In this episode of the Dave and Dharm Demystify show, the 2 D's are joined by Uday Akkaraju, founder and CEO of Bond.ai. Uday demystifies Bond.ai, an artificial intelligence firm dedicated to repairing the fractured relationship between consumers and financial institutions. He shares his unique background in human-centred design, cognitive psychology, and intelligent virtual agents, which eventually led him into the financial services industry after facing personal financial struggles in Silicon...
Sep 11, 2024•28 min
In this episode, Saeed Murad, Senior Partner at Global Ventures, joins Dave and Dharm to demystify the dynamic fintech ecosystem in the Middle East and Africa. With a current population of over 1.5 billion, expected to grow to 3-4 billion, and a significant youth demographic, the region is ripe for innovation and expansion. Saeed discusses how the UAE and Saudi Arabia are rapidly becoming global fintech hubs through strategic investments, innovative policies, and strong infrastructure developmen...
Aug 30, 2024•27 min
In this episode, Dave interviews Ziad Nassar, the Chief of Staff of Huspy, a Dubai-based real estate everything app. Ziad shares his journey and Huspy's evolution from a digitised mortgage broker to a comprehensive platform for home buying in Europe and the Middle East. Huspy is looking to disrupt the home-buying process. The fact that 30% of all homes in Dubai touch the platform is a testament to their success! Key takeaways: HUSB's mission is to empower mortgage brokers and real estate agents ...
Aug 23, 2024•29 min
In this episode, hosts Dave and Dharm are joined by John Bryant from Options Technology and Eleni Coldrey from Equinix to discuss the evolution of trading technology and data centres over the past 16 years. John Bryant is the Field CTO at Options Technology, bringing 16 years of experience in improving IT solutions and trading platforms for financial services. Eleni Coldrey a business development specialist at Equinix, shares insights from her 12-year career working with financial services custo...
Aug 14, 2024•37 min
In this episode of 'The Dave and Darm demystify show,' special guest Abhishek Tripathi, Head of Product at Careem Pay, discusses his role and Careem's evolution from a ride-sharing app to an 'everything app' offering over 15 services, including payments, food delivery, and more across 10 countries and 80 cities. Abhishek explains Careem's efforts in solving payment challenges and its approach to building FinTech products by collaborating closely with customers. Highlighting Careem Pay's rapid gr...
Aug 02, 2024•28 min
In this episode, Eddie Harrison, CPO of Navro, discusses how Navro solves payment challenges for e-commerce platforms and online businesses. Navro focuses on helping businesses collect money in countries where they lack banking relationships and simplifying global money transfers. They offer solutions for payment acceptance, international banking infrastructure, and payouts to suppliers. We delve into Navro's regulatory journey, approach to quality in payments, expansion plans, and its recent re...
Jul 02, 2024•28 min
This episode is recorded in a data centre in Slough with Bruce Owen, UK MD of Equinix. Bruce talks through his background and Equinix's role as a leading data centre provider. The discussion covers the essential function of data centres in housing critical IT infrastructure, their importance to national economies, and their connection to various digital services. The conversation also delves into the differentiation between data centres and cloud providers, including the types and services provi...
Jun 18, 2024•38 min
In this podcast episode, hosts Dave and Dharmesh welcome authors Anette Brolos and Erin Taylor to discuss their new book "Customer-Centric Innovation in Finance". Erin, an anthropologist, and Anette, an economist, share their journey into studying financial behaviours and founding Finthropology, a company that combines finance and anthropology. In discussing their book, they emphasise the importance of qualitative research, such as interviews and observations, alongside quantitative data to unde...
Jun 06, 2024•33 min
Roger Rouhana, founder and CEO of Alpheya, talked to Dave and Dharm at the Dubai Fintech Summit. Roger discusses Alpheya, a B2B wealth tech platform delivering AI-first solutions to institutional clients. Roger explains the need for digitalisation in the wealth management sector and the unique features of Alfea's cloud-native and AI-first platform. Roger also discusses the challenges and opportunities in the wealth management market, the company's significant funding, its technology-focused appr...
May 22, 2024•22 min
In the episode, Dave and Dharm speak with Mohamed Abdel Razek, Mashreq's Head of Technology, during the Dubai Fintech Summit. Mohamed shares his tech background, which spanned various industries like telco, oil and gas, and fast-moving consumer goods before joining the financial sector. He discusses bringing insights from other industries into banking technology, focusing on digital transformation at Mashreq. The bank emphasises client experience, utilising digital tools for seamless customer jo...
