with revolving debt is widespread.

But as the reactions from bank and fintech leaders made clear this week, a blunt rate cap could dramatically reshape who gets access to credit — and how.

How the Industry Is Responding

Traditional banks were quick to warn that a hard cap would restrict credit, particularly for lower-FICO consumers, according to responses reported by Business Insider. 

At Davos, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser called the proposal “not good for the economy,” pointing to a failed 1980 attempt to restrict consumer credit that ended in economic contraction. Her concern: caps often do the opposite of what they intend, making credit harder — not cheaper — to access.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was more blunt, calling the idea an “economic disaster” and warning it could strip access to credit from as much as 80% of Americans, with ripple effects across restaurants, travel, retail, and local economies.

Other bank leaders echoed the theme. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan noted that while affordability matters, rate caps often lead to lower credit limits and fewer approved borrowers — especially those already on the margins.

Fintechs See an Opening

Fintech lenders, by contrast, see opportunity.

Analysts at Mizuho Securities, as reported by Barrons, note that companies like SoFi, Affirm, and Upstart generate the majority of their business from consumer lending and may be better positioned to fill the gap if banks pull back.

SoFi CEO Anthony Noto was explicit: if a cap were enacted, traditional card issuers would likely shrink lending, creating a void for personal loans with clearer terms and fixed repayment schedules. That, he argued, could actually reduce long-term debt traps — if underwriting discipline and borrower education hold.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder & CEO, of Klarna backed the proposal, arguing that today’s rewards-driven credit card system disproportionately benefits higher-income consumers while lower-income borrowers bear the cost through interest.

Why It Matters for Fintech Leaders

This proposal may never pass Congress — even its critics concede it’s a long shot. But the debate itself is the signal.

Three things are happening at once:

1. Affordability pressure is now a political issue, not just a consumer one.
   

2. Access vs. protection is the core tension — and fintech sits directly in the middle.
   

3. Credit models are being questioned, not just priced.

If banks retreat from riskier borrowers under tighter economics, fintechs will be asked — by markets, regulators, and consumers — to step in responsibly. That means clearer pricing, stronger underwriting, and products that don’t rely on revolving debt to stay profitable.

The real question isn’t whether a 10% cap becomes law.

It’s whether the industry can build a credit system where access doesn’t automatically translate into long-term financial harm — and where innovation expands opportunity without shifting risk onto the people least able to absorb it.

That tension is now front and center on the global stage. And fintech leaders should be paying close attention.

#3 Leaders at Davos Emphasized a ‘Disciplined Era’ for AI in Banking and Fintech

Another interesting moment at the World Economic Forum this week, global banking chiefs, fintech leaders, and regulators converged on a shared reality: AI is reshaping finance faster than institutions can adapt on their own — and the next phase will be defined by discipline, not speed. 

That message came through clearly in a Davos panel covered by PYMNTS titled “Banking Accelerated,” with participants including leaders from Royal Bank of Canada, PayPal, Commerzbank, Banco BTG Pactual, and the Qatar Central Bank.

What stood out wasn’t optimism or fear — it was sobriety.

The industry has moved past debating whether AI belongs in financial services. The real question now is how to deploy it without breaking trust, resilience, or accountability at scale.

Below, I share key highlights from PYMTS original reporting at Davos alongside my analysis.

Banks and Fintechs Are Officially ‘Frenemies’

RBC CEO David McKay described Big Tech and fintech platforms as “frenemies” — partners and competitors at the same time.

That framing matters.

Banks increasingly rely on platforms for distribution, data, and interfaces, even as those same platforms compete for ownership of the customer relationship. McKay warned that if banks allow themselves to become only the final step in payments, they risk being quietly disintermediated.

RBC’s response has been to move earlier in the value chain — into home search, small-business formation, and eCommerce — embedding financial services before money ever moves.

That’s a signal: in the AI era, control shifts toward whoever owns discovery, context, and decision-making — not just transactions.

Trust Is the Real Network Effect

PayPal’s Global Markets President Suzan Kereere framed trust as the true network effect powering commerce.

Not just trust with money — but trust with data, identity, AI-driven decisions, and recourse when something goes wrong.

As AI systems increasingly approve transactions, flag fraud, freeze accounts, or deny credit at machine speed, the consequences of error scale instantly. That’s why panelists repeatedly emphasized caution around deploying generative and agentic AI directly into consumer-facing workflows.

In banking, hallucinations aren’t a UX issue — they’re a systemic risk.

Digital Isn’t Replacing Humans — It’s Rewiring the Model

Despite the AI-forward narrative, panelists rejected the idea that digital means fully automated.

Commerzbank CEO Bettina Orlopp described AI as a bridge between digital-native customers and those who still want human support. At RBC, branches are evolving into multi-channel hubs, where employees handle in-person service, chat, and call-center work simultaneously.

The shift isn’t about fewer humans — it’s about higher productivity per human.

From the regulatory side, Qatar Central Bank Governor Sheikh Bandar Bin Mohammed Bin Saoud Al-Thani emphasized that resilience now sits alongside capital and liquidity as a core risk.

His warning was direct: if regulators don’t evolve with technology, risk doesn’t vanish — it migrates.

Qatar’s approach has been to invest in instant payments, AI governance frameworks, and regulatory sandboxes that allow innovation without eroding oversight.

The Davos message wasn’t anti-regulation. It was anti-fragmentation.

Why It Matters

For fintech leaders, this panel marks a meaningful inflection point.

The AI era in finance is no longer about proving what’s possible — that phase is over. Now it’s about proving what’s durable.

The companies that win in the next cycle will be the ones that:

• Scale trust, not just features

• Treat resilience as product strategy, not compliance overhead

• Collaborate across banks, fintechs, and regulators instead of racing to the edges

What emerged from Davos was not an argument about whether AI belongs in banking, but about how it gets deployed — and who remains accountable when it does. Trust, scale, resilience, and collaboration were treated as prerequisites, not nice-to-haves. That framing mirrors what we’re seeing outside the conference halls as well. 

Last week, FIS’s announcement to launch an agentic commerce platform for banks didn’t just talk about agentic commerce — it operationalized it, pairing AI with issuing infrastructure to ensure banks stay central as autonomous transactions become real. 

Davos speakers talked about the discipline required for AI in finance; FIS showed what disciplined execution looks like. 

Together, they point to the same conclusion: the next era of fintech won’t be led by whoever builds AI first, but by whoever can deploy it safely, at scale, with trust intact.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Booked and busy? Same. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28}

[VIRTUAL] Fintech Business Class with Georgetown McDonough School of Business

​In partnership with Fintech Is Femme and the Georgetown McDonough School of Business, this live virtual event brings together women shaping fintech across product, capital, and international policy.

​Together, we’ll break down what leadership and influence look like at the highest levels—and how education, real-world experience, and community help leaders drive meaningful impact.

​You’ll get an inside look at how power is built, how decisions are made, and how leaders position themselves to shape what’s next.

​What to Expect

• ​A 15-minute keynote from award-winning journalist Nicole Casperson, grounded in original research and insights from her book, Fintech Feminists

• ​Live interviews with ​Sandra Waliczek, Blockchain & Digital Assets Lead, World Economic Forum; ​Jocelyn Byrne Houle, Angel Investor and tech-first product leader; ​Karen Snow, CEO, Rose & Co. Capital

• ​Structured breakout networking designed to create real, high-quality connections

• ​Perspective on how a Georgetown MBA prepares leaders to influence markets, policy, and institutions worldwide

_{MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16}

[NEW YORK] ​Host Your Company at an Exclusive Room Filled with the Most Powerful Women in Fintech

Last year, I launched The Academy of Fintech, a private member community under Fintech Is Femme. Through word of mouth, it’s grown to 200+ founders, operators, investors, and banking leaders who genuinely care about building an economy where everyone wins — and who value being in relationship with one another as they do the work.

On February 16 in NYC, we’re bringing that community together for the Second Annual FEMMY Awards — a gala-style evening to celebrate the women shaping fintech and spend real time in the same room with people who actually move the industry forward.

For many, the FEMMYs are also an entry point into the Academy — which lives well beyond one night through a private Slack, monthly virtual salons, masterclasses, and access to rooms where relationships compound over time.

I’d love for you to join us — whether that’s attending the FEMMYs, hosting a table, or stepping into the Academy in a way that feels right for you.

You can explore the details here.

If you have any questions or want to talk it through, my door is always open.

Hope to see you in New York.

Oh, as promised…the event mood board curated by my brilliant stylist Keltoum Mazid — check it out here.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Meet FTW: A three-part Summit Series during New York Fintech Week

https://fintech-week.co/new-york/

Welcome to FTW: New York — a three-day, three-summit leading New York Fintech Week.

After two years of strong growth from our flagship Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit and the successful launch of the Fintech Security Summit, we’re expanding with intention. This year, we’re partnering with leaders across venture, go-to-market, identity, and security to host three focused summits, each designed to go deeper — and deliver real value.

Here’s how the week breaks down:

Tuesday, April 28

The Fintech Summit — hosted by Fiat Growth and Drew Glover

Wednesday, April 29

The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit — with me, Nicole Casperson

Thursday, April 30

The Fintech Security Summit — led by Frances Zelazny

🎟️ Early bird tickets are live now.

If you have questions or are interested in sponsorship, just reply to this email, and I’ll get you connected with my team.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Zara Larsson - Midnight Sun

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

There’s a real sense of nostalgia in the air — one that’s been building for a while but has come fully alive at the start of 2026.

Scroll through any social feed, and you’ll see it: throwback photos, old playlists, jokes about a simpler internet, simpler jobs, simpler lives. Enough so that I’ve found myself doing the same.

So in honor of the “2026 is the new 2016” moment, I decided to look back — not just culturally, but financially.

What did fintech look like ten years ago? Which companies were just getting started? What was happening in the economy?

And what can we learn from that moment now that fintech is no longer a scrappy outsider but a core part of financial infrastructure?

Let’s get into it. 

_{ON THE LAST DECADE}

2026 Is The New 2016 — But Fintech Is In A Very Different Place

In 2016, fintech still felt early — with big ambitions.

The headlines were confident. Fintech was transforming banking as we knew it. Startups were framed as existential threats to legacy institutions. “Unbundling the bank” was the dominant metaphor, and the assumption baked into most analysis was that technology would replace incumbents rather than reshape them.

What’s striking in hindsight is not how wrong that moment was — but how incomplete.

Ten years ago, many of the companies that now sit at the center of financial infrastructure were just getting their footing. Affirm was still explaining why installment credit could be more transparent than revolving debt (a debate that remains ongoing). 

