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Hi fintech fam, 💜

One of my favorite parts of writing this newsletter? Connecting the dots between where fintech is today and where it’s headed next.

We don’t just get to watch the future of finance being built — we get to be part of it.

And this week? We’re talking about moves that could reshape the entire financial system.

Two big stories from powerhouse women redefining fintech, plus a fresh podcast drop packed with masterclass-level insights on building.

Let’s get into it.

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I bring you the latest fintech news and trends, delivering the key insights that matter most to the industry—and you.

#1 Tala’s New Credit Model Wants to Rewrite the Rules of Lending & Unlock Financial Access

Traditional credit scoring is broken — and that’s what Tala CEO Shivani Siroya is innovating.

In a post on LinkedIn this week, Siroya announced the launch of InSight, Tala’s newest credit scoring model, which uses causal inference (yes, the same science powering Netflix and Uber Eats recommendations) to deliver credit limits that actually help borrowers succeed.

“Tala is introducing our newest credit model that uses causal methods to predict the circumstances in which each customer is most likely to succeed, on a truly personalized basis,” Siroya wrote. 

Instead of looking only at past behavior, Tala’s model identifies the causal impact of changing a customer’s credit limit—awarding each borrower the amount of credit most likely to help them succeed.

It’s a direct challenge to one of the most entrenched assumptions in lending: that your worthiness for credit should be determined by a single score, based on your past behavior.

From correlation to causation

Traditional credit scores are reactive. They rely on correlation — if you missed a payment, you’re higher risk. But as Siroya points out, correlation doesn’t always tell the full story. Maybe that missed payment was due to a mismatched repayment cycle, a lack of reminders, or an unexpected cash flow gap.

Tala’s InSight model uses causal inference — the same groundbreaking research led by Nobel Prize-winning economists David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens — to simulate “what if” scenarios for each borrower:

• What if a repayment reminder came two days earlier?
  

• What if the repayment schedule matched a customer’s income cycle?
  

• What if a small increase in credit limit could improve repayment behavior?

The model then personalizes credit limits and terms in real time, dynamically adapting as customer behavior changes.

The results so far?

According to Siroya, Tala’s customers are taking out larger loans and defaulting less, leading to a 10% increase in three-month Customer Lifetime Value compared to the prior score-based policy.

That’s a big lift for a company that’s already originated over $6 billion in credit across markets like Kenya, India, and Mexico — serving customers who are often outside the traditional banking system entirely.

At our Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit earlier this year, Tala’s CTO Kelly Uphoff teased the news:

“Our latest personalization algorithm increased originations and decreased defaults. That’s the sweet spot — serving more people and doing it better.”

Why It Matters

This model represents a bigger shift in financial services: moving from static scoring to dynamic support.

Think about it. For decades, creditworthiness has been boiled down to a single number. That number has determined who gets access, at what cost, and under what terms — often excluding the very people fintechs claim to serve.

But by asking not just “What happened?” but “What could happen under different conditions?”, Tala is flipping the script. It’s not just about mitigating risk for lenders — it’s about helping customers actually succeed.

For fintech founders and operators, this is a wake-up call:

• Personalization isn’t a buzzword. It’s a business model that can improve customer outcomes and revenue.
  

• Behavioral signals are gold. How a customer navigates your app or interacts with support can be as predictive as their payment history.
  

• Dynamic models will win. If your credit or risk systems aren’t evolving in real time, you’re already behind.

And for the industry at large, it’s a reminder: If we want to talk about “financial inclusion,” we need to build systems that don’t just grant access but help people thrive once they’re in.

Fintech has been talking about “democratizing credit” for years. But most of what we’ve built are just faster ways to underwrite people with the same old frameworks. 

Tala’s InSight model is what actual innovation looks like — not just digitizing a legacy system, but questioning whether the system itself serves people well.

If this works at scale, it could reset the industry’s expectations for what responsible, profitable, and truly inclusive lending can look like.

Read more about Tala’s AI model using causal inference to expand financial access, here. 

#2 Alix Raises $20M to Bring AI to Estate Settlement — Tackling the $124 Trillion Wealth Transfer

Settling an estate is one of the most emotionally draining and bureaucratically complex tasks a family can face. On average, it takes 12–18 months and up to 900 hours of paperwork, phone calls, and back-and-forth with banks, lawyers, and government agencies.

Alix, a San Francisco–based fintech, wants to change that.

This week, the company announced a $20 million Series A led by Acrew Capital with participation from Charles Schwab, Edward Jones Ventures, and existing backers like Initialized Capital.

The funding brings Alix’s total capital raised to $30.65 million — and signals major institutional belief in its vision: using AI to radically simplify estate settlement.

The big idea: AI for the Great Wealth Transfer

As the $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer unfolds over the next two decades, estate settlement is poised to become one of the most important (and overlooked) pain points in wealth management.

Alix’s founders — CEO Alexandra Mysoor and CTO Hugh Tamassia — believe the process shouldn’t be a 900-hour slog. Their platform blends AI-driven automation with human experts to guide executors through everything from asset identification to distribution.

In Mysoor’s words:

“In just two years, we’ve grown Alix from a concept to a category-creator. Now we’re ready to turn our attention to scaling our business for even greater impact.”

The company’s AI doesn’t just file forms faster — it eliminates delays, cuts through bureaucracy, and accelerates asset distribution. By automating repetitive workflows and surfacing actionable insights, Alix claims it can unlock millions of dