Finovate Podcast

Exploring CU-specific fintech solutions, with a preview of the CU Spotlight session at FinovateSpring. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer interviews Nick Evens, President and CEO of Curql, ahead of FinovateSpring. Nick shares his journey from working within credit unions to leading Curql, a strategic investment fund focused on credit union innovation. He explains how Curql was born from a need to support credit unions in staying competitive with big banks by pooling resources to invest in transformative financial technology. With its roots in the credit union community, Curql helps these institutions gain access to tech solutions they otherwise couldn't afford on their own. Nick then elaborates on Curql’s mission to connect credit unions with fintechs and vice versa, underscoring its role in helping credit unions adopt cutting-edge technology. He discusses the company’s current and upcoming funds and how they support a growing portfolio of tech firms. Curql not only invests in startups but also fosters an ecosystem where over 130 credit unions collaborate and share resources. Additionally, Curql emphasizes regulatory modernization and strategic partnerships, often co-investing in companies that serve both banks and credit unions. Looking ahead to FinovateSpring, Nick and Greg discuss the special Credit Union Spotlight session, designed to highlight fintechs that cater specifically to CUs. This curated environment ensures that attendees from various roles—whether in lending, compliance, or cybersecurity—can discover relevant solutions. With a diverse lineup of presenting companies, including those focused on AI and member-facing technologies, the session aims to meet the broad needs of credit union professionals and further Curql’s mission of bridging the gap between fintech and credit unions. More info: Curql: https://www.curql.com/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/curql/ Nick Evens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-evens-76b75316/ Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/ Finovate: https://www.finovate.com ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/ FinovateSpring: https://informaconnect.com/finovatespring/ #fintech #CU #creditunions #financialservices #innovation #digitaltransformation #finovate #finovatespring

Building and growing winning teams – thoughts from a seasoned fintech leader on managing high-performing engineering teams. Detailed Summary: In this episode Naga Rishyender, Manager of Software Engineering at Discover Financial Services, shares his thoughts on building and managing high-performing engineering teams in the fast-evolving fintech space. He begins by discussing his career journey—from his education at UNCC to roles at Wells Fargo, Oracle, Amazon, and now Discover—highlighting the impact of his leadership on major projects like Amazon's “Pay with Affirm” feature. At Discover, he currently leads a team of engineers working on critical payment authorization systems, fraud prevention, and infrastructure modernization, with a strong focus on innovation and cloud technology. Naga goes on to detail his philosophy for assembling effective engineering teams. He emphasizes diversity—not just in background, but in experience levels—as a key to fostering collaboration, mentorship, and innovation. Psychological safety, clear roadmaps, and continuous learning opportunities are all pillars of his leadership approach to ensure team alignment and growth. The conversation also explores the evolving relationship between academia and the fintech industry. Naga praises the rise of fintech-specific courses in universities and highlights Discover’s Student Rotational Program as a successful model for bridging the gap between education and real-world experience. He advocates for more industry-academic collaboration through mentorship, hackathons, internships, and curriculum development. These partnerships, he argues, prepare students more effectively for careers in fintech by offering practical experience, exposure to regulations, and insight into company cultures before graduation. More info: Discover FS: https://www.discover.com/ Naga Rishyendar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naga-rishyendar-p/ Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/ Finovate: https://www.finovate.com ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/ #fintech #leadership #engineering #financialservices #innovation #mentorship #finovate

Former pro athlete and founder of the Male Mogul Initiative Walter Mendenhall on the recent acquisition of Help With My Loan, and the importance of fair access to credit. Detailed Summary: In this episode of the Finovate Podcast, host Greg Palmer talks with Walter Mendenhall, founder of the Male Mogul Initiative, a Chicago-based nonprofit aimed at empowering young men through leadership, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. Walter shares his unique path from the NFL to teaching, and eventually to founding his organization in response to systemic issues he witnessed in his community. What began with a handful of students in 2018 has grown into a large-scale movement impacting over 3,000 young people, producing 200+ jobs, and launching Chicago's first youth business incubator, CoLab. Walter highlights the critical issues his organization tackles—such as lack of access to capital and high rates of unemployment and gun violence among young black men in Chicago. Walter then explains how his personal experience being denied a loan, despite strong financials, sparked a deeper dive into the challenges under-resourced communities face in accessing capital. This led to his obsession with financial education and systemic barriers, eventually informing his academic work and business ventures. He emphasizes how a lack of basic financial knowledge—like understanding loan underwriting criteria—keeps many people from succeeding. His goal is to demystify these processes and educate individuals who are often left behind by traditional financial systems. The conversation turns to the recent acquisition of Help With My Loan, a Finovate alum that uses AI to speed up and streamline the commercial loan process. Walter, along with his partners, brought the company from California to Chicago to expand its reach and use it as a tool to train youth as business loan brokers. With a 95% match rate and 80% faster processing times, the platform aligns perfectly with Male Mogul’s mission to increase access to capital. Looking ahead, Walter envisions expanding their lender network, integrating blockchain for community investment, and ultimately creating scalable solutions to close the capital gap nationwide. His closing advice to fintech innovators: focus on solving real problems with passion—opportunities and support will follow. More info: Male Mogul Initiative: https://malemogulinitiative.org/ Help With My Loan: https://helpwithmyloan.com/ Walter Mendenhall IV: https://waltermendenhall.com/ , https://www.linkedin.com/in/walter-mendenhall-iv-55200787/ Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/ Finovate: https://www.finovate.com ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/ #fintech #lending #credit #FinancialInclusion #finovate

