Posts tagged Brex
Building a $15B+ embedded loan management platform, with LoanPro CEO Rhett Roberts
Building a $15B+ embedded loan management platform, with LoanPro CEO Rhett Roberts

In this conversation, we chat with Rhett Roberts, the Co-Founder and CEO of LoanPro – a new breed of software company that is API-driven, cloud-native and easily scalable. Rhett and his co-founders created the company out of necessity when they ran an auto lending business as they could not find anything flexible enough to suit their own needs.

More specifically, we touch on all things around the lending industry, the auto lending industry and how everything there works, and of course, why LoanPro is such an awesome company, and so much more!

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digital lending, fixed income, digital transformationLex SokolinLoanPro, Brex, Fundbox, Dealertrack
Brex Raises Again, Shopify Launches Bank Accounts and M&A Ideas for Goldman
Brex Raises Again, Shopify Launches Bank Accounts and M&A Ideas for Goldman

Welcome back to the Fintech Blueprint / Rebank podcast series hosted by Will Beeson and Lex Sokolin. In this episode, we talk through a few recent events that are indicative of the Fintech world right now. Brex raised an additional $150 million at a slightly improved valuation vs. its last round just as Monzo is reportedly looking at a 40% down round. Why? Shopify launched bank accounts for its merchants and announced the Shop app, basically an Amazon competitor plus Klarna, just as it worked with Facebook to support the launch of Facebook Shops and joined the Libra Association. Lots going on. Lastly, we discuss why Goldman’s M&A activity over the past couple years leads to the natural conclusion that they should buy Schwab.

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digital investing, digital lending, neobank, roboadvisor, eCommerceLex SokolinBrex, Goldman Sachs, Schwab, Silicon Valley Bank, Monzo, OnDeck, Shopify, Amazon, Libra / Diem, Facebook, FolioFn, Marcus
Unicorn valuations are bad for your health -- the Prisoner's Dilemma of WeWork and Magic Leap
Unicorn valuations are bad for your health -- the Prisoner's Dilemma of WeWork and Magic Leap

Why are high valuations bad? You've heard me talk about how the trend of Fintech bundling, and the unicorn and decacorn valuations led by SoftBank and DST Global, are creating underlying weakness in the private Fintech markets. Of course, they are also creating price compression and consolidation in the public markets (e.g, Schwab/TD, Fiserv/First Data) across sub-sectors. But public companies are at least transparent and deeply analyzed. Private companies have beautiful websites, charismatic leaders, and impressive sounding investors. Often when you look under the hood, it's just a bunch of angry bees trying to find something to sting.

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philosophy, venture capital, game theoryLex SokolinSoftBank, DST Global, WeWork, Magic Leap, Snap Inc, Apple, Google, Brex