Coinbase was largely a gateway product for early crypto adopters, not a publicly traded company embedded in global markets. Betterment was a bet that algorithms could manage money as well as — or better than — humans, a radical idea at the time.

Even companies founded earlier but coming into their own around then — Stripe, Square, Plaid — were still understood as challengers. They were products you chose to use, not infrastructure you simply assumed would work.

Consumer fintechs that would later put their names on football stadiums — like SoFi — were still early stories. Founded in 2011, SoFi would go on to become the second-largest online lender within its first five years.

The economy helped. In 2016, the U.S. was coming off one of the longest periods of stable growth in modern history. The recovery from the financial crisis had settled into something resembling normalcy. 

Unemployment was falling. Household debt was declining. Wages were finally ticking up. Capital was cheap, confidence was high, and the sense — fair or not — was that the system could absorb experimentation.

That context mattered. Fintech flourished not just because technology improved, but because the economic ground beneath it was relatively steady.

Venture funding reflected that optimism. In 2016, VC-backed fintech companies raised roughly $12.7 billion across 836 deals. Investors like New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst, Ribbit Capital, QED Investors, and Nyca Partners were placing early bets on the idea that finance, like media and commerce before it, would be remade by software.

What fintech didn’t have in 2016 — at least not explicitly — was AI as a headline. The technology was there, quietly embedded in fraud models and credit decisions, but no one described it as the future of finance. The question wasn’t how machines would decide for us. It was still how technology could help people make better decisions.

Ten years later, that question remains — but with a subtle and consequential shift. Now, the promise is not just better decisions, but automated ones.

Fintech today is no longer a scrappy outsider. 

It is the financial system’s connective tissue. 

Banks rely on fintech infrastructure. Payments, identity, compliance, lending, and now commerce itself move through fintech rails. When something breaks, it’s no longer a startup problem. It’s a systemic one.

The funding numbers tell that story clearly. In 2025, global VC-backed fintech funding reached $51.8 billion, up 27% from 2024 and, notably, above pre-pandemic levels. But deal volume fell sharply. Fewer bets. Larger checks. Capital concentrating around companies with scale, distribution, and regulatory endurance — names like Binance, Kraken, Polymarket, and Kalshi.

This isn’t 2016 optimism. It’s 2026 selectivity.

What the industry learned in the decade between is that fintech and financial services were never true opposites. They were complements pretending to be rivals.

The work of the last ten years has been integration — fintech becoming infrastructure, banks becoming technology companies, and both discovering that trust, regulation, and scale are not obstacles to innovation but prerequisites for it.

That brings us to the present moment.

Today, the central question isn’t whether fintech can disrupt banking. It’s whether it can support an economy where software increasingly acts on our behalf — deciding when to pay, where to invest, how to manage risk. AI didn’t replace fintech’s original mission. It sharpened it.

We’re still asking the same underlying question we were in 2016: how do we use technology to help people make better financial decisions? But now the stakes are higher, the systems are larger, and the margin for error is smaller.

If 2016 was about possibility, 2026 is about responsibility.

The nostalgia makes sense. That earlier moment felt lighter. But it was also simpler because fintech hadn’t yet proven how central it would become.

That’s no longer the case.

Today, fintech doesn’t just shape user experience. It shapes outcomes. It determines who gets approved, who gets flagged, who gets paid on time, and who doesn’t. Increasingly, it doesn’t just move money — it makes decisions about money, and soon, it will automate them.

That is the real shift of the last decade.

Looking back isn’t about recreating 2016. It’s about remembering what we didn’t yet know: that once infrastructure becomes invisible, accountability must become explicit. That speed without judgment scales harm as efficiently as it scales access. And that replacing human decision-making with software doesn’t remove bias — it relocates it.

Ten years ago, the question was whether fintech could change finance.

Now the question is whether it can be trusted to run it.

And that’s not a problem technology alone can solve.

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY}

This year’s FEMMY Awards aren’t just a celebration — they’re an invitation.

We are officially welcoming new members into The Academy of Fintech, and there has never been a more important moment to be in this room.

The Academy is a curated, high-trust community of founders, operators, investors, and executives who understand that growth in fintech doesn’t come from noise — it comes from proximity, shared intelligence, and consistent collaboration. This is where relationships compound. Where insight turns into opportunity. Where leadership sharpens.

Membership isn’t about access to content alone — it’s about access to people.

Through year-round virtual masterclasses led by Academy members, private salons and off-the-record conversations, and intentional in-person gatherings like the FEMMYs, the Academy is designed to support real growth: strategic, professional, and personal.

And the FEMMY Awards are where that community comes to life.

P.S. Even if you can’t attend the FEMMYs in New York, the door is still open. Learn more about joining The Academy of Fintech—our private membership community—and claim your membership directly on the FEMMYs event page.

_#SPONSORED

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_{WTF ELSE?}

• Wealth management fintech Wealthfront reports solid earnings amid post-IPO momentum

• US reinforced its position as the main global FinTech hub with 44% of all deals in 2025

• Credit unions, fintech and the AI inflection of financial services 

• World Economic Forum: Barclays sees strength in AI bubble 

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 🍿 Today’s Watch: Cindy Gallop delivered a standout keynote at Blackweek on boys, men, positive masculinity—and why it matters to marketers. My favorite part? She spent the entire talk focused not on what’s broken (we know already), but on real, actionable solutions.

• 📖 Today’s Read: ICYMI, I sat down with FIS President & CEO Stephanie Ferris to unpack the fintech giant’s big bet on agentic commerce for banks. Read about it here.

• 🍜 Today’s Food: Had an incredible Thai dinner last Friday with my head of digital content at Soothr in the East Village. Worth every minute of the cold-weather wait for the Michelin-level chicken khao soi.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Rihanna - Work

My most listened to song of 2016 — no question.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

As you’re reading this, Fintech Is Femme Creative Director Anton, and I are out in SoHo for a much-needed date night (yes—life and business partners over here), seeing one of my forever media idols, Issa Rae, alongside one of Anton’s favorite musicians, Anderson .Paak.

The night is hosted by Intuit, which is doubling down on something I’m increasingly fascinated by: in-person storefronts that blend local, human connection with AI-powered financial tools. Think modern bank branches—without feeling like a bank. I’m curious, I’m paying attention, and I’ll report back.

Speaking of being in the room—be sure to scroll to our events section. We’ve got new events dropping weekly, including our upcoming FEMMY Awards and expanded access to our powerhouse private community, The Academy of Fintech.

Alright—time for the news.

Let’s get into it. ✨

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 FIS Closes A $13.5B Deal — And Signals What’s Next For Fintech

FIS President & CEO Stephanie Ferris

On Monday, fintech giant Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) closed its $13.5 billion acquisition of Global Payments’ Issuer Solutions business (formerly TSYS) ahead of schedule — while simultaneously selling its remaining minority stake in Worldpay back to Global Payments.

Then FIS did something most legacy fintechs don’t do the moment a massive transaction closes:

It shipped product.

Alongside the close, FIS announced a new agentic commerce offering for banks, built with Visa and Mastercard, designed to let AI agents safely initiate and complete transactions across card networks.

That speed wasn’t accidental.

“The market moved, the technology moved, and the window to lead moved with it,” FIS President and CEO Stephanie Ferris told me in a follow-up interview.

She framed the moment as generational.

“There are two trends coming together,” Ferris said. “A regulatory environment that’s finally geared toward growth again — and the fastest adoption of AI I’ve ever seen inside banking.”

Big Deal, Bigger Signal

Last April, FIS announced a bold three-way reshuffling with Global Payments and GTCR: Global Payments would acquire Worldpay, while FIS would buy Issuer Solutions for $13.5 billion.

At the time, it looked like strategic focus in a cautious market.

Now, with the issuer business officially folded into FIS Total Issuing Solutions, the scale is clear: presence in 75+ countries, more than 40 billion transactions processed annually, and partnerships with over 150 financial institutions.

The financial case is straightforward. FIS says the deal expands its banking segment’s addressable market to $28 billion and adds $500 million in incremental adjusted free cash flow in 2026 — growing to $700 million by 2028.

But the more interesting signal is what FIS chose to launch alongside it.

“We now have the largest amount of consumer and commercial accounts on file across core banking, debit, and credit,” Ferris said. “That data foundation is what allows banks to do meaningful things with generative AI.”

Why Agentic Commerce Changes the Stakes

Agentic commerce sounds abstract until you map it to real behavior.

We’re already used to AI narrowing our choices. The next phase is autonomous purchasing — where an AI agent books flights, pays merchants, and completes transactions on your behalf.

That breaks traditional fraud models.

Banks are trained to recognize you: your devices, habits, timing, and merchants. AI agents behave differently by design — buying at odd hours, from new vendors, through unfamiliar interfaces.

“What banks don’t want is to decline a good transaction,” Ferris said. “So fraud models have to be rebuilt for an agent-driven world.”

FIS’s new offering is designed to let banks identify and authorize AI-initiated transactions within existing authorization and dispute frameworks, while introducing a new concept: know your agent (KYA) data.

Translation: this is about keeping banks central as AI begins to transact.

If banks don’t lean in, they risk getting disintermediated. This move is FIS “tripling down” on banks at the center of the agentic commerce era, says Ferris.

The Real Asset Is the Data Engine

With Issuer Solutions in-house, FIS now sits on one of the industry’s most comprehensive data engines — spanning core banking, debit, and credit.

Ferris emphasized the point carefully: this is bank-owned data, not a free-for-all. But centralizing it securely — and making it usable in real time — is what enables AI models to actually work in production.

That’s why she calls this moment generational: a banking sector newly focused on growth colliding with a technology shift banks are adopting faster than any previous wave.

What This Means for Fintech Leaders

Agentic commerce could generate up to $1 trillion in U.S. retail revenue by 2030, according to McKinsey. But no single player wins alone.

Ferris’s non-negotiables are clear: partnerships must scale, endure volume, and work inside regulated systems.

“Innovation only matters if it survives contact with scale,” she told me.

Last year, FIS made the leap.

This year, it landed — and immediately started building what comes next.

👉 Read my full Forbes column for deeper analysis on what this means for banks, AI, and the future of fintech infrastructure.

#2 Congress Puts Fintech on the Hot Seat — and Consumers at the Center

Delicia Reynolds Hand, Senior Director of the Digital Marketplace at Consumer Reports (left).

On Tuesday, Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services convened a hearing on:

“Delivering for American Consumers: A Review of FinTech Innovations and Regulations.”