May 22, 2024•29 min
The episode features a conversation with Mohammad Alblooshi, CEO of DIFC Innovation Hub and Fintech Hive, discussing the rapid growth of Dubai's FinTech ecosystem over the past seven years. The focus is on creating a supportive environment for FinTech startups with initiatives like regulatory sandboxes, access to capital, co-working spaces, and talent development. The hub aims to be a global leader in financial innovation, attracting local and global companies. The episode underscores the pivota...
May 22, 2024•23 min
In this episode, Jayesh Patel, the CEO of Wio Bank, shares insights on establishing a neobank in Dubai. He discusses the vision behind Wio Bank, focusing on serving tomorrow's businesses and customers through improved banking apps, embedded finance, and banking as a service. Wio's success lies in focusing on SMEs first, prioritising user experience over technology, and understanding the diverse needs of different business types. Patel highlights the importance of customer research, simplicity in...
May 16, 2024•21 min
Arcady is a veteran, serial fintech entrepreneur! Over twenty-four years ago, he was part of the founding and management of a challenger digital bank that grew to over $37bn in assets. The same group then launched the 1st generation of BaaS solutions, and with that, they grew to over $60bn in assets under custody. Now, he is the founder and CEO of Agora, a third-generation banking platform at the intersection of BaaS and embedded Fintech. Agora has built its own modern composable cloud-core bank...
May 09, 2024•28 min
Riaz Syed is an experienced professional who has worked in the banking technology industry for over 30 years. He has witnessed the market evolve and change during this time, and his incredible experience has led him to establish Infinant. By sitting on top of existing cores, Infinant's powerful Banking Technology + platform Interlace empowers banks to embrace the digital revolution in a way that was previously not possible. Infinant's platform, Interlace, opens the door to new digital opportunit...
Apr 29, 2024•35 min
Nelson Wootton, Founder and CEO, and Matthew Breadon, CCO of SaaScada, join us to discuss how frustrations with broken promises and the speed and agility of the Core Banking providers were the driving forces behind setting up a company with a new product that offered a modern alternative. The product is cloud-based, plug-and-play, multi-tenanted, and named after Pirates!
Apr 10, 2024•31 min
In this latest episode of the Demystify Podcast, Sam Everington, CEO of Engine by Starling and Carlton Hopper, UK Managing Director of GFT, discuss their partnership. Sam outlines their strategy to scale by having partnerships like GFT implement their platform so that his team at Engine can focus on being the best banking platform company. He highlights that this not only accelerates their geographic reach but also allows them to address different markets. Carlton explains that the partnership w...
Mar 27, 2024•31 min
Charlie Platt is the Managing Director of Banking at SAP Fioneer. He talks about the history of the business and the advantages of it becoming a standalone business separate from SAP. He explains how the decision was made and the significant investment the company received. Charlie also discusses the continued strong partnership between SAP and Fioneer, with Fioneer utilising SAP's infrastructure and technology. He highlights the importance of developing a strong company culture and the challeng...
Mar 07, 2024•33 min
In this enlightening episode, we talk with Lukky Ahmed, the visionary co-founder and CEO of Climate X, a trailblazing firm at the vanguard of highlighting climate risk through technological innovation. With a rich background in international banking and expertise in risk management, regulatory change, and consultancy, Lukky shares how his experiences perfectly positioned him to address the critical data gaps in climate risk analysis. Lukky demystifies Climate X's pioneering solution: a digital "...
Feb 21, 2024•39 min
In this episode, we are very honoured to have Vaida Česnulevičiūtė Markevičienė, the Vice Minister for Finance for Lithuania, as our guest. The Vice Minister tells about why Lithuania embraced the fintech opportunity and how it put a plan in place to ensure success. She discusses the importance of Government and Enterprise collaboration and how they have created a centre of excellence for fintech in Europe. She moves on to talk about the green agenda and green fiance, how the country has a plan ...
Feb 05, 2024•32 min
The guests on this week's fascinating show are Adam Moulson, COO of Griffin Bank and Garrett Foxon, CEO of LettsPay. Lettspay provides client accounts for Landlords, which are underpinned by Griffin's banking licence. While the Lettspay solution sounds relatively niche, it plays in a massive market with over 4.5 million landlords in the UK and over 15000 real estate agents. Garrett talks about how he built, evolved and grew Lettspay. He tells us how he used some basic research to identify the op...
