Hey, fintech fam! 💜

If you took time off for Thanksgiving — or took a much-needed pause from the chaos of building — welcome back.

All year long at Fintech Is Femme, we’ve been obsessed with a few questions, one of them being:

What does it really look like to build a company that can scale internationally?

Not in the “we’ll expand internationally… someday” sense.

But in the practical, tactical, deeply human sense of what it takes to grow globally.

And yes — if you know me, you already know I dream of Fintech Is Femme summits in Mexico City, Manila, Singapore, Dubai (the list is long). Global big-girl-era unlocked.

But, like most builders, we can be so obsessed with “what’s next” that we skip the part where we build the foundation for “what’s sustainable.” Been there.

Today’s column is based on one of the most tactical, energizing live podcast conversations I hosted at Money20/20 in the Fintech Penthouse.

Three leaders. Three lenses. One blueprint for thinking about global scale with discipline, not delusion.

And speaking of discipline and trust…

We’re just one week away from the launch of The Trust Club — our new podcast series under Humans of Fintech.

If you’ll be in NYC on December 10, come celebrate trust, culture, and community the way fintech should — with real conversations, custom merch, and espresso martinis.

🔗 RSVP here.

Let’s get into it.

INNOVATION

The Global Expansion Signals Every Fintech Company Should Be Watching

What actually happens when a company tries to go global?

Mary Murcko, Head of Growth at Fintech Meetup, found out the hard way.

Long before she started orchestrating one of the most ambitious international expansions in fintech events — she was at Elle Magazine, boarding a flight to Bangkok with a mandate most executives only think they understand:

Take an iconic American brand

and make it make sense

somewhere else.

As Murcko told me inside the Fintech Penthouse at Money20/20:

“If you’re not committed to understanding a market — really understanding it — they will not understand you. When I was at Elle in Asia, I learned the most important rule: listen to the people. The audience will tell you exactly how to succeed… or fail.”

That lesson followed her from fashion media to fintech — and honestly, it should follow all of us.

Because while U.S. fintech has been busy battling cautious capital, stubborn interest rates, regulatory fatigue, and AI hype cycles, desperate to prove they’re not just hype, something very different is happening everywhere else:

Momentum. Real momentum.

LATAM is outpacing the U.S. in digital banking penetration — and while the region had more white space to fill, the U.S. still leaves 5.3 million households unbanked.

Africa has become the global standard for mobile money rails, with the highest number of services, account holders and transactions.

Southeast Asia is the fastest-growing digital economy on the planet.

And over 80 countries now operate real-time payments systems.

According to Boston Consulting Group’s 2025 report Fintech’s Next Chapter, global fintech has officially entered a new era of maturity and acceleration:

• Fintech revenues surged 21% in 2024 (up from 13% the year prior).

• That’s 3× the growth of traditional financial institutions.

• 69% of public fintechs are profitable, with EBITDA margins rising to 16%.

• Fintechs are IPO-ready — they’re just choosing patience. More than 150 private companies founded before 2016, each with over $500 million in cumulative equity, are sitting on the sidelines, quietly poised for the right moment to go public.

• Scaled fintechs (those making $500M+ revenue) now account for 60% of total fintech revenue.

• And challenger banks are growing deposits at 37% annually, outpacing traditional banks by 30%.

The center of gravity has shifted.

Fintech isn’t a U.S.-centric story anymore.

And while geographic expansion, however, remains a risky bet—and one that both fintechs and retail banks have struggled with. Diverse regulatory environments, cultural nuances, and intensified competition make international scaling difficult.

That doesn’t change the story here. 

Fintech – as a layer of the internet — is a global one, and the U.S. is just one market among many.

Which is exactly why we hosted Growing Global: Building, Scaling, and Marketing for a Global Fintech Ecosystem at the Fintech Penthouse during Money20/20 in Las Vegas. 

I sat down with three leaders who aren’t hypothesizing about global scale.