As fintech products increasingly function as core financial infrastructure — powering wages, payments, credit, and fraud prevention — lawmakers are grappling with a harder question: who carries the risk when innovation moves faster than accountability?

The witness list reflected that tension. Industry leaders from payments and earned wage access (EWA) testified alongside academics — and, critically, consumer advocates.

One of them was Delicia Reynolds Hand, Senior Director of the Digital Marketplace at Consumer Reports, and a recent guest on Humans of Fintech.

Her message was direct: fintech isn’t failing consumers — but too often, it’s shifting the cost of speed and efficiency onto them.

Why This Hearing Matters

By the end of 2025, two things are clear.

First, fintech is no longer “alternative.” It’s how millions of Americans get paid, move money, and access liquidity.

Second, artificial intelligence isn’t emerging — it’s embedded. AI systems are approving transactions, flagging fraud, freezing accounts, and denying credit at machine speed.

According to Consumer Reports research, consumers value convenience and access — but they’re increasingly worried about hidden fees, unclear dispute rights, excessive data sharing, and who’s accountable when things go wrong.

That anxiety cuts across product categories:

• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL): Consumers stack obligations across multiple providers with no clear view of total exposure.

• Peer-to-peer payments: Confusion over dispute rights and liability is widespread.

• Banking apps: Users report uncertainty around fees, data use, and fraud protections.

• Crypto and app-based platforms: Fear of fraud and loss of access to funds remains high.

The pattern isn’t anti-innovation. It’s anti-opacity.

The Policy Flashpoints

The hearing examined several draft bills that could reshape fintech’s regulatory future, including:

• A federal framework for Earned Wage Access, clarifying that EWA isn’t credit — a point consumer advocates strongly contested.

• Proposals to modernize regulators’ internal technology.

• A broader “Financial Services Innovation Act” that could allow fintechs to test new products under modified compliance rules.

• Updated guidance on AI model risk management.

Consumer Reports raised a consistent warning: regulation should follow function, not labels.

When products advance money, charge time-sensitive fees, and are repaid later, consumers deserve protections — regardless of how the product is marketed.

The Bigger Picture: Innovation Without a Referee

What makes this moment particularly fraught is what wasn’t fully addressed in the hearing room.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the primary “cop on the beat” for consumer finance — has seen its enforcement capacity sharply reduced. At the same time, Congress is considering legislation that could expand fintech activity and waive existing safeguards.

That combination matters.

As Hand noted, guardrails aren’t anti-innovation. They’re what prevent consumers from becoming the shock absorbers of automation — especially as AI-driven decisions scale instantly and invisibly.

Why Fintech Leaders Should Care

This hearing wasn’t about slowing fintech down.

It was about whether trust can scale alongside technology.

For founders, operators, and investors, the takeaway is clear: products that win in the next cycle won’t just be fast or clever — they’ll be legible, fair, and accountable when something breaks.

Because access without affordability isn’t access. It’s risk transfer.

I recently sat down with Delicia Reynolds Hand and her Consumer Reports colleagues on Humans of Fintech to explore in greater depth what real consumer trust requires.

Listen to the episode here.

#3 Fintech Funding Isn’t Back — It’s Concentrated

Gif by gilmoregirls on Giphy

If 2025 told us anything about fintech funding, it’s this: capital didn’t disappear — it got picky.

New data from Fintech Global Research shows global fintech funding rose 7% year-over-year to $96 billion, even as overall deal volume fell 19%. Fewer deals. Bigger checks. Much higher standards.

The clearest signal is at the top of the market:

• Deals over $100 million jumped 21% YoY, reaching $59.5 billion, while sub-$100M deals declined another 10%. Average deal size climbed to $27.1 million, up from $20.4M in 2024.

This isn’t a comeback. It’s a reallocation.

Compared to the frothy peak of 2021 — when fintech pulled in $375 billion across more than 16,000 deals — today’s market is still down 74% in funding and 78% in deal volume. What’s changed isn’t investor appetite. It’s investor tolerance.

The money is moving toward companies that already function as infrastructure.

A case in point: FNZ, the UK-based wealthtech platform, raised $650 million in one of the largest fintech deals of the year. FNZ supports more than $2.1 trillion in assets, works with 650+ financial institutions, and sits quietly behind the scenes of global wealth management.

It’s not flashy. It’s embedded. And that’s exactly why it got funded — again.

This ties directly to what we’re seeing elsewhere in fintech right now.

In Story #1, FIS doubled down on issuing infrastructure and agentic commerce — not experimentation, but scale and defensibility.

In Story #2, lawmakers and consumer advocates made it clear that trust, transparency, and accountability are no longer optional as fintech becomes core financial plumbing.

Funding is following the same logic.

In 2026, venture dollars aren’t chasing ideas. They’re chasing inevitability.

If your product disappears when budgets tighten, the market will remind you. If it stabilizes cash flow, protects consumers, or keeps money moving at scale — capital still shows up.

That’s the signal.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Booked and busy? Same. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16}

[NEW YORK] ​An Exclusive Room Filled with the Most Powerful Women in Fintech

On February 16, we gather for one of the most intimate and meaningful nights in fintech: The FEMMY Awards, presented by The Academy of Fintech.

The Academy of Fintech is a private, invite-driven membership community of 150+ fintech leaders inside the Fintech Is Femme ecosystem — founders, operators, investors, and executives shaping how money actually moves. Inside the Academy, we host ongoing masterclasses, closed-door conversations, and exclusive interviews with the people building momentum across fintech every single day.

The FEMMYs are our moment to come together — in person — and make that community visible.

This isn’t a typical awards show. It’s a rare room. One where relationships are built before the applause, where access is real, and where proximity matters. It’s also the one night a year when we open the doors and invite new members to experience the Academy in action.

This year, I’m thrilled to share our FEMMYs speaker lineup, featuring women who are actively shaping the future of fintech:

Sheila Lirio Marcelo, our 2024 Innovator of the Year, will return to present the 2025 Innovator Award to Luan Cox, President & CEO of FinMkt.

Lule Demmissie, our 2024 Vanguard Award recipient, will present the 2025 Vanguard Award to Asya Bradley — founder, investor, and VC Partnerships Lead at Stripe.

We’ll also hear remarks from Susan Langer, Founder & CEO of Spave and President of the Board of The Academy of Fintech, who will present the MVP award to Frances Zelazny, Founder & CEO of Anonybit, alongside our event co-chair, Melissa Magner.

This year, we’re going bigger, bolder, and more iconic:

• Old-school New York glamour

• Black-tie meets fintech

• Tables, speeches, and celebration

• A room full of decision-makers who actually move the industry

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Meet FTW: A three-part Summit Series during New York Fintech Week

https://fintech-week.co/new-york/

I’m so excited to officially share FTW: New York — a three-day, three-summit anchoring New York Fintech Week.

From April 28–30, the most influential operators, founders, investors, and decision-makers in fintech will gather in New York City — not for surface-level panels, but for real conversations about where this industry is actually headed.

After two years of strong growth from our flagship Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit and the successful launch of the Fintech Security Summit, we’re expanding with intention. This year, we’re partnering with leaders across venture, go-to-market, identity, and security to host three focused summits, each designed to go deeper — and deliver real value.

Here’s how the week breaks down:

Tuesday, April 28

The Fintech Summit — hosted by Fiat Growth and Drew Glover

→ AI, stablecoins, growth, distribution, and the next phase of fintech scale

Wednesday, April 29

The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit — with me, Nicole Casperson

→ Power, capital, executive leadership, and the people shaping fintech’s future

Thursday, April 30

The Fintech Security Summit — led by Frances Zelazny

→ Fraud, identity, biometrics, and trust as economic infrastructure

🎟️ Early bird tickets are live now.

If you have questions or are interested in sponsorship, just reply to this email, and I’ll get you connected with my team.

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_FINTUNES

🎵 KATSEYE — GNARLY

Because everything right now is gnarly.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

It’s been a busy (and exciting) week over at Fintech Is Femme HQ as we lock in our 2026 calendar — the stories we’re telling, the rooms we’re building, and the community we’re growing.

There’s a lot of noise out there right now. Which is why today’s column is all about fundamentals — what actually keeps companies, founders, and the economy steady when everything else feels loud.

I’ve also got updates on our first in-person gathering of the year, the FEMMY Awards on February 16, plus a new virtual event with Georgetown McDonough School of Business you won’t want to miss.

We’re also building out Fintech Week: our three-part Summit series during New York Fintech Week, April 28-30. More details soon. Early bird tickets are here.

Let’s get into it. 

_{ON SMBs}

The Economy Runs on Small Businesses. Cash Flow Is Their Lifeline.

Carolyn Rodz, CEO and co-founder of Hello Alice.

There’s a particular kind of stress you can’t chart.

It doesn’t show up neatly in GDP. It doesn’t have a ticker symbol. It lives in the space between an invoice sent and money received — in the waiting. In the way a founder checks their bank balance like it’s a pulse.

That stress is everywhere right now. And it’s why, when I think about 2026, I keep coming back to small businesses — not as a “Main Street” talking point, but as economic infrastructure.

Small businesses aren’t adjacent to the economy.

They are the economy.

They employ nearly half the workforce. They anchor local supply chains. And for millions of founders, cash flow — not innovation, not growth, not ambition — is the difference between “we’re fine” and “we’re not making payroll.”

That reality framed my recent conversation with Carolyn Rodz, co-founder and CEO of Hello Alice, a fintech company that has provided more than $60 million in grants and financing to more than 1.5 million small business owners, helping them access funding, networks, and services.

The Post-PPP Hangover — and What It Forced Founders to Face

“We went from a world where everything was about access to capital,” Rodz told me, “to a world where small businesses had to get real about the core fundamentals.”

If you built through 2024 and 2025, you know exactly what she means.

After the pandemic, capital didn’t just become available — it became a survival strategy.

PPP loans, emergency grants, local programs, endless applications. For many, that money was lifesaving. But it also rewired behavior. Founders began building around external capital instead of internal health.

Then the money tightened.

Grant funding slowed. Backstops disappeared. Margins shrank. And small businesses were forced to confront what was actually working — and what wasn’t.

The result was painful. But clarifying.

Rodz believes those years produced healthier companies — businesses that had to understand their cash flow, customer acquisition, and operating realities.

That shift matters because it changes what fintech is supposed to do.

When Cash Flow Becomes the Obsession, Fintech Becomes the Plumbing

As capital got tighter, something else happened: founders stopped chasing any money and started asking which money actually made sense.

