WORKWEEK

INFRASTRUCTURE Plaid vs. Stripe Showdown 🥊 ICYMI Stripe announced yesterday an open banking product called Financial Connections, spurring a Twitter spat with Plaid CEO Zachery Perret.  Watching this unfold, I read and gathered the best tweets and memes on the drama so I could come to my conclusion: It’s brutal out here.  The Tea  Stripe becoming a direct competitor to Plaid pits fintech giants…

WOMEN Fintech Is, Indeed, Femme  Last night’s inaugural WTFintech? event, Fintech Is Femme, popped off at The Roxy Hotel in NYC featuring the stories of: Glenna DeRoy of Yieldstreet; Janjay Sherman of Square; Anna Stone of eToro; Sofiat Abdul of Goodfynd; Carolyn Vadino (formerly) of Gemini; Heather Buffo of Republic; Meg Crowell of BlockFi; Swati Chaturvedi of Propel(x); and Clarissa Horowitz of Lithic. These ladies rocked the stage with Ted-Talk style speeches focused…

ASIA Fintech and The Philippines 🇵🇭 The Philippines is facing a watershed moment.  Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son, and namesake of a former Philippines dictator is likely to win the country’s presidential election. Meanwhile, the number of Filipinos in poverty has risen to over 26 million, just under 25% of the population.  The country, made up of thousands of little islands,…

ASIAN AMERICAN Fintech & AAPI Representation There are a record 22 million Asian-Americans living in the United States.  They represent the fastest-growing, most affluent, and educated of any racial or ethnic group in the country. Plus, Asian Americans have the highest rate of fintech use, at 70%.  Asian Americans have also been subject to major discrimination.  “Model minority” myths,…

FUNDING Is the Fintech Fun Over in 2022? A few things might make it feel like that fintech hype from 2021 is already slowing down in 2022.  According to CB Insights, there was an 18% decrease in fintech funding in Q1 – the most significant drop in QoQ since 2018 – at $28.8B. But it…

FINANCIAL INCLUSION Getting to the Root of the Problem Were you attracted to fintech by its opportunity to improve financial inclusivity worldwide?  🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏼 If your hand went up, you’re in the right place.  We, for the most part, are aspirational about fintech’s power. The industry can lower servicing costs, increase speed, and allow for more…