Jan 22, 2024•29 min
David Jarvis is the CEO and co-founder of Griffin. Griffin is the UK's only full-stack Banking-as-a-service bank. It is a very young organisation, receiving its license in March 2023. David talks to us about his background working in development infrastructure for companies such as Airbnb in California, how he moved into the fintech space, and then how he jumped to founding a bank in the UK. David provides incredible insight into what it takes to start a bank and the process Griffin had to go th...
Jan 09, 2024•27 min
In this episode, our guest is Naif AbuSaida, the CEO and founder of Hakbah, a Saudi Arabian fintech focused on group savings. Naif talks us through his fascinating background, from being a media personality to working in utilities before moving into banking. Naif tells us about how it was whilst undergoing chemotherapy for stage 3 colon cancer that he re-assessed his life and decided he wanted to have an impact on society, which led him to found Hakbah. He talks us through the Hakbah proposition...
Dec 19, 2023•29 min
Dave and Dharm chat with Andy Ellis, CEO of NatWest Boxed, and Noah Sharp, CEO of Vodeno, about Banking As A Service. Boxed is a new BaaS provider from the banking heavyweight NatWest and European BaaS provider Vodeno. Rather than develop its core banking BaaS solution, NatWest partnered with Vodeno. In this episode, we learn why NatWest partnered rather than built or used its own platform. Andy and Noah help demystify what is holding BaaS back from broader adoption and what it takes to create a...
Dec 01, 2023•26 min
Herve Manceron is the founder and CEO of Skaleet, a French SaaS-based core banking provider. Herve started out in Telecoms, which many recognise as a vertical that is similar to banking. Herve clearly explains the similarities and what banking can still learn from an industry that has already gone through a technology transformation leveraging cloud technology. During his time in Telecoms, he was involved in payment solutions in Africa which naturally led to working on a project for a bank there...
Nov 27, 2023•26 min
Chris Tremont is Chief Digital Officer of Grasshopper Bank and Chris Dean is CEO of Treasury Prime, the embedded banking platform that Grasshopper uses.
Nov 13, 2023•34 min
Zor Gorelov is the founder and CEO of Kasisto the conversational AI company focused on Financial Services. Zor has a long history with conversational interfaces, having worked on them at Bell Labs over 30 years ago. He talks to us about his views on how and where to deploy these interfaces. We discuss the success of Kasisto and how it is now deployed in over 50 financial services companies of all sizes across 16 different countries. We then change gears and talk about the impact of Generative AI...
Oct 28, 2023•31 min
U-Zyn Chua is the CTO and co-founder of Cake Group, a company focused on simplifying decentralised finance (DeFi) for retail users. He has been deeply involved in the cryptocurrency sector since 2009, starting with Bitcoin. His entry into the crypto world was motivated by his interest in cybersecurity and cryptography. In the early days, he actively participated in Bitcoin forums, earning some Bitcoin and contributing to crypto-focused businesses. Notable among his achievements are the establish...
Oct 16, 2023•25 min
Prema is The President of Product and COO of Temenos. She has a long history with Temenos, having started in the business in 1999 as an engineer before working her way up to a leadership position. She has had a ringside seat on the changes that have happened in digital banking. In this exceptional podcast, Prema takes us straight to the heart of the matter and talks about that and how the core of core banking has changed over the last 25 years.
Sep 20, 2023•29 min
Max Faldin is the founder of Silverbird, a fintech that serves exporters and importers around the globe. Max talks to us about how his frustrations with "the archaic, broken system" of cross-border payments led him to found Silverbird, an SME-focused fintech. Max talks us through the incredible scale of the opportunity and how by using technology, he has managed to bring the costs to customers down by incredible orders of magnitude whilst maximising efficiencies. This is an incredible story of i...
Sep 03, 2023•23 min
In this special episode of Dave and Dharm Demystify, Dave is joined by producer Lou Carlozo in a sauna at Money 20/20 to chat with Monika Liikamaa, co-founder of the payments company Enfuce. Monika talks through her history and tells us more about Enfuce and her general views on the payment industry. She is incredibly open, honest and very straight-talking.
Jul 17, 2023•29 min
