Embedded Finance

Happy #TechTuesday!

This week is an extra special week because I am joined by my dear friend Sophie Giubaud, Co-founder & CCO at Fiat Republic, to share some exciting news with you all.

We have co-written a book! ??

The book is titled Embedded Finance, When Payments Become an Experience, but why write a book, and more importantly, why write on the topic of embedded finance?

Tune into our conversation to hear the story of how the book came together, our favorite chapters, what surprised us about writing a book, and a sneak peak of some of the ways embedded finance will impact our industry and world. Read the full Q&A to hear more about why embedded finance is such a relevant topic and why now is the time to join the movement.

When did we believe that embedded finance will change the world? 

Sophie: I have been evolving in the space for the last 10 years. First, enabling fintechs to launch neobanks, then enabling banks to launch neobanks, and more recently, enabling all sort of industries to launch financial services propositions to their users, on top of their existing service line. I feel I have seen embedded finance coming for a long time, but the moment it clicked for me was last year when I saw Grab’s latest financial results where financial services revenues where above revenues from food deliveries and transport combined. That was monumental. We also had discussions with Tui Allen from Shopify at the Citi Symposium and I remember having her confirm on record that Shopify was now a fintech. That’s when I understood there was no going back.   

Scarlett: For me it was a bit different. I was a tech entrepreneur turned banker. The impact of infrastructure, the moving into banking as a service, and all the things that enable embedded finance is what started got me passionate and excited. And then to see the applications for consumers and how most people don't realize how much they interact with financial products every day and how impactful the technology (and data) behind that really is. There is a real opportunity here to make people's lives better in small ways and in very big ways as well. When we started coming up with the idea of writing a book, we knew this was the area that we wanted to focus on.

How were you thinking about the target audience for the subject of embedded finance?

Sophie: When we started thinking about the book, we realized that it was a topic that would affect so many people. I remember us discussing how compelling it would be for the tech curious, our friends and family, but also for brand and tech executives, people looking up at Grab and Shopify’s strategy and execution and thinking how they can emulate the success.

Scarlett: It was interesting because we live in the world of fintech and financial services and that's where a lot of our relationships are. But I have so many versions of my life pre-fintech, people across industries, and these relationships often ask me what it is that I do and what is fintech. This book is for them too. This is for everyone who has heard of these concepts, seeing articles online and news covering but don't really fully understand where the opportunities lie. For me, it was really a book for anyone who's interested in the future of technology, which, given where we are as a society, makes a lot of sense. And if you also think about the impact of financial services and how that moves the world and the economy, the two just feel like this like perfect connection point. 

What's your favorite parts of the book? 

Scarlett: I love the last chapter, which focuses on the future consumer in 2030, our girl Mia. This is the type of stuff that my insomniac mind thinks about late at night, where the world is going and how it will impact us and more importantly, the next generation.

But I have another favorite as well which is really for the fintech focused people. Probably the most effort surrounded the chapter around the right ingredients are now in place. This is the chapter that took the most time because of the amount of case studies, in-depth study, and interviews and so that's one I am the most proud of.

Sophie: I agree with you Scarlett, the chapter on the right ingredients is the one that I enjoyed writing the most because it was a good way to reflect back to the last ten years, see how things have evolved from the beginnings of banking-as-a-service targeting all industries to a more specialized banking-as-a-service, solving the problems of specific industries such as we do for crypto platforms at Fiat Republic. I also really enjoyed preparing the case studies and interviewing people from the industry. As you mentioned, we really wanted to be super practical, with facts and numbers but also to share the stories of what embedded finance is by the people who are implementing it today. I am really proud of what the two of us have achieved, and I can’t wait to share the 30+ interviews we have carried out with our readers, sharing so many perspectives from different people from the industry.

We believe embedded finance is an incredibly important opportunity and now is the time to dig into it.

If you share your questions below and we get enough of them, we will be very happy to do a LinkedIn live in the next weeks to answer them and help you embark in the embedded finance revolution.

Pre-order the book on Amazon here.

#fintech #innovation #tech #payments #embeddedfinance #embeddedfinancebook #financialservices #futureoftech #futureoffinancialservices #womenintech #womeninfintech

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Have thoughts on this week’s trends or questions for me or Sophie? Post your thoughts in the comment section or share them on Twitter. Please include the hashtag #techtuesday and mention me @ScarlettSieber! Until next week. ??

You can connect with Sophie on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Follow Scarlett Sieber on LinkedIn for the latest news in #fintech.