Ep. 184. Fintech Insider After IV - The Valentine's Day Edition

Walking on to Barry White blaring out over the sound system, Jason and Simon kicked off After Dark IV, the Valentine's Day special - our biggest ever live After Dark show at WeWork Moorgate. With over 300 fintech fans in attendance, the guys introduced a fantastic panel of guests including Valentina Kristensen, Head of Marketing at Oak North; 11:FS Pulse and Research Director, Ross Gallagher; our most prolific podcast guest, co-host of InsurTech Insider, Business Insider analyst and reporter, Sarah Kocianski, and HSBC’s Global Head of Corporate and Institutional Digital, Niall Cameron.

Fully provisioned with alcohol and a wealth of terrible Valentine's day puns the panel were all set to unpick the week's top (and often sillier) stories.

We kicked off with the news that venture capital investment into fintech more than doubles, according to Innovate Finance reports; next up we have a swathe of Blockchain Insider stories starting with Jay Z’s Roc Nation investment in Robin Hood, and France and Germany's call for regulation of crypto at the G20. We also touched on an InsurTech story as Uber and Waymo settle their divorce with a $245 million settlement over self-driving-car trade secrets.

In part two we cover, Monzo goes stateside as Tom Blomfield hints are early plans for US expansion; Monese goes intergalactic, in a clever piece of PR to celebrate a successful launch for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, they have opened the queue for a banking service available on Mars; Alibaba does a thing as Ant Financial seeks $5bn in funding ahead of IPO which will make them the world's biggest unicorn, ahead of Uber.

We also play a game with our audience asking who said what? as we read out quotes from execs who denied innovation, even as it was happening around them - test your knowledge and see if you can beat our audience!

Thanks to everyone who came on the night - stay tuned for After Dark V!

Hope you enjoy the show and don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes! Let us know your thoughts @FintechInsiders and join the discussion by signing up at Fintech Insider News.

Special Guests: Niall Cameron, Sarah Kocianski, and Valentina Kristensen.

Links:

• Venture investment in UK fintech more than doubles
• Backing Robinhood, JAY-Z’s Roc Nation invests in would-be Rockefellers | TechCrunch
• France, Germany call for joint G20 action on cryptocurrencies
• Uber settles with Waymo in self-driving-technology lawsuit - Business Insider
• App-only bank Monzo looks to expand into US
• Monese takes a giant leap forward, to create the first Interplanetary Banking Service | Fintech Finance
• Ant Financial seeks $5bn in funding ahead of IPO
• Foot In Mouth: 42 Quotes From Big Corporate Execs Who Laughed Off Disruption When It Hit
• Noel Edmonds takes on Lloyds Bank with new radio station
• A bizarre video has emerged of a former Goldman Sachs boss bench-pressing his wife