The next era of small-business finance isn’t about more capital. It’s about better options—capital that fits the business rather than distorts it.

Secured cards that graduate into real credit. Lines of credit designed for operations, not pitch decks. Products that reduce wasted motion instead of adding complexity.

Small business owners don’t have time to cosplay as venture-backed startups. Too many founders chased VC because fintech blurred the line between “tech company” and “small business.”

They are not the same.

The founders who win in 2026 won’t be the ones who find capital first. They’ll be the ones who understand what kind of capital their business can actually carry without breaking.

Growth at all costs is out.

Endurance is in.

“All the Rest Is Noise”

Rodz told me Hello Alice uses a business health score — based on the same metrics banks, landlords, and procurement offices care about — to help founders focus on what actually matters.

Then she said this:

“If you stay focused on those pieces,” Rodz said, “you eliminate the noise and can actually pay attention to what matters.”

Customer acquisition. Cash flow. Emergency planning.

The fundamentals that don’t trend on social media — but determine whether a business survives a tariff shock, a supplier disruption, a flood, or a random Tuesday when revenue doesn’t show up on time.

This is the quiet divide in fintech right now:

Some products help small businesses manage reality.

Others just help them feel busy.

In 2026, busy will stop selling.

Prepared will win.

The Silver Tsunami No One Is Pricing In

A wave of baby boomer business owners is retiring. Millions of small businesses have no transition plan. Without one, businesses don’t just close. They disintegrate — taking jobs, capital, and community stability with them.

“All of that capital and value disappears,” Rodz warned.

It also creates one of the most important fintech questions of the next decade:

Are we building tools that help businesses transfer — not just start?

Buyers exist. Search funds exist. Micro-PE exists.

But they only show up when the fundamentals are clean.

“If you have a healthy business,” Rodz said, “there’s going to be a buyer. If it’s in shambles, it’s really hard.”

This is fintech as infrastructure — not helping someone raise money, but helping them build something that can outlive them. Long-term thinking.

Technology Lowers Barriers — and Changes the Shape of Work

AI is reducing the cost of starting a business. Rodz noted that you can now “build a team with one person” and that agents can handle core functions.

That’s powerful.

It’s also disruptive.

New businesses may be leaner. Job creation may look different. And founders will be asked to do more with less — longer.

We can celebrate entrepreneurship and ask hard questions about labor. We can build tools that make starting easier and systems that don’t turn workers into shock absorbers for efficiency.

That tension is the economy being rebuilt in real time.

What This Means for 2026

Here’s the lens I’m taking into the year ahead:

Small business fintech is about endurance.

The products that matter most will offer:

• cash flow predictability

• clarity on business health

• systems that reduce noise

• tools that make businesses transferable

• pathways to emergency-ready operations

Because fintech that makes a small business easier to run is fintech that stabilizes the economy.

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY}

I’m so excited to officially share this year’s Honorees and Presenters for the Second Annual FEMMY Awards, hosted by The Academy of Fintech — and this room is going to be exceptional.

• Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder of Care.com and one of only seven women in history to take a company public, returns as our 2024 Innovator of the Year to present the 2025 Innovator Award to Luan Cox, President & CEO of FinMkt — a category-defining builder shaping the infrastructure behind modern fintech.

• Lule Demmissie, former CEO of eToro U.S. and a longtime leader in inclusive investing, returns to present the 2025 Vanguard Award to Asya Bradley, founder, investor, LP at Kinship Ventures, and VC Partnerships Lead at Stripe — honoring leadership that moves capital, power, and opportunity across the industry.

• We’ll also introduce our first-ever MVP Award, presented by Susan Langer, Founder & CEO of Spave and President of the Board of The Academy of Fintech, and awarded to Frances Zelazny, Founder & CEO of Anonybit — recognizing a community leader whose behind-the-scenes impact has materially strengthened the Fintech Is Femme ecosystem.

This is not just an awards night. It’s a rare room — founders, CEOs, investors, and operators who actually shape fintech, gathered to celebrate, connect, and set the tone for the year ahead. Seats are limited, and this one will fill.

_#SPONSORED

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_{WTF ELSE?}

• The fintech rebundling is already here

• White House move shocks Wall Street's favorite banks

• Betterment confirms data breach after hackers send fake crypto scam notification 

• Global fintech deals over $100M increased by 21% YoY, pushing funding higher in 2025

• Citi moves ahead With 1,000 job cuts as Fraser's overhaul continues

• UAE Fintechs drive next phase of financial inclusion

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 😎 Today’s Fit: My stylist just put me onto these sunglasses, and they’ve somehow become my entire personality. Is it just me, or does wearing sunglasses in winter actually make your face feel warmer?

• 🍿 Today’s Watch: Proof that rejection is redirection — Ejae’s Golden Globes acceptance speech after winning Best Song in a Motion Picture for K-Pop Demon Hunters. So good.

• 🌍 Today’s Activity: Handwriting exercises. My handwriting is… a work in progress, but an hour off screens every Tuesday has been surprisingly grounding — and my cortisol agrees.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Bruno Mars - I Just Might

So much swag.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Welcome back — how are we feeling?

At Fintech Is Femme HQ, this week was what we lovingly call a burn week: recording, writing, directing, and building something new in collaboration with Fintech Meetup. I can’t say much yet, but I can say I’ll see you in Vegas this March.

Behind the scenes, we’ve also been sharpening what this ecosystem is meant to feel like. The world is loud right now. The news is heavy. And fintech — like everything else — can feel wildly overstimulating.

My goal here has always been simple: to make Fintech Is Femme a place you actually want to show up to. A space to focus on building a better financial future — together. One where founders, operators, and leaders have each other’s backs while doing the hard, meaningful work of shaping an economy that works for everyone.

That work matters. And it leaves a mark. I’m grateful to build this stage with you.

Today, I’ve got three new stories — and make sure you scroll, because our upcoming events are very much calendar-worthy.

Let’s get into it. ✨

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 JPMorgan Is Taking Over the Apple Card – And Goldman Is Officially Out

The nation’s largest bank has reached a deal to become the new issuer of the Apple credit card, assuming roughly $20 billion in balances and closing the book on Goldman Sachs’ short-lived (and costly) experiment in consumer banking. 

For JPMorgan, it’s a power move. The bank deepens its grip on the U.S. credit-card market and gains direct access to one of the most loyal consumer ecosystems in the world. 

For Apple, it’s a reset — swapping a struggling partner for a bank with the balance sheet, risk infrastructure, and scale to actually support mass-market lending, savings, and payments. 

Mastercard stays on as the network, keeping the payments rails unchanged.

Goldman? It’s exiting at a reported $1B+ discount, an expensive but clarifying step as the firm retreats from consumer finance and refocuses on its core businesses. 

Why This Matters

This deal is less about a credit card — and more about how financial products now reach people at scale.

We’re firmly in the era of distribution-driven finance. Payments, credit, and savings increasingly live inside the devices people already use every day — phones, watches, apps — rather than inside bank branches or standalone fintech apps. 

Apple controls one of the most powerful consumer distribution channels in the world. JPMorgan controls one of the deepest balance sheets and most sophisticated risk engines in finance.

But here’s the open question: can this partnership actually get users on the Apple Card?

And maybe more importantly — is that even what matters?

Because the bigger story here isn’t about rehabilitating a single credit product. It’s about who controls distribution in modern finance — and how much that control is worth.

Apple didn’t need Goldman to innovate. It needed a bank willing and able to scale risk across tens of millions of users, absorb losses when cycles turn, and quietly make the plumbing work. JPMorgan, for its part, isn’t chasing sleek UX awards. It’s buying access — to Apple’s ecosystem, behavioral data, and embedded surface area across phones, watches, and wallets.

That’s the real asset.

In that context, whether the Apple Card becomes a “great” card matters less than whether it becomes a gateway — a durable on-ramp into savings, payments, and lending that lives where consumers already are. JPMorgan reportedly planning an Apple savings product points directly at that strategy.

There’s also a harder question lurking underneath: do these players even intend to expand meaningfully into Apple’s more subprime customer base?

The portfolio JPMorgan is inheriting contains more lower-credit borrowers than the bank would typically target. Historically, big banks don’t move down-market out of altruism — they do it when distribution, data, and cross-sell potential justify the risk. 

If JPMorgan can use Apple’s ecosystem to graduate customers up the credit curve — from entry-level credit to deposits, payments, and eventually higher-margin products — inclusion becomes a byproduct of strategy, not a standalone goal.

That’s embedded finance at scale.

For fintech founders and operators, this is the signal to pay attention to in 2026:

The winners won’t just build better products — they’ll secure irreplaceable distribution, align with balance sheets that can survive volatility, and design pathways that let customers grow over time.

Apple and JPMorgan aren’t betting on a card.

They’re betting on control of the financial interface — and that’s where the future of fintech is being decided. JPMorgan said that the deal will take about 24 months to close.

#2 The Fintech Effect 2025: Consumers Are Officially in the Driver’s Seat

Fintech app penetration has hit 78%, up 20 points since 2020, according to Plaid’s Fintech Effect 2025 report based on a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted with The Harris Poll.

After writing in Tuesday’s column about affordability breaking down, this data solidifies our industry’s role in the larger economy and culture. Nearly 1 in 5 consumers now expects to use six or more fintech apps in the next six months.

Payments remain the top use case, but wealth, credit, and payroll-advance tools have increased users since 2020.

Five years ago, fintech was optional.

In 2025, it’s the default infrastructure.

Why It Matters

This is the shift fintech leaders can’t afford to miss.

• 61% of consumers say fintech is helping them weather economic challenges

• 75% say fintech has increased their confidence about money

• 88% say fintech has helped them in a concrete, tangible way

That’s not passive usage — that’s dependency.

Consumers aren’t just checking balances anymore. They’re asking fintech to help them make decisions, navigate uncertainty, and regain a sense of control in an economy that feels increasingly unstable.

And the pressure is real:

• 76% say their paycheck doesn’t stretch as far as it did a year ago

• 68% are worried about the broader economy

• 68% are anxious about job security

So people are adjusting — fast.

85% have taken conscious action to manage their finances, from cutting discretionary spending to finding new income streams. Nearly half of Gen Z reports taking on side hustles, not as a flex — but as survival strategy.

Trust isn’t gone — but it’s conditional

One of the most interesting findings? Consumers are more open — but only if the value exchange is clear.

• 70% feel comfortable sharing financial data with digital tools they trust

• 62% are okay with apps remembering their identity if it speeds up sign-in

• 77% expect their bank to connect seamlessly with their apps

• 66% would switch banks if that connectivity isn’t there

Open banking isn’t a feature anymore.