Innovate without needing to update your legacy tech stack. FinovateEurope Best of Show winner Tweezr explains how. Detailed episode description: In this episode, Greg sits down with FinovateEurope Best of Show winner Tweezr to learn more about their innovative approach to maintaining and modifying complex legacy systems. Co-founders Ohad Kotler and Lior Vernia created Tweezr to help financial institutions modernize without replacing their core systems. By enabling developers to make precise code changes without breaking critical functionality, Tweezr saves time and makes legacy systems more maintainable. The co-founders share their experiences working with banks and the significant challenges posed by outdated technology, emphasizing that the inability to swiftly update core systems hinders digital transformation efforts. The discussion also highlights the severe bottlenecks legacy systems create for banks, making even simple modifications a lengthy and costly process. Tweezr acts as a guiding tool (rather than an automated coding system), helping developers navigate millions of lines of code efficiently. It identifies necessary modifications, warns of potential breakages, and significantly reduces the time required to implement changes. By doing so, Tweezr empowers financial institutions to innovate without being bogged down by their outdated infrastructure. Tweezr’s AI-driven approach focuses on bridging the maintainability gap, allowing banks to continue using their legacy systems without full-scale modernization. Instead of replacing core banking software—a process that can take years—banks can use Tweezrr to optimize and maintain their existing technology stack. The AI functions as a senior engineer, analyzing dependencies and guiding developers to implement safe, effective changes. This ability to enhance legacy systems without a full overhaul is what resonated strongly with FinovateEurope’s audience. More info: Tweezr’s Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovateeurope-2025-tweezr/ FinovateEurope: https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/ Tweezr: www.tweezr.io, https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweezr/ Ohad Kotler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ohad-kotler-949b4941 Lior Vernia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liorvernia Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/ Finovate: https://www.finovate.com ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/ #fintech #digitaltransformation #modernization #AI #legacytech #corebanking #finovate #finovateeurope

FinovateEurope Best of Show winner Keyless on using facial recognition without storing sensitive biometric data on a specific device. Detailed Summary: In this episode, Tobin Broadfoot and host Greg Palmer highlight the challenges of traditional authentication methods, such as remembering passwords and using SMS one-time passcodes, which are both inconvenient and vulnerable to security breaches. Keyless addresses these issues by offering a decentralized, privacy-focused solution that allows users to authenticate across multiple devices securely. Their unique approach uses zero-knowledge biometrics and secure multi-party computation to perform authentication without storing or accessing personal data. Tobin also discusses the difficulties banks face when customers lose devices and how Keyless provides a more seamless and secure solution compared to traditional device-based authentication systems. The technology reduces reliance on weak factors like SMS and email verification, which are prone to account takeovers. Tobin concludes with the thought that while AI enables more sophisticated fraud techniques, including "fraud-as-a-service," companies like Keyless are already equipped with advanced defenses to combat these evolving threats. Keyless' ability to process biometric data locally on devices while maintaining privacy gives it a significant edge in preventing large-scale fraud. More info: FinovateEurope: https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/ Keyless: keyless.io, https://www.linkedin.com/company/keylesstech/ Tobin Broadfoot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobinbroadfoot/ Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/ Finovate: https://www.finovate.com ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/ #finovate #fintech #biometrics #security #ai #verification

Streamlining complex system integrations with FinovateEurope Best of Show winner R34DY. Detailed summary: in this episode, host Greg Palmer speaks with Márk Katenyi, CEO and founder of R34DY, a company that won Best of Show at FinovateEurope. The two talk about Ablements, an integration platform designed for banks and financial institutions to simplify IT architecture and streamline complex system integrations. Márk explains how the platform uses AI, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic technologies, to ingest documentation, understand IT systems, and create deployable workflows. He highlights the industry’s long-standing struggle with integration and how AI is now enabling real solutions, rather than just theoretical improvements. Throughout the conversation, Márk discusses the overwhelmingly positive response from banks at FinovateEurope, who have long awaited AI-driven integration solutions. He acknowledges that while there is still skepticism about AI’s effectiveness, R34DY has been able to demonstrate real results. The discussion also touches on the broader role of AI in financial institutions, emphasizing the importance of focusing on enterprise use cases that reduce costs and improve efficiency. Looking ahead, R34DY aims to expand its platform’s capabilities and address market gaps, particularly in enabling faster, more secure, and compliant financial system integrations. More information: FinovateEurope: https://informaconnect.com/finovateeurope/ R34DY: https://www.r34dy.io/ Ablements: https://ablements.com/ Márk Hetenyi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hetenyi-64b7824/ Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/ Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

A different approach to connecting community banks with fintechs, and predictions for the coming year

Collaboration and co-creation between fintechs and credit unions – a recap of a FinovateEurope conversation, and a preview of FinovateSpring

AI, data apps, and a preview of FinovateEurope.

The investment landscape, IPO and M&A predictions, and what to expect in 2025.