They are architecting it:

Mary Murcko, Head of Growth at Fintech Meetup

Scaling one of fintech’s most anticipated conferences into Europe — beginning with Lisbon.

Jessica Johnson, CEO of Rosy Finch Method & Co.

Helping fintechs scale across LATAM, the EU, and the U.S. with deep cultural and market insight.

Remy Sirls, Executive Director of the Joblio Foundation

Redefining ethical cross-border labor mobility at a time of massive global workforce shortages.

And as each woman shared her story, the same theme emerged:

Global expansion isnt about looking for a new market to do your business better.

It’s about expanding your impact once your traction works.

To gain traction you need:

To understand people.

To respect cultures.

To build trust — the rarest global currency.

This is the blueprint they offered.

The Signals That Say “Go Global” 

Mary Murcko has scaled empires before — from Condé Nast to Rodale — but fintech, she told me, brings a new kind of challenge: growth built on connection, not spectacle.

Fintech Meetup is known for its meetings-first format, and the numbers justify the hype:

• 96% of meeting participants show up

• 92% satisfaction rate

• Thousands of curated matches each year

But the real turning point came when Murcko noticed who else was showing up:

“We started seeing huge international demand — Europe, Canada, APAC. They were coming here for Fintech Meetup. So we thought: why not bring the experience to them?”

Enter: Fintech Meetup Europe, launching next October in Lisbon.

But don’t expect a carbon copy of the U.S. show.

Fintech Meetup did something almost heretical for a large-scale fintech conference:

They cut the expo floor. gasps

Why? Because Europe told them to.

“Their relationship culture is even stronger than the U.S.,” Murcko explained.

“They didn’t want spectacle. They wanted connection. So we scaled up meetings, content, thought leadership. The values stay the same — the execution adapts.”

This was the first major theme of the morning:

Global growth is impossible without cultural intelligence.

You cannot scale trust if you don’t understand the people you’re asking to trust you.

Murcko’s rule of global expansion:

“Clarity. If you don’t understand your value, your mission, your customer — the market won’t either.”

That clarity is the difference between a global launch and a global flop.

The GTM Engine

Jessica Johnson works with fintechs who want to expand globally — but not all should.

Her first question is almost brutally simple:

“Do you have a real product — and do you actually understand the culture you want to enter?”

Her six-sector model evaluates:

• Spending behavior

• Competitor landscape

• Channel economics

• Creative norms

• Local regulation

• Realistic CAC

One of the biggest misconceptions she sees?

Founders thinking global expansion will fix a struggling home market.

“If you’re not doing well in the U.S., going global is not the solution,” she said. “You need foundation before geography.”

Her secret weapon is also her philosophy:

Local insight is not optional.

It’s the whole strategy.

When working with Joblio in Brazil:

• 50% of her creative team was Brazilian
  

• Every message underwent cultural gut checks
  

• Influencer marketing became central due to local behavior
  

• Compliance research directly shaped which markets were viable
  

BCG reinforces this point:

Fintechs only penetrate 3% of global banking and insurance revenue pools — meaning the opportunity is massive, but precision matters.

Vertical markets differ.

Consumer psychology differs.

Regulation differs.

Behavior differs.

Global expansion is not copy/paste.

It’s translate/adapt.

The Human Infrastructure of Global Fintech

Remy Sirls is tackling one of the most complex challenges in globalization: ethical labor mobility.

Joblio connects employers with global talent — welders, engineers, caregivers — without the predatory middlemen who often charge migrants illegal fees.

“People shouldn’t have to pay to go to work,” Sirls told me. “Joblio removes the exploitation and connects workers directly to employers.”

Her three-part criteria for choosing a market is non-negotiable:

1. Is there a real labor shortage?

2. Are visas actually being issued?
   

3. Are employers open to ethical hiring?
   

If not — they don’t enter.

And then she dropped the real news: Joblio is launching an AI-powered marketplace next month.

A migrant can speak into the app — in their own language:

“I’m a welder in Guatemala. I want to work in Portugal.”

