Hi, fintech fam 💜

Happy July—seriously, when did it become H2 overnight? This year is moving at warp speed, and I hope you’re finding moments to touch grass, lounge on a beach, and reset those nervous systems before the fall madness kicks in.

While you’re off on your summer adventures, I’ll be right here in your inbox every week with fresh stories, sharp insights, and plenty of proof that fintech is still the most exciting corner of the economy.

(And yes—I’m still pulling gold from the Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit we hosted back in April. That’s how much ground we covered.)

I’ve also been busy behind the scenes producing two podcasts for you:

🎙️ Fintech Mavericks, powered by Brex—where I sit down with the founders and operators rewriting the rules. Episode 2 drops tomorrow with Ryan Breslow of Bolt, in one of his first interviews since stepping back in as CEO. Trust me, you don’t want to miss it.

🎙️ Humans of Fintech returns July 7 with a brand new season—kicking off with an unfiltered conversation with Bhuva Shakti, who I’m also teaming up with to launch the Emerald Climate Fintech Summit later this fall.

Plenty more in the works, too—columns, events, new episodes, and a few surprises I can’t announce quite yet.

So wherever you’re reading this—poolside, in an airport lounge, or from your office—I’m glad you’re here. Let’s make the back half of 2025 our most impactful yet.

INNOVATION

How Embedded Finance Is Powering the Next Wave of Growth—From the Operators Doing It Best

Once, embedded finance was just another buzzword on a pitch deck. Today, it’s the infrastructure behind how consumers spend, save, and build wealth—often without even realizing they’re touching financial services at all.

It’s a key shift I explore in my book, Fintech Feminists, and my Forbes column.

Embedded finance has unlocked opportunities for entrepreneurs who never worked on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, creating a wave of founders who might have once felt excluded from fintech altogether.

At the 2025 Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit in New York, we gathered an all-star panel of operators, founders, and banking leaders to unpack why embedded finance isn’t just a product strategy—it’s the connective tissue of the next era of growth, and how you can use it to your advantage.

Moderated by Kesi Johnson, SVP of Client Success at Storm2, the conversation spanned everything from building responsible infrastructure to forging bank partnerships that feel more like long-term marriages. The panelists also shared how women are reshaping a sector that was once defined by gray suits and closed doors.

Their message was clear: embedded finance isn’t a feature. It’s an imperative—and it’s only getting bigger.

According to Bain & Company, embedded finance transactions are projected to surpass $7 trillion globally by 2030, transforming industries from retail to logistics to SaaS.

But for all the excitement, the leaders on stage agreed on one thing: scaling embedded finance the right way isn’t just about speed. It’s about trust, rigor, and the courage to tackle the hard things most competitors won’t.

Here’s what they shared—and what every founder and operator should know right now.

Embedded Finance Moves Fast—But Relationships Matter More

Lauren McCollom, Head of Embedded Finance at Grasshopper Bank, was candid about how the landscape has changed.

“The way we split a meal, pay a contractor, rent a car—it’s all transformed by embedded finance,” McCollom said. “But if you grow too fast without respecting the rules, it can go sideways fast.”

That tension—between innovation and oversight—was a running theme. McKinsey estimates that embedded finance revenues in the U.S. alone could reach $230 billion by 2025, up from $22 billion in 2020. That growth attracts founders eager to jump in, but also regulators and banks wary of being left holding the bag if something fails.

McCollom recalled an early lesson:

“I used to work at Wells Fargo, and I saw this graphic from a research firm that circled every line of business and said, ‘These 90 fintechs are coming for you.’ That was the moment I knew this was where the future was headed—and why I wanted to be part of building it.”

The Path to Embedded Finance Is Never Linear

The panelists’ stories showed there is no single way into the ecosystem.

Zoe Newman, who joined Stripe’s partnerships team just three months before our conversation, started out launching a small business credit card fintech in the U.K.

“When I moved to the U.S., everything was different—the regulatory landscape, the partnerships you needed,” Newman said. “It was a crash course. But the problems were fascinating, and they mattered.”

Ann Olinger, Founder of Zelody, came from banking-as-a-service before striking out on her own. What drew her in wasn’t hype. It was complexity.

“This space has hard edges,” she said. “There’s 30 to 60 years of legacy infrastructure under the hood. And that creates real opportunity if you care enough to build something better.”