It’s table stakes.

Same with AI:

• 57% expect fintech apps to use AI

• 73% want clear guardrails and transparency

Consumers don’t want magic. They want explainable intelligence.

What this means for fintech leaders

This report isn’t just consumer sentiment — it’s a strategy memo.

Consumers are telling us:

• Don’t just track my money — help me understand it

• Don’t just automate — protect me

• Don’t just innovate — earn my trust every day

Fintech is no longer competing on novelty.

It’s competing on reliability, clarity, and outcomes.

And that’s the real takeaway: In an economy defined by volatility, fintech has become a financial partner — not just a product.

#3 Garima Shah’s Biller Genie Raises $22M Series B to Fix SMBs’ Most Critical Problem

“Getting paid shouldn’t be the hardest part of running a business,” Garima Shah, Co-Founder & President of Biller Genie, told me in an interview. “But for most small businesses, it still is.”

That simple truth is what Biller Genie was built to fix — and why the company just raised $22 million in Series B funding to expand its accounts receivable automation platform for small and mid-sized businesses.

The raise, announced this week, will fuel Biller Genie’s global expansion and continued product development, helping SMBs automate invoicing, payment collection, follow-ups, and reconciliation across the accounting systems they already use.

Since launching in 2020, the company has grown revenue at a 126% compound annual growth rate, a signal that the problem it’s tackling isn’t niche — it’s foundational.

Why It Matters

Small businesses don’t fail because demand disappears.

They fail because cash flow breaks.

The average SMB waits 47–50 days to get paid on an invoice. Nearly two months. That delay turns into missed payroll, deferred growth, and reliance on credit just to stay afloat.

AR automation may not be flashy — but it’s foundational.

According to PYMNTS Intelligence, 59% of SMBs say cash flow forecasting is their top challenge when AR is manual. Tools like Biller Genie cut payment cycles down to about a week, which can be the difference between survival and shutdown — especially in volatile economic moments like this one.

The Fintech Angle

This raise is a reminder of where fintech’s most durable value lives right now:

• Solving unsexy, operational problems

• Embedding into existing workflows (QuickBooks, Xero, bank systems)

• Prioritizing distribution over direct-to-consumer hype

Biller Genie doesn’t sell flashy dashboards. It acts like a quiet AR assistant — nudging customers, offering payment options, reconciling in the background — and it largely sells through banks and financial institutions SMBs already trust.

The Bigger Picture

SMBs employ nearly half the U.S. workforce. When they don’t get paid, the economic impact is immediate and local.

Fintech doesn’t need another app promising reinvention.

It needs more founders like Shah focusing on the basics — and executing them relentlessly.

Sometimes the biggest fintech wins are about fixing what never worked — and making sure people get paid, on time, for work they’ve already done.

You can catch my full conversation with founder Garima Shah for the deeper story behind the company here.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Booked and busy? Same. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] Meet the trio of Summits holding down New York Fintech Week 2026

https://fintech-week.co/new-york/

I’m so excited to officially share FTW: New York — a three-day, three-summit anchoring New York Fintech Week.

From April 28–30, the most influential operators, founders, investors, and decision-makers in fintech will gather in New York City — not for surface-level panels, but for real conversations about where this industry is actually headed.

After two years of strong growth from our flagship Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit and the successful launch of the Fintech Security Summit, we’re expanding with intention. This year, we’re partnering with leaders across venture, go-to-market, identity, and security to host three focused summits, each designed to go deeper — and deliver real value.

Here’s how the week breaks down:

Tuesday, April 28

The Fintech Summit — hosted by Fiat Growth and Drew Glover

→ AI, stablecoins, growth, distribution, and the next phase of fintech scale

Wednesday, April 29

The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit — with me, Nicole Casperson

→ Power, capital, executive leadership, and the people shaping fintech’s future

Thursday, April 30

The Fintech Security Summit — led by Frances Zelazny

→ Fraud, identity, biometrics, and trust as economic infrastructure

🎟️ Early bird tickets are live now.

If you have questions or are interested in sponsorship, just reply to this email, and I’ll get you connected with my team.

_{MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16}

[NEW YORK] THE FEMMY AWARDS: Presented by The Academy of Fintech

Innovator of the Year Sheila Lirio Marcelo during the inaugural FEMMY Awards, by the Academy of Fintech.

On February 16, we gather for one of the most intimate and meaningful nights in fintech: The FEMMY Awards, presented by The Academy of Fintech.

The Academy of Fintech is a private, invite-driven membership community of 150+ fintech leaders inside the Fintech Is Femme ecosystem — founders, operators, investors, and executives shaping how money actually moves. Inside the Academy, we host ongoing masterclasses, closed-door conversations, and exclusive interviews with the people building momentum across fintech every single day.

The FEMMYs are our moment to come together — in person — and make that community visible.

This isn’t a typical awards show. It’s a rare room. One where relationships are built before the applause, where access is real, and where proximity matters. It’s also the one night a year when we open the doors and invite new members to experience the Academy in action.

During the FEMMYs, we’ll honor four women whose work is actively shaping fintech’s present and future:

Innovator of the Year

Awarded to a builder redefining what’s possible through technology, scale, and execution.

Last year’s honoree: Sheila Lirio Marcelo — founder of Care.com, founder and CEO of Ohai.ai, the seventh woman ever to take a company public, and the first Asian American woman to do so.

Vanguard Award

Recognizing an industry leader whose long-term impact has pushed fintech forward in enduring ways.

Last year’s recipient: Lule Demmissie, former CEO of eToro US, for her trailblazing leadership in fintech and wealth management.

MVP Award (new this year)

Presented to an Academy member whose dedication to the community went beyond participation — hosting her own summits, bringing in sponsors, and actively strengthening the ecosystem from the inside.

If you’re thinking about joining the Academy, expanding your network, or simply want to be closer to the leaders shaping fintech right now — this is the night you don’t want to miss.

✨ Come dressed to celebrate.

✨ Come ready to connect.

✨ Come because proximity changes everything.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Doechii - girl, get up. (Feat. SZA)

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Happy first week of 2026 — and the first Tuesday newsletter of the year.

Over the break, I spent a lot of time thinking about our word for the year at Fintech Is Femme: Transformation.

The real, uncomfortable, exciting kind. The kind that happens when a scrappy startup grows up.

As Fintech Is Femme continues to scale as both a media platform and a community, I’ve been encouraging our team (and myself) to push further into our creativity and craft — to get sharper, bolder, and more intentional about how we tell stories and why they matter.

For me, that means stretching. Every Tuesday this year, I’m challenging myself to do something new — experimenting with my writing, voice, and storytelling.

You’ve loved this newsletter for four years, and I don’t take that lightly. As we enter this next era, I’m giving myself permission to try different formats, new segments, and bolder opinion columns.

So in today’s issue, you’ll notice a few new things I’m trying on — especially as we spotlight The Academy of Fintech and our growing slate of events. (Yes, this is also me saying: I really want to see you in person.)

Thanks for growing with us.

Let’s get into it.

_{SIT WITH US}

• Jan 12 (Virtual) Best-In-Show Fintech Showcase: 5 standout female founders. Live investor feedback from Mastercard, FIS, Fiserv, TruStage & Artemis. This is not a pitch fest — it’s a masterclass. Join us here.

• February 16 (NYC): Join us for the second annual FEMMY Awards, presented by the Academy of Fintech. An evening honoring the trailblazers shaping fintech history and giving them their flowers. This is celebration in community, not competition. Save your seat now. Not a member yet? Apply for membership or grab a general admission ticket to the FEMMYs here.

  The Academy of Fintech is also hosting more than 40+ virtual masterclasses this year. You can access them through a membership.

• April 28–30, New York Fintech Week is coming. I can’t wait to share what we’re building, but for now, early-bird tickets are live for those who already know they need to be in the room. Join us for the third annual Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit here by grabbing your 1-day all-access pass.

_{ON LEADERSHIP}

Fintech’s Real Test Isn’t Innovation. It’s Stability.

Attendees at the Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit during New York Fintech Week 2025.

Early Saturday morning, President Donald Trump confirmed that U.S. military forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The charges—drug trafficking and weapons-related crimes—will be tried in New York.

By Sunday, the rhetoric escalated.

Trump said the United States would “run” Venezuela until a “safe, proper, and judicious transition” could take place. He did not rule out boots on the ground. He floated American control of Venezuelan oil reserves and promised billions in U.S. investment to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

It was bold. It was loud. It was dramatic.

And it followed a familiar pattern.

A sweeping assertion of power. A belief that decisive intervention can impose order. A promise that control will stabilize what complexity has eroded.

We have seen this movie before.

I remember a version of it during the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis—one I later reported on as a young journalist, and eventually revisited in my book, Fintech Feminists. 

Back then, the belief was that markets, left largely to their own devices, would self-correct; that risk could be sliced, securitized, and dispersed without consequence.

We know how that ended. The Big Short was not based on fiction.

What followed was not stability, but prolonged uncertainty. Systems strained under pressure that they were never designed to bear. And when the news cycle moved on, households were left to pick up the pieces.

That history matters now.

Because when political theater dominates the news cycle, I find myself returning to the same question:

What does this actually have to do with fintech?

While global power plays unfold, something quieter—and far more personal—is happening at home.

Affordability is breaking.

Not corporate affordability. Consumer affordability.

Healthcare remains inaccessible or prohibitively expensive. The cost of basic goods continues to rise. In New York City, the newly sworn-in mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has centered affordability not just as a campaign slogan, but as an emergency.

The disconnect is difficult to ignore.

Consumers are wondering: Why are we talking about controlling foreign oil reserves when a stick of deodorant costs more than an hour of minimum-wage work?

That tension matters for fintech because fintech does not operate in a vacuum. It operates inside the lived economy—the one people feel when rent clears, when healthcare bills arrive, when a credit decision determines whether a business survives another quarter.

And here is the shift fintech leaders must confront: when trust in institutions erodes, expectations change.

People no longer want innovation for innovation’s sake. They want relief. They want predictability. They want systems that do not collapse when life does.

The old American script—go to college, get a job, pay down debt, buy a house—no longer feels credible for most people. And when the script breaks, behavior follows.

We are seeing it everywhere.

A surge in entrepreneurship, especially among women, is driven more by necessity than by optimism.

A rise in financial nihilism, where consumers treat debt as inevitable and speculative markets as coping mechanisms.

And quietly, a renewed interest in consumer fintech—not the flashy kind, but the functional kind.