AI builds their profile.

Joblio secures housing, visa support, and human rights protections.

Employers get vetted, high-retention talent.

This is exactly the kind of agentic AI BCG says will reshape vertical SaaS, commerce, and personal finance — the kind early-stage fintechs are adopting faster than incumbents.

Fintech is evolving.

Labor is evolving.

AI is evolving.

The leaders who succeed will be the ones who align all three.

The Blueprint: One Global Playbook

Across Murcko, Johnson, and Sirls, a clear pattern emerged:

Global fintech doesn’t scale through capital.

It scales through clarity, culture, trust, and people.

Murcko teaches us when to expand.

Johnson teaches us how to expand.

Sirls teaches us the infrastructure expansion depends on.

BCG’s report reinforces their lived experience:

• Fintechs must double down on fundamentals in home markets
  

• Embed AI at the center of operations
  

• Pursue disciplined growth, not growth theater
  

• Build trust with regulators
  

• Fill geographic gaps in high-growth markets (Africa, LATAM, MENA, APAC)
  

• And recognize the massive white space still left to claim

And if 2025 is the rewrite era — the moment between breakdown and breakthrough — then rewriting fintech requires globally fluent leaders willing to operate beyond borders.

Where to Start

When I asked on the show what founders should start tracking now if they want to expand globally in two years, Johnson didn’t hesitate:

“Know your customer. Know your acquisition costs. Know your message. If what you’re doing doesn’t resonate at home, it won’t resonate abroad.”

And Sirls emphasized:

“Global relationships take time. Sometimes years. You start building before you ever set foot in the country. Start building now.”

And Murcko closed the loop:

“Curiosity. Ask questions. Listen. Don’t assume the world will adapt to you. Be willing to adapt to the world.”

That’s the new playbook.

Not blitzscaling.

Not “growth at all costs.”

But global growth with context. With intention. With humility. With humanity.

Because in fintech today, the companies that win won’t just move money.

They’ll move culture.

They’ll move trust.

They’ll move people — safely, ethically, and across borders.

They’ll build ecosystems that reflect the world we actually live in: multipolar, interconnected, interdependent.

The future of fintech is global.

And it’s already here.

How are you going to tackle it?

If you want the full version — the laughter, the insights, the moments that didn’t fit in today’s newsletter — listen to the whole interview with Mary, Jessica, and Remy here or watch it on YouTube here.

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Speaking of Growing… Let’s Give a Woman in Fintech the Spotlight She Deserves

If today’s column has made one thing clear, it’s this:

Global ecosystems don’t grow by accident — they grow because someone opens a door.

Someone makes a connection.

Someone gives.

So if you’re looking for a meaningful way to pay it forward this season — one that takes 30 seconds but can change the trajectory of a founder’s career — start here:

✨ Nominate a brilliant woman in fintech to pitch at the Fintech Best-In-Showcase, powered by Empire Startups.

Each virtual event features five exceptional founders pitching live, with real-time feedback from decision-makers at FIS, TruStage Ventures, Artemis, Fiserv, and others shaping the next wave of financial innovation.

And yes — one founder walks away with Best in Show. 🏆

But every founder walks away with something far more valuable: visibility across the global fintech ecosystem.

Because visibility becomes credibility.

Credibility becomes momentum.

And momentum is how global companies are born.

So — are you the best-of-the-best CEO in fintech?

Or do you know a powerhouse woman ready for her moment on the global stage?

And if you want to see the next generation of fintech before everyone else…

💻 Join us from anywhere.

Ring in the New Year with the leaders defining what’s next.

_FINTUNES

🎶 Mariah Carey — It’s Like That

Not Thursday, but here’s a throwback. We also know it’s MC season.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

📚 The holidays are coming, in charge of purchasing office gifts? Grab my book, Fintech Feminists! It looks nice on the coffee table 😉

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks as always for reading! Until next time, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. 

See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