Why Bank-Fintech Partnerships Are Like Marriages

If there was one thing everyone agreed on: Your banking partner will make or break your business.

“Embedded finance partnerships are basically a three-year marriage,” Olinger said. “You’re going to need to trust each other and go to bat for each other when it matters.”

McCollom laid out her red flags for founders:

• Scope that keeps changing
  

• Underfunded operations
  

• A mindset that treats the bank as just another vendor
  

• Lack of clarity on how to serve the end user

“Those are signs you’re not ready,” McCollom said. “You have to see the partnership as a win-win-win—for the fintech, the bank, and the customer.”

Newman added that it’s easy for founders to feel defensive when banks dig into every detail.

“It can feel like you’re being scrutinized,” Newman said. “But that’s not a bad thing. If your partner is willing to invest time and resources to understand you deeply, that’s exactly who you want in your corner.”

Compliance Isn’t a Bottleneck—It’s Your Moat

The conversation turned tactical when the panelists discussed risk and compliance—the parts founders often want to skip over.

Nicole Booth, BSA Officer at Meow, shared key steps:

“Start with a risk assessment. Map out every single thing that can go wrong. That’s how you avoid catastrophic mistakes later.”

McCollom agreed, warning that “offloading compliance to a middleware provider or thinking it doesn’t matter because you’re ‘just a fintech’—that’s where it falls apart.”

This discipline pays off.

Stripe, for example, now embeds lending and issuing capabilities into its Connect platform with minimal friction. But as Newman explained, that seamless experience requires years of foundational investment in compliance, credit modeling, and capital facilities.

The Human Side: Redefining Leadership

As Johnson closed the discussion, she asked each panelist how they’ve navigated the cultural dynamics of being leading women in fintech.

McCollom shared how her CEO gave her the nickname “The Lion.”

“I thought it was a bad thing at first—like I was too aggressive,” McCollom said. “But he said, ‘Don’t change a thing.’ Having leaders who let you show up as you are is everything.”

Olinger talked about learning to embrace what others once told her was “too much.”

“Women get told we’re too emotional, too assertive, too loud,” Olinger said. “But when I leaned into those traits—when I turned the dial up—that’s when I started succeeding.”

Newman offered a reminder that authenticity takes time: “I spent years trying to emulate what I thought leadership should look like. It took a decade to realize that being myself was enough.”

What Embedded Finance Really Demands

The panel ended with a question: What’s one myth you’d love to bust?

Olinger’s answer stuck with me most:

“You don’t have to be the biggest player or the loudest voice to build something that lasts,” she said. “You just have to be rigorous, prepared, and willing to play the long game.”

That’s the real story of embedded finance right now. It’s not about hype or headlines. It’s about doing the unglamorous work to build systems people trust—and having the courage to keep going when it gets hard.

Because embedded finance isn’t coming—it’s already here. 

If you’re thinking about embedding financial services into your product, start here:

• Choose your partners like you’d choose a co-founder

• Get nerdy about compliance early

• Invest in the relationship, not just the contract

And as Booth put it:

“When you get it right, you don’t just unlock growth—you unlock trust. And that’s what builds an industry that lasts.”

_{WTF ELSE?}

• Fintechs ask court to uphold open banking 

• US fintech Spinwheel raises $30m Series A led by F-Prime

• Fintech Bolt progresses its turnaround by landing Klarna as a partner

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 🎧 Today’s Listen: ICYMI: Last week’s Season 2 kickoff of Fintech Mavericks featured an inspiring, tactical interview with Adam Nash of Daffy. He shared candid advice for early-stage founders, reflected on the future of fintech and crypto in philanthropy, and explained why purpose and profitability are no longer mutually exclusive. Tune in here.

• 🚀 Today’s Watch: I feel so lucky to have caught Real Women Have Curves on Broadway this weekend. It was the final run, and what an incredible show—an honest, powerful story that beautifully captures the immigrant and first-generation experience. Definitely hit me with some deep cuts.

• 🧘‍♀️Today’s Self-Care: During a recent podcast recording, I shared one of my go-to founder secrets for staying hydrated and (somewhat) sane: 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day. Seriously, it’s the easiest ritual that keeps me energized and helps fend off whatever germs are floating around. Highly recommend the raspberry-flavored Emergen-C—tastes like candy, works like magic.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Halle - Braveface

_{LET’S CONNECT}

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That’s all for now! See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