This is where fintech’s role in 2026 becomes unmistakable.

Fintech is no longer primarily about access. It is about stability.

The companies that endured did not win because they were novel. They won because they reduced uncertainty.

Stripe, Shopify, and Plaid became infrastructure by powering how money actually moves across the internet economy.

Brex, Ramp, Mercury, and SVB became essential because they helped founders manage cash flow, survive volatility, and make decisions with clarity.

Consumer fintech names like Chime and SoFi matter not just because they went public, but because they normalized banking, saving, and money management for people long excluded from traditional finance.

That is why we are seeing traction in products that:

• Smooth cash flow instead of punishing volatility

• Make investing feel manageable, not intimidating

• Treat healthcare and student debt as financial realities, not edge cases

• Approach fraud prevention and identity as protection, not friction

This is where fintech either proves its value—or loses relevance entirely.

Because growth without trust is fragile.

And power without accountability always comes due.

Which brings me to leadership.

Interviewing 2024 Innovator of the Year Sheila Lirio Marcelo at the FEMMY awards.

Building through moments like this requires restraint, clarity, and empathy. It requires leaders who understand that scale amplifies consequences, and that systems designed without care eventually fail the people inside them.

That is why spaces like the FEMMY Awards, presented by The Academy of Fintech, matter more than ever.

Not as an awards night. Not as a celebration for celebration’s sake.

But as a signal.

A signal that the future of fintech is built by the founders, operators, and allocators who remain focused on what actually stabilizes systems when everything else feels volatile.

What we have built with the FEMMYs is not about competitive stress, but collective recognition. About giving women in fintech their flowers—without forcing them into false rivalry.

Numbers and ROI matter. But performance in fintech runs deeper than any fundraise.

Every founder takes real risks to solve problems they are obsessed with—often for people who have historically been excluded from the system. Each effort leaves a mark on the economy we are all shaping.

I am grateful to share space with the leaders and entrepreneurs we will honor this February 16.

Choosing who you want to be. Choosing the impact you want to have. And having the courage to build that again, every day.

That act of reinvention is something I strive for in building Fintech Is Femme—telling stories honestly, offering guidance, and creating spaces where we can learn and lead together.

Want to join us for the FEMMYs?

With that, here is my lens for 2026.

2026 In’s:

• Real-economy fintech

• Standards over trends

• Women allocating capital

• Profitability with principles

• Financial health as a core KPI

• Fintech as infrastructure

2026 Out’s:

• Copy-paste fintech

• AI without accountability

• Visibility without authority

• Growth that outruns trust

• Vanity metrics disguised as traction

_{I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY}

Danielle Hill, co-founder and COO of Upward

In November, I published a piece on my Forbes contributor page spotlighting Danielle Hill, co-founder and COO of Upward, following the company’s $8 million raise and strategic partnership with Mastercard.

This is the caliber of women building inside the Academy of Fintech: operators scaling real companies, closing meaningful capital, and landing enterprise partnerships that move markets — not just headlines.

If you want a glimpse of what leadership in fintech actually looks like right now, start with Danielle’s story. Read it here on Forbes.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📰 Today’s Read: What to Wear at Midnight and the Morning After (If You’re the First Lady of New York) by stylist and former Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson.

• 🍿 Today’s Watch: Our fabulous podcast editor insisted that I would love watching Mad Men (never saw it). She’s right. It’s insane. So much smoking. I’m hooked.

• 🌍 Today’s Activity: For years, Anton has asked me to plan our whole year ahead of time. Because my job is unpredictable, this always seemed too hard and unnecessary. But now, we're finally doing it. We're planning the year week by week using a simple Excel sheet. I have to admit, seeing 52 rows on a Google Sheet makes the year feel really short. Highly recommend.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Silvana Estrada — Dime

Great focus work vibes. Give it a try.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you on Thursday.

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey, fintech fam 💜

Happy 2026. Truly — we made it.

I love the energy of a new year, but this one feels different. Not because everything is shiny or solved (it isn’t), but because the signals are finally clear.

Fintech is growing up. The stakes are higher. And the stories that matter now are sharper, more human, and far more consequential.

At Fintech Is Femme, we don’t chase trends. We watch where systems strain — and cover who steps up to fix them.

Behind the scenes, we’ve been deep in planning mode, mapping the coverage, conversations, and rooms we’re building in early 2026. January through April is already booked and busy — and yes, we’re stepping back into New York Fintech Week in a much bigger way.

The format is evolving. The focus is sharper. And alongside Drew Glover and Frances Zelazny, we’re building something that turns content and community into pipeline (see below for more on this).

Our flagship event, the Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit, returns for its third year, and early-bird tickets are now available. Details (and tickets) are here.

January virtual events are on deck. The FEMMY Awards return in February. March brings the next chapter of Fintech Penthouse with Fintech Meetup. We’re just getting started.

Alright — let’s get into it.

Health, wealth, and fraud are setting the agenda for 2026, and today’s stories sit right at the center of it all.

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I break down the fintech stories that matter most—grounded in my reporting, interviews with industry leaders, and what I’m seeing unfold across the industry.

#1 HSBC Bets on Ida Liu as $100 Trillion in Wealth Changes Hands

Ida Liu, CEO of HSBC Private Bank

HSBC is making a clear statement about where private banking is headed — and who it believes should lead it there.

On December 22, the British bank announced that Ida Liu, former global head of Citi’s private bank, will become CEO of HSBC Private Bank effective January 5, 2026. Liu will report to Barry O’Byrne, CEO of HSBC International Wealth and Premier Banking, and will be charged with deepening HSBC’s leadership among ultra-high-net-worth clients while accelerating global growth.

In her announcement, Liu called this “a defining moment for wealth,” pointing to a client base that is increasingly global, entrepreneurial, and multi-generational. 

That framing isn’t new for her — it’s been her thesis for years.

Liu arrives at HSBC after more than two decades in wealth management and strategic advisory roles, including 18 years at Citi Private Bank, where she helped build and scale its platform from the ground up.

She exited Citi earlier this year after the bank eliminated her role in favor of a regional leadership structure — a move that underscored growing tensions around how global wealth franchises should be run in an increasingly fragmented, cross-border world.

HSBC, by contrast, is doubling down on a single global leader at a moment when private banking clients are becoming harder to define — and harder to serve.

Why Ida Liu — and Why Now

I met Liu back in 2020, when I was still at InvestmentNews, prepping her for an episode of Her Success Matters, a women’s leadership podcast I helped produce. Even then, what stood out wasn’t just her résumé — it was her clarity. She spoke less about legacy structures and more about what wealth needed to become.

She’s been remarkably consistent ever since.

On stages from Bloomberg to The Female Quotient, Liu has repeated a fact that should be keeping every private bank executive up at night: we are already in the middle of the largest wealth transfer in history.

Roughly $100 trillion is expected to move to next-gen and millennial clients over the next decade. About $30 trillion of that is moving into women’s hands — and by 2030, women are projected to control more than half of global wealth.

That’s not a niche shift. It’s a regime change.

What changes isn’t just who holds the money — it’s how they expect it to work. Women and next-gen clients don’t want impact investing as a side pocket. They expect purpose, values, and long-term thinking to be embedded into the core of their portfolios. They want education, community, and platforms that reflect the complexity of their lives — not a rebrand of old models.

From Fashion to Finance, by Way of Cultural Fluency

Liu’s perspective is shaped by a career path that doesn’t resemble the traditional private banking playbook.

An American-born Chinese raised between the U.S. and Asia, Liu credits her bicultural upbringing as a competitive advantage in global business. After graduating from Wellesley College, she began her career in investment banking before pivoting into fashion, joining designer Vivienne Tam.

There, she expanded the brand into Europe and China, doubled revenue, and forged strategic partnerships with companies like Mandarin Oriental and Cathay Pacific.

It was in fashion — not finance — that Liu spotted a gap in wealth management services for creative, global, and entrepreneurial clients. She took that insight to Citi, where she helped build a private banking division tailored to founders, executives, and families operating across borders.

Private Banking’s Next Evolution

HSBC’s bet on Liu aligns closely with its broader fintech outlook.

In a 2025 report, HSBC Innovation Banking identified a new inflection point driven by platform convergence, embedded finance, and AI-native products. The message was clear: all companies are becoming fintechs — and wealth management must evolve alongside them.

As platforms collide and financial services embed deeper into non-financial ecosystems, private banking can no longer afford to be static or siloed. It has to operate seamlessly across geographies, generations, and business models. Private banks that can’t integrate modern platforms, understand entrepreneurial liquidity cycles, or serve globally mobile clients will lose relevance — fast.

As fintech and wealth collide in 2026, the question won’t be whether private banking modernizes.

It will be who gets to define what “modern” actually looks like.

HSBC’s move suggests it wants to be part of that answer.

And Ida Liu has been preparing for this moment her entire career.

#2 Forela Is Tackling Healthcare’s Most Expensive Failure — Fragmentation

Juliana Di Simone, Founder & CEO, Forela

If you’ve followed my work over the years, you know wealth management innovation (read: wealth tech) was one of my favorite beats. A newer one I’ve been paying closer attention to? Health care colliding with fintech. 

In the United States, healthcare isn’t just a policy debate. It’s a balance-sheet event. Even for people with insurance, care is expensive, fragmented, and exhausting. And for women — especially those with chronic or autoimmune conditions — the system has failed quietly, over decades.

That’s the gap health tech startup Forela is working to close.

I recently spoke with Juliana Di Simone, Forela’s founder and CEO, and her story crystallizes why health tech is becoming a fintech problem — fast.

A Systemic Cost Problem Hiding in Plain Sight

We talk about healthcare as if it’s a system. In reality, it’s a collection of silos—each optimized for itself, rarely for the whole. The result isn’t just frustration or delay; it’s a slow, accumulating cost that ripples through patient outcomes, workforce productivity, and the economy at large.

Autoimmune diseases cost the U.S. economy approximately $180 billion annually in direct healthcare expenses, not to mention the billions more in lost productivity.

This isn’t a niche women’s health issue. It’s a structural failure with massive economic consequences.

Today, 1 in 5 Americans lives with an autoimmune condition. Roughly 80% are women, yet care models still largely ignore female biology and the reality that these conditions are often multi-system, not isolated.

There are more than 100 known autoimmune diseases, many with overlapping symptoms, inflammatory pathways, and comorbidities — yet care remains siloed by specialty. 

Conditions like endometriosis, which affects 1 in 10 women, frequently coexist with autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, acting as early warning signals of broader dysfunction across immune, gut, hormonal, and nervous systems.

