LendIt Fintech USA Archives

LendIt Fintech Industry Awards: Nomination Deadline Extended

Due to popular demand we are extending the deadline for awards submissions until Friday, February 15th.

January 31, 2019 By Todd Anderson Leave a Comment

LendIt Fintech USA 2018 Awards Dinner

One of the highlights of the year is the LendIt Fintech Industry Awards Dinner which will take place on the evening of April 9th at the conclusion of LendIt Fintech USA 2019. In its third year, the dinner highlights the great accomplishments of the people and companies that are driving the fintech industry forward. The event includes a pre-dinner networking reception, a three-course dinner, live entertainment and the awards ceremony.

First and foremost, this is an event for the industry. It will be an evening of celebration where the industry recognizes the outstanding achievements of the past year. While LendIt will organize the event, it will be the industry judging its own and deciding who exactly are the standout people and companies. A large selection of judges will be chosen that will contain no LendIt staff and will decide on the winners in different categories. The large team of judges will be carefully selected to ensure no conflicts of interest with different judges being responsible for different categories.

Scott Sanborn of Lending Club, Yihan Fang of Yirendai and Brendan Ross of Direct Lending Investments at the 2018 Awards

There has been over 450 applications submitted so far in the more than 20 categories listed below:

Best Journalist Coverage
Blockchain Innovator of the Year
Customer Alignment
Emerging Lending Platform of the Year
Excellence in Financial Inclusion
Executive of the Year
Fintech Innovator of the Year
Fintech Woman of the Year
International Innovator of the Year
Most Innovative Bank
Most Innovative Mobile Technology
Most Promising Partnership
Most Successful Cross-Border Partnership
Top Accounting Firm
Top Consumer Lending Platform
Top Emerging Technology Company
Top Enterprise Technology Company
Top Fintech Equity Investor
Top Law Firm
Top Real Estate Platform
Top Service Provider
Top Small Business Lending Platform

LendIt Industry Awards at the LendIt USA 2018 conference in San Francisco, CA on April 10, 2018. (photo by Gabe Palacio)

Don’t miss your chance to be recognized by your peers. If you have any questions about the awards please let us know.

LendIt Fintech USA 2019 Returns to San Francisco, Awards Nominations Open

In April the financial services sector will gather in San Francisco for our 7th installment of LendIt Fintech USA.

December 12, 2018 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

LendIt USA 2018 conference in San Francisco, CA on April 9, 2018. (photo by Evans Vestal Ward)

As we round out 2018 LendIt Fintech is completely focused on our 2019 events. Coming up first is LendIt Fintech USA 2019, our flagship event which will be held on April 8-9 in San Francisco at Moscone West. We expect 5,000+ attendees and will have some exciting names to announce as speakers in the coming weeks. If you or someone you know is interested in speaking at our event we recommend submitting a speaker application in the next few weeks.

The LendIt Fintech team has always taken pride in our content, but we also have invested heavily in facilitating networking opportunities both during the event and after hours. For 2019 we have added two new networking opportunities, the inaugural LendIt Fintech charity golf tournament and also a Sonoma wine tour and lunch. Both can be booked when you signup for LendIt Fintech USA. We will, of course, have numerous networking opportunities at the event itself including a return of Brella, the popular 1-to-1 networking app.

LendIt Fintech Industry Awards Nominations Now Open

One of the highlights of the event is our LendIt Fintech Industry Awards Dinner which will take place on the evening of April 9th. In its third year, the dinner highlights the great accomplishments of the people and companies that are driving the fintech infistry forward. It is a celebration of the industry, by the industry.

We are currently accepting award applications on the LendIt website. Keep in mind that you are supposed to nominate yourself and/or your company. So don’t be shy, let us hear from you. You have until January 31 to get your entries in and the more complete your entry the better your chances are of winning. The LendIt team will be selecting the finalists for each category and then a team of independent industry experts will select the winners. Good luck!

Lend Academy Readers Receive a 15% Discount

As always, you can save by purchasing your ticket to LendIt Fintech early. Early bird pricing is in effect until January 11th. And don’t forget Lend Academy readers can save an additional 15% by using the code LENDACADEMYVIP at checkout. We hope to see you there!

Purchase your ticket to LendIt Fintech USA 2019

Audio Recordings Now Available for LendIt Fintech USA 2018

LendIt Rewind has audio of all the sessions from the most recent event conveniently published in a podcast feed

May 16, 2018 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

If you are like me when you were at LendIt Fintech USA 2018 in San Francisco last month you missed out on attending a lot of sessions. With so much great content going on simultaneously I know I wanted to be in multiple places at the same time. Fear not, the solution is LendIt Rewind.

We recorded every session and they are now uploaded for your listening pleasure in what we call LendIt Rewind. This is our audio archive where we keep recordings of all the previous conferences. There are a number of ways to listen:

Apple Podcasts – for Apple enthusiasts
Stitcher Podcasts – multi-platform app
LendIt Podcasts web page – dedicated page broken down by track

As you are listening you might also want to check out the slide presentations from LendIt Fintech here and the BlockFin Summit here.

I have already listened to a few of my favorite sessions and will be working through every session over the coming weeks. Enjoy.

Publicly Listed Fintech Companies – a Tale of Two Sectors

Deepak Lalit, Managing Director of LendIt Advisors reviews the public companies attending LendIt and their recent track record.

