The Financial Technology Report with RJ Lumba

Powering Embedded Financial Services: Parafin’s Sahill Poddar

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Sahill Poddar, Co-Founder and CEO of Parafin, a financial infrastructure company that enables platforms to provide embedded financial products to their small business sellers. Through a single integration, Parafin handles underwriting, capital markets, servicing, compliance, and customer support, allowing marketplaces, vertical SaaS providers, and payment platforms to offer capital, spend management, and savings tools. The company has partnered with organizations such as DoorDash, Amazon, and Worldpay, serving hundreds of thousands of businesses and extending more than $16 billion in financing offers.
Poddar founded Parafin in 2020 alongside Vineet Goel and Ralph Furman, building on a background in data-driven financial systems and applied machine learning.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

Expanding Access to Credit: PayJoy’s Doug Ricket

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Doug Ricket, Founder and CEO of PayJoy, a mission-driven credit provider operating across emerging markets. PayJoy serves customers who lack formal credit history by using patented secured-credit technology, point-of-sale financing, and credit cards designed to open a pathway into the modern financial system. The company has deployed more than $3 billion to over 17 million customers worldwide, achieving profitability while growing across regions including Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Ricket founded PayJoy in 2015 after early career experiences that shaped his focus on financial access, including Peace Corps service in West Africa, engineering work on Google Maps, and inventions that helped launch the pay-as-you-go solar sector. 
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

Efficient Global Money Movement: TransferGo’s Daumantas Dvilinskas

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Daumantas Dvilinskas, Co-Founder and CEO of TransferGo, a digital money transfer platform founded in 2012 to address the practical barriers migrants face when sending money across borders. The company now supports more than 8 million customers in over 160 countries, offering faster, lower-cost transfers built for people managing financial responsibilities across geographies.
Daumantas has led TransferGo since its early days, overseeing its growth from a small founding team into an international operation built around licensing, banking partnerships, product development, and customer support. 
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Digital Banking for SMEs: kompasbank’s Michael Hurup Andersen

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Michael Hurup Andersen, Founder and Co-CEO of kompasbank, an end-to-end digital business bank established in 2017 to improve access to financing and advisory services for small and midsize enterprises in Denmark. The bank offers tailored loans, leasing options, and a digital marketplace of operational tools, along with savings products for individuals whose deposits help fund SME growth across the country.
Michael has spent more than two decades in banking and financial services, with prior roles in treasury, corporate financial sales, and advisory work across Danish and international institutions. At kompasbank, he oversees efforts to build a technology-driven platform designed to support companies with faster processes, clearer guidance, and more flexible financing.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

Transforming Mortgage Access: Gen H’s Graham McClelland

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Graham McClelland, CEO of Gen H, a fintech mortgage lender working to expand access to homeownership in the UK. Gen H focuses on buyers whose situations require more nuanced evaluation—including blended income, contract-based work, and small-business ownership—and has built its platform to assess these cases with greater precision. The company also offers deposit and affordability support designed to help customers reach homes that fit their circumstances.
Graham joined Gen H after senior roles at Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Today he leads the company’s scale-up efforts, capital strategy, and the continued development of its lending model.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

Rethinking Payments Infrastructure: Form3’s Mike Walters

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Mike Walters, CEO and Co-Founder of Form3, a cloud-native payments platform used by banks and regulated fintechs to move money at scale. The company provides fully managed payments infrastructure that supports high-volume, always-on processing without the operational burden of legacy systems. Its API-first design gives institutions a single, consistent way to run and modernize their payments operations.
Walters has helped steer the company from its earliest days, first as Chief Product Officer and now as CEO, overseeing strategy, product development, and key client engagements as Form3 has expanded across domestic and international payment flows.
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Modernizing Life Insurance: Bestow’s Melbourne O’Banion

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Melbourne O’Banion, Co-Founder and CEO of Bestow, an insurtech company that builds the software infrastructure life insurers use to digitize operations, launch products, and modernize underwriting and policy administration. Bestow partners with major carriers, providing technology and data solutions that streamline processes from origination through back-end administration.
O’Banion co-founded the company to modernize how life insurance products are delivered and managed, bringing experience from prior entrepreneurial roles and guiding Bestow’s long-term strategy and industry partnerships.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

AI for Credit Decisioning: Ocrolus’ Sam Bobley

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Sam Bobley, Co-Founder and CEO of Ocrolus, a document AI platform used by financial institutions to automate and improve credit decisioning. The company enables lenders to classify documents, extract critical data, detect fraud, and run cash-flow and income analyses across small business, mortgage, and consumer applications. Ocrolus now works with more than 500 customers and has analyzed over 300 million pages of financial documents.
Sam launched the company in 2014 and continues to guide its strategy, technology roadmap, and customer partnerships. Under his leadership, Ocrolus has expanded its use of applied AI in underwriting workflows and has secured over $100 million in venture funding from leading investors while becoming a core infrastructure provider for many leading fintech and lending organizations.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

Simplifying Estate Planning: Vanilla’s Gene Farrell

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with Gene Farrell, President and CEO of Vanilla, a wealth management technology company simplifying how advisors deliver estate planning at scale. Founded in 2019, Vanilla’s platform helps financial advisors, planners, and attorneys create personalized estate strategies through automation and data integration. The company’s software has processed tens of thousands of planning documents and is used by leading wealth management firms including Mariner Wealth Advisors and Vanguard.
Gene joined Vanilla in 2021 after executive roles at Smartsheet, Amazon Web Services, and The Coca-Cola Company. Drawing on his background in building high-growth technology businesses, he now leads Vanilla’s mission to make estate planning more efficient, accessible, and impactful for advisors and their clients.
Gene supports National Ability Center. To learn more about this organization click here.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode click to follow.

Building Payments Infrastructure: Highnote’s John MacIlwaine

Welcome to The Financial Technology Report, a leading information source on financial technology companies and solutions.
In this episode, we speak with John MacIlwaine, Co-Founder and CEO of Highnote, a payments technology company offering a unified platform for embedded finance. Founded in 2020, Highnote enables enterprises and fintechs to issue cards, accept payments, manage credit, and track funds through a single API-driven system. The platform integrates issuing, acquiring, ledgering, and real-time money movement to help organizations design, launch, and scale their payment products more efficiently.
Before founding Highnote, John held senior executive roles across technology and financial services. At Highnote, he focuses on advancing the company’s platform and strengthening how businesses deliver modern payment experiences to customers.
I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode click to follow.