The financial impact is staggering. The cost of fragmentation shows up everywhere:

• ~$500 billion per year in overall economic burden

• $100+ billion annually in payer costs driven by repeated utilization and escalation

• ~$580,000 in annual losses per 1,000 employees from just five autoimmune conditions

• ~$81,000 per disability claim, with long-term disability averaging 287 lost workdays per year

• Women shoulder higher out-of-pocket costs and disproportionate financial toxicity

The system keeps paying — repeatedly — for misdiagnosis, delay, ER visits, unnecessary escalation, and long-term disability. Not because the care doesn’t exist, but because no one owns continuity.

Why Forela Exists

Forela was born out of Di Simone’s own experience navigating 27 years of undiagnosed endometriosis and related comorbidities.

What ultimately helped her recover wasn’t a single drug or procedure. It was coordination — understanding how symptoms across her body connected over time, and aligning multiple specialists around a shared picture of what was actually happening.

That insight became Forela.

Rather than treating healthcare as episodic and reactive, Forela acts as a longitudinal intelligence layer, bringing together symptoms, labs, imaging, medications, and real-world context. The goal isn’t to replace clinicians — it’s to give both patients and providers better visibility, earlier signals, and fewer expensive mistakes.

As Di Simone told me: patients are already doing the work of care coordination themselves. 

Forela’s aim is to shift continuity from something women are forced to create, into something the system can finally hold.

The ROI of Fixing Fragmentation

Here’s where fintech leaders should be paying attention.

Research from IQuity suggests that using predictive analytics to identify at-risk autoimmune patients could unlock more than $18 billion in potential health system savings. Not through new drugs. Not through moonshot breakthroughs. But by doing something deceptively simple: seeing patterns earlier and acting on them together.

Imagine a system where care is coordinated before patients spiral into emergency visits. Where the right specialist is engaged at the right time. Where adherence improves because plans actually reflect how people live. Where disability and escalation are the exception, not the default.

The value doesn’t come from reinventing medicine. It comes from making existing care work the way it was always supposed to.

Forela’s insight is refreshingly clear: the ROI isn’t in AI replacing clinicians — it’s in intelligence helping clinicians intervene earlier, route smarter, and stay aligned over time.

That’s a fintech thesis applied to healthcare infrastructure: reduce friction, surface risk sooner, and align incentives so the system finally rewards prevention over repair.

And if that sounds familiar, it should.

Where Forela Is Headed

Forela is preparing to launch a closed beta in early 2026, partnering with eight specialist providers and supporting roughly 400 patients. The company is intentionally early-stage and moving carefully — prioritizing clinical validation, accuracy, and trust over speed.

Forela starts with women and complex chronic care because that’s where fragmentation is most visible — but the long-term vision is broader: becoming part of the infrastructure that allows complex care to function across systems.

As fintech continues to argue that financial health is health, Forela is doing the complex work: building the connective tissue that makes that statement operational. And that’s exactly the kind of crossover this industry should be watching.

Join Forela’s waitlist here.

#3 The Next Identity Reckoning: What to Prepare for in 2026

Frances Zelazny, co-founder and CEO of Anonybit

If 2025 was the year fraud became impossible to ignore, 2026 will be the year it stops being treated like a side problem.

That’s the throughline in Frances Zelazny’s 2026 predictions on fraud, biometrics, and digital identity — and it’s one every fintech leader should be paying attention to.

Zelazny, co-founder and CEO of Anonybit, has spent years operating at the intersection of identity, privacy, and fraud prevention. Her takeaway heading into 2026 is clear: the systems we rely on to prove who someone is — and protect them when things go wrong — are being stress-tested from every direction at once.

Fraud Is Getting Smarter — And Less Visible

Much of the public conversation has focused on deepfakes. But Zelazny argues the bigger threat is quieter: injection attacks.

Unlike deepfakes, injection attacks bypass cameras and sensors entirely, feeding synthetic data directly into capture pipelines. That makes traditional defenses like liveness detection irrelevant. It’s not a future problem — it’s a present blind spot.

In 2026, she predicts organizations will be forced to rethink verification architecture itself, not just detection models. Secure capture, end-to-end integrity, and system-level controls will matter as much as — if not more than — AI accuracy.

Privacy Moves From Marketing to Procurement

Another inflection point: biometric privacy.

For years, vendors treated privacy as a positioning exercise. In 2025, buyers started asking harder questions — where biometric data lives, whether it can be reconstructed, and what happens when identity needs to move across systems.

Zelazny believes 2026 is when privacy-by-design becomes table stakes. Secure biometric storage won’t be a “nice to have” — it will be a procurement requirement. Proof will matter more than promises.

The Beginning of the End for Standalone IDV

Identity verification surged in help-desk and account recovery flows over the past year. But IDV is slow, expensive, and frustrating — and it doesn’t scale well.

In 2026, Zelazny expects reliance on standalone IDV to plateau as new models take shape: server-side biometrics embedded into workflows, risk-based authenticators using real-time signals, and continuous identity assurance that blends both.

Together, they mark a shift away from episodic checks toward persistent trust.

Passkeys Aren’t the Finish Line

Passkeys made real progress in 2025, dramatically reducing phishing and credential theft. But they didn’t solve account takeover — they just moved attackers to softer edges like recovery flows, shared devices, and social engineering.

In 2026, passkeys will be treated as a starting point, not a solution. The pressure will be on organizations to address what happens after authentication: recovery, governance, and identity continuity.

Fraud Budgets Will Have to Justify Themselves

With tighter budgets ahead, Zelazny predicts fraud and identity leaders will need to quantify their impact more clearly than ever.

Fraud isn’t just losses — it’s operational drag, customer support costs, false positives, abandoned applications, and lost lifetime value. In 2026, the teams that can translate identity decisions into business outcomes will win budget — and influence.

The Bigger Shift

Taken together, these trends point to a bigger transition: from fragmented point solutions to end-to-end identity platforms, where trust is continuous, privacy is foundational, and accountability is built in.

Fraud is no longer just something fintech reacts to. It’s something fintech is being redesigned around.

If you want the full breakdown — including predictions on agentic AI, scams, regulation, and insurance-backed guarantees — Frances’ complete 2026 outlook is well worth the read.

Consider this your primer. The reckoning is already underway.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Booked and busy? Same. Every Thursday, I share fintech events worth adding to your calendar— both IRL and online.

_{APRIL 28-30}

[NEW YORK] New York Fintech Week is back — and this year, we’re anchoring the week.

From April 28-30, the most influential operators, founders, investors, and decision-makers in fintech will gather in New York City.

Instead of scaling one massive event, we’re expanding into three focused summits, each designed to go deeper — more valuable:

Tuesday, April 28

The Fintech Summit, hosted by Fiat Growth and Drew Glover

→ Technical, AI, stablecoins, growth, distribution, and the next phase of fintech scale

Wednesday, April 29

The Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit with Nicole Casperson

→ Power, capital, executive leadership, and the people shaping fintech’s future

Thursday, April 30

The Fintech Security Summit, led by Frances Zelazny

→ Fraud, identity, biometrics, and trust as economic infrastructure

Together, these three summits anchor New York Fintech Week — a citywide moment filled with invite-only dinners, meetups, closed-door conversations, and rooms where real decisions get made.

Last year, we could’ve grown the Leadership Summit beyond 500 attendees.

Instead, we chose something better: depth, focus, and intentional rooms filled with career-defining opportunities.

🎟️ Early bird tickets are live. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

_{MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16}

[NEW YORK] THE FEMMY AWARDS: Presented by The Academy of Fintech

2024 FEMMYs Vanguard of the Year Award to Lule Demmissie, former CEO of eToro US.

The FEMMYs are back.

An unapologetic celebration of the women building, funding, and shaping fintech — and the rooms that support them.

At the FEMMYs, Fintech Is Femme and our private membership community, The Academy of Fintech, crown fintech’s Vanguard of the Year, Innovator of the Year, and MVP.

Expect a dressed-up night, meaningful recognition, and the kind of networking that only happens when the right people are in the room.

Invite colleagues, clients, and peers, and come dressed to impress.

_{MONDAY, JANUARY 12}

[VIRTUAL] FINTECH BEST IN SHOW: Female-Led Showcase

We’re kicking off the year by spotlighting what’s next.

Empire Startups and Fintech Is Femme are teaming up to showcase category-defining, women-led fintech startups reimagining:

Lending • Payments • Wealth • Insurance • Capital Markets • and more

Each showcase features:

• Five standout companies

• Live pitches

• A panel of expert investors (Mastercard, FIS, Fiserv, Trustage Ventures, Artemis)

• One winner crowned Fintech Best-in-Show

Let’s start 2026 the right way — by putting capital, attention, and momentum behind the women shaping fintech’s future.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Kelela - Raven

Loving this entire vibe and album.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

🤝 Grow your business through content & community by partnering with me.

📣 Promote yourself to 50,000 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.

🎤 Host an epic event by booking me as a speaker, moderator, or emcee.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜

Hey fintech fam 💜

I can’t believe I’m writing the last newsletter of 2025. Not because the year flew by, but because… whew. It asked a lot from all of us.

This was a full “founder mode” year at Fintech Is Femme. Lots of big swings, a lot of leaping before the net showed up. What I learned is that the net really does appear only after you jump.

And honestly? We did so much together.

Here’s a little look at what we built:

• We grew our audience to 100,000+ across platforms, with 6 million impressions

• The Academy of Fintech grew to 155+ paid members and became a real partnership room, not a performative one

• Humans of Fintech crossed 100,000 podcast downloads, plus two seasons of Fintech Mavericks

• We sold 1,000+ tickets across our Leadership Summits in NYC and SF, grew event revenue by 200%, and partnered with Stripe, Brex, and Middesk

• We created custom editorial and content campaigns with companies like FIS, Salesforce, Rho, Unit21, and Fintech Penthouse

• I spoke on 15+ stages, from Harvard Business School to Istanbul with Akbank

• And somehow, I was named Top 100 Women in Fintech by FinTech Magazine

Behind the scenes, though, this was the most challenging work I’ve ever done. Hosting 500-person summits is not for the faint of heart. But doing it together is what makes it worth it. Seeing you go from this newsletter to in-person at our events is the absolute joy of this work.

Before we close out the year, two quick things:

💫 Today is the final 24 hours to secure a founding membership to The Academy of Fintech, our private community for building, scaling, and partnering with intention.

💫 You can apply directly, or lock in founding status by grabbing a ticket to our second annual FEMMY Awards Gala, happening February 16 in NYC.