April 4, 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

[Editor’s note: Deepak Lalit is the Managing Director of LendIt Advisors, which is a new business line within LendIt Fintech that launched in 2017. LendIt Advisors has access to deep relationships across the entire Marketplace Lending ecosystem, and its objective is to connect Loan Originators with sources of Capital. Deepak has over 10 years of experience in Financial Services, with a specialty in Alternative Lending. Deepak has previously qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA) and a CFA Charter holder.]

It is no doubt that Fintech has been THE buzzword of the last five years. While it may be hard to agree on the exact definition – there is a strong consensus that we are living in a time where technology is accelerating the pace at which traditional financial norms are being disrupted. The companies which master how to leverage their technology are creating huge opportunities for revenue growth in seemingly shorter and shorter periods of time. This makes the fintech sector very interesting from the point of view of an Equity Investor.

In this article, we briefly look at the broad performance of the publicly listed Fintech Companies, and discuss the investment opportunities that are available to US investors, and why we should all be paying attention.

How have the stock prices fared?

To understand the broad performance of the sector – the KBW Nasdaq Financial Technology Index (KFTX) is a good place to start. It is an equal weighted index of 50 companies ranging from the more recent IPO’s such as Square (SQ) and LendingClub (LC) to some of the more established players like VISA (V) and PayPal (PYPL). The criteria for inclusion into the index is where the distribution of a company’s financial products and services is exclusively through electronic means and their revenue mix is predominantly fee-based.

Since inception in June 2016, the index has returned 46%, outperforming the broad market S&P 500 by a whopping 24%, and even the tech-heavy NASDAQ by a meaningful 9%. [Read more…]

Broad Mix of Thought Leaders to Present at LendIt Fintech USA 2018

We are quickly approaching LendIt Fintech 2018 which will take place on April 9-11 in San Francisco

February 28, 2018 By Ryan Lichtenwald Leave a Comment

Many regular Lend Academy readers are aware that our sister company, LendIt is hosting its next event in a few weeks. LendIt has been hosting events since 2013 which bring the fintech community together. Today, LendIt, now branded as LendIt Fintech is the leading event in financial services innovation. In April, we will host the largest ever fintech event in San Francisco.

From the very beginning we’ve thought of ourselves as a little bit different in the event business. By hosting events in New York and San Francisco we are closer to the innovative companies that make up the industry. And now, more than ever, we are seeing interest from incumbents in financial services who come to see how they can work with fintechs whether it be through partnerships, or through mergers and acquisitions. It is a fascinating time to be part of financial services and LendIt is in a unique position as the place where companies across the ecosystem connect.

Part of the job for the team who also write on Lend Academy is crafting the agenda. We have some exciting new names that we wanted to share for those who plan to attend our upcoming event. As we were thinking about broader topics we targeted the three areas that we feel are most important in fintech today: Lending, Digital Banking and Blockchain.

Lending

Lending has been the bread and butter of LendIt events from inception. As online lending has grown up, so too has LendIt. In the early days there were just a handful of early companies who were thinking very differently about how lending should be done. There is now a healthy ecosystem that has been built around the lending industry. At LendIt Fintech USA 2018 we’ll cover all verticals of lending. Many people are familiar with LendingClub CEO Scott Sanborn who will kick off the event. While we will cover every aspect of lending, here are a few other notable speakers:

Jay Farner, CEO, Quicken Loans
Max Levchin, Co-Founder & CEO, Affirm
Anthony Noto, CEO, SoFi
Renaud Laplanche, CEO, Upgrade

Digital Banking

Every bank needs to have a digital strategy these days. Consumers have more options than ever and companies need to check all of boxes no matter what size bank they are. We’ll hear a wide range of perspectives from startups to established banks looking to serve a younger customer base. This track will also cover mobile technology, banking infrastructure, data science, partnerships, wealth management and how banks can compete in the ever changing marketplace. Below are just a few names that we’ll hear from on digital banking:

Yolande Piazza, CEO, Citi FinTech
Suresh Ramamurthi, Chairman & CTO, CBW Bank
Luvleen Sidhu President, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, BankMobile
Jeremy K. Balkin, Head of Innovation, HSBC Bank USA
Nicolas Kopp, U.S. CEO, N26 Inc.

Blockchain for Financial Services

For 2018 we looked at one of the biggest new trends in financial services, blockchain and decided to create an event within our event. We are debuting our new blockchain event Blockfin by LendIt. Blockfin is co-located within the LendIt Fintech event meaning attendees have access to both events. We teamed up and are co-hosting the event with CryptoOracle. BlockFin brings together the top innovators and experts from the entire blockchain ecosystem including technology platforms, crypto companies, investors and banks for 2 1/2 action-packed days of learning, networking and business development. The event will include: 1:1 investor meetings, a demo stage for crypto funds & ICOs and 40+ hours of cutting edge blockchain and cryptocurrency content. Some names we are excited to hear from include:

Tim Draper Founder & Managing Director DFJ
Richard Craib, CEO, Numerai
Tom Ding, Co-founder & CEO, String Labs/Dfinity
Vincent Wang, Chief Innovation Officer, China Wanxiang Group
Kathleen Breitman, Co-Founder, Tezos
Catherine Wood, CEO/CIO, ARK INVEST

This is just a taste of what you can expect out of LendIt Fintech USA 2018. You can learn more by visiting our speakers page or looking at sessions confirmed on our agenda. If you plan to attend the event, be sure to act soon as the price increases by $400 on Friday night. As a Lend Academy reader you can use our special discount code “LENDACADEMYVIP” for an additional 15% off.

We hope to see you in San Francisco in April.