Happy New Year. I’m so grateful for you, and I can’t wait to grow even more together in 2026.

For now, let’s rest, reflect, and get ready to do it all again — even bigger.

INNOVATION

Looking Back to Move Forward – A 2025 Review and a Look Ahead to 2026

2026, we’re coming for you.

At the start of this year, I asked a deceptively simple question:

Would 2025 be the year fintech finally entered the cultural zeitgeist — not as an industry headline, but as infrastructure people actually feel in their daily lives?

Looking back now, the answer isn’t a clean yes or no.

Fintech doesn’t arrive all at once.

It inches closer to the center — quietly, persistently — until one day you realize you’re standing inside it.

Fintech didn’t suddenly become universal. Today, it’s unavoidable.

Money moves through fintech rails even when people don’t call it fintech. Payments clear faster. Credit decisions happen silently, somewhere behind a screen.

Identity, fraud, and data access stopped being abstract concepts and became determinants of whether people trusted the system at all.

You could feel the shift before you could name it.

And that distinction matters.

Despite the scale, fintech still represents only about 3% of global banking and insurance revenue pools, according to Boston Consulting Group and QED. Roughly 60% of all fintech revenue is generated by fewer than 100 scaled players — companies large enough to feel less like startups and more like infrastructure providers.

So no — fintech hasn’t “won” the economy.

But in 2025, it crossed a more meaningful threshold: it became mandatory.

People no longer ask whether payments should be instant. They assume they will be.

Small businesses don’t marvel at digital onboarding — they get irritated when it’s slow.

Consumers don’t think about fraud systems until trust breaks — and then they expect answers. Quickly. Clearly. From someone accountable.

That’s how infrastructure enters culture.

Not through hype — through habit.

Fintech in 2025: Stable, Selective, and Settling In

On paper, 2025 was a strong year for fintech.

According to the F-Prime Fintech Index, which tracks 47 publicly listed fintech companies, the sector closed the year with:

• $997 billion in total market capitalization
  

• 5.21x average revenue multiples
  

• 23% average last-twelve-months revenue growth

These numbers matter not because they’re flashy, but because they’re grounding.

A near-trillion-dollar market cap paired with steady double-digit growth tells us fintech isn’t bouncing back anymore. It’s settling in.

Revenue multiples drifting toward ~5x signal something else, too: a market that has stopped paying for promises and started paying for performance. Cash flow, predictability, and governance quietly became cool again.

In other words, fintech didn’t lose momentum in 2025.

It found its footing.

That shift showed up in the public markets. Chime and Navan both went public, reopening an IPO window that had been effectively frozen since 2021. Fintech companies could go public again — but only if the fundamentals held.

At the same time, fintech advertising surged for the third year in a row, up roughly 45% year over year, according to Bloomberg. Subway platforms in New York, London, and San Francisco filled with campaigns from Brex, Mercury, Stripe, and Klarna.

Payments volume across major platforms reached $1.4 trillion in 2024, up 38% year over year — roughly 1.3% of global GDP.

Fintech didn’t just grow in 2025.

It showed up — in the background, in the plumbing, in the expectations people now carry without thinking.

A Year of Scale — and Tension

And yet, this wasn’t a victory-lap year.

The political environment oscillated unpredictably, with tariffs rising and falling depending on the mood inside the White House — rippling through industries from autos and steel to furniture and groceries.

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced wide-ranging tax and social consequences that disproportionately impacted lower-income households and quietly reshaped investment strategies across sectors.

Meanwhile, unemployment crept upward. By November 2025, the U.S. unemployment rate hit 4.6%, its highest level in over four years — a statistic that landed very differently depending on whether you read it in a report or felt it in your bank account, arguing with the government’s definition of “affordable.”

Inside fintech, regulatory uncertainty returned to the foreground. The CFPB’s open-banking framework remained in flux, leaving financial institutions and startups unsure whether to build, pause, or hedge.

This was the year the industry learned a difficult truth:

Maturity doesn’t eliminate risk. It redistributes it.

Fraud Became the Tax on the Digital Economy

One force cut across every fintech category in 2025 — and it wasn’t AI.

It was fraud.

Not the headline-grabbing kind, but the systemic kind: identity theft scaled by automation, scams powered by generative AI, payment fraud that moved faster than dispute resolution, and financial crime that increasingly looked indistinguishable from legitimate activity.

In 2025, fraud wasn’t a bug in the system.

It was the system stress-testing itself.

Consumers felt it through account takeovers and exhausting dispute processes. Small businesses felt it through chargebacks and compliance burdens that stole time from growth. Financial institutions felt it through rising losses and regulatory pressure.

Fintech responded the only way it could: by pulling fraud and identity out of the background and putting them at the center of product strategy.

Fraud prevention stopped being a cost center and became a growth engine.

Investments surged in identity, behavioral biometrics, transaction monitoring, and real-time risk scoring — not because they were flashy, but because they were existential.

You can’t scale finance without scaling trust.

And you can’t scale trust without confronting fraud head-on.

Women Didn’t Slow Down. They Scaled.

In 2024, female founders raised $38 billion globally. While fintech remains one of the best-funded sectors for women, the disparity is still stark: women-led fintech companies captured just $3.4 billion of total fintech venture funding, according to Tracxn.

Even as capital tightened, women-led fintech companies continued to build — and raise.

• Alinea Invest raised a $10.4 million Series A, scaling to over 1 million users — 92% women, 70% Gen Z — under founders Anam Lakhani and Eve Halimi.

• DealMaker, led by Rebecca Kacaba, raised $20 million to expand its retail capital platform, giving founders more control by turning customers into investors.

• Upward, founded by (Academy of Fintech member) Danielle Hill, raised $8 million and partnered with Mastercard, proving enterprise trust can be earned early.

• Casap, led by CEO Shanthi Shanmugam, raised $25 million in Series A funding, bringing total capital to $33.5 million and valuing the company at $105 million — the largest venture investment to date in the payment disputes category.

• Kalyani Ramadurgam, CEO and co-founder of Kobalt Labs, alongside co-founder and CTO Ashi Agrawal, raised an $11 million in Series A funding to build AI agents that automate the deeply manual, deeply painful risk and compliance workflows financial institutions still rely on. 

When women lead fintech, we don’t get prettier apps.

We get new systems that hold up under pressure.

It’s pattern recognition.

The Stories You Came Back to in 2025

Before we race into the future, let’s take a moment to revisit some additional highlights from 2025 (these are stories you engaged with most and loved!).

The Attention Economy Comes for Fintech

I explored how value is increasingly measured by attention rather than fundamentals — and why that’s dangerous for capital-intensive fintech businesses built on trust, not virality.

Immigrants Are America’s Economic Engine

Small businesses make up 33.3 million U.S. firms, employ 61.6 million people, and generate 44% of economic activity. A significant share are immigrant-owned — yet immigrants remain politically scapegoated despite the CBO estimating immigration will add $7 trillion to U.S. GDP over the next decade.

Fintech is one of the Most Funded Sectors for Women Founders

Women-led tech companies raised $29.6 billion globally — just 11.7% of total venture funding. In fintech, women secured $3.4 billion. And still, women kept building.

How FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris Led a $24 Billion Fintech Deal

I spoke with CEO Stephanie Ferris after orchestrating one of the year’s largest fintech transactions. She shared her strategy around the deal and leadership mindset. 

Trust Is a Growth Strategy

As fintech matured, I spent time with Akoya’s leadership examining who controls financial data, how it’s shared, and why trust is now the real growth lever.

The $98.5 Million Problem 

That’s how much businesses lose each year to fraud, cyber threats, regulatory drag, and outdated financial systems — not theoretical losses, but operational ones.

Rewriting Your Rules

From Anna Joo Fee’s human-centered approach to wealth, to Nina Mohanty’s belief that community is durable infrastructure, to Stephany Kirkpatrick’s $82M bet on real-time money — women showed what modern fintech leadership actually looks like.

Stablecoins Go Institutional

Citi, JPMorgan, and Bank of America stopped “watching” stablecoins and started building around them. The GENIUS Act brought regulatory clarity, shifting the conversation from experimentation to execution.

What 2026 Demands

What 2025 made unmistakably clear is this: fintech is entering a more serious chapter.

One where scale, trust, and accountability matter more than novelty. These are the core storylines Fintech Is Femme will stay focused on next:

• Real-economy fintech that improves cash flow for households and small businesses — not just financial access in theory, but liquidity in practice.
  

• Fraud, identity, and trust as economic infrastructure, not edge cases or compliance checkboxes.
  

• AI with accountability, deployed where it reduces risk and cost — not where it creates spectacle.
  

• Embedded finance that disappears into workflows, removing friction instead of adding another app.
  

• Women allocating capital, not just raising it — shaping markets, portfolios, and outcomes.
  

• Profitability with principles, where durable business models and responsible growth are not in conflict.

At its core, fintech exists to answer one enduring question:

Who gets access to money, when, and on what terms?

What follows is where it gets interesting — because that answer doesn’t stop at finance.

It ripples through our economy, our behavior, and our culture.

In 2026, the fintech winners will be those that reduce risk, build trust, and give people their time back.

That’s how economies stabilize.

And that’s the lens Fintech Is Femme will continue to use — not to hype the future, but to document how it’s actually being built, who’s shaping it, and why it matters.

Intentionally.

Unapologetically.

By people who understand exactly what’s at stake.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR?

🏆 You’re Invited to the FEMMY AWARDS: Presented by The Academy of Fintech 

The FEMMY Awards are the official annual awards ceremony of The Academy of Fintech — honoring excellence, leadership, and impact across fintech, finance, and innovation.

​A night where:

• ​Achievements are recognized on a real stage

• ​Stories are documented for the industry’s history

• ​The community gathers dressed to the nines

• ​And fintech finally looks the way it feels: powerful

Want to learn more about the Academy of Fintech and the FEMMY awards?

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📰 Today’s Read: See above (plenty of reads to catch up on!)

• 🍿 Today’s Watch: Is anyone else ringing in the New Year by staying cozy with close friends and eating hotpot? If you are, we're definitely on the same wavelength.

• 🌍 Today’s Listen: ICYMI — one of our top three most-listened-to Humans of Fintech episodes featuring Frances Zelazny, Founder & CEO of Anonybit, breaking down one of fintech’s most important frontiers: biometrics and identity. Tune in here.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Lady Gaga - Abracadabra

Song of the year goes to…

_{LET’S CONNECT}

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📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That’s all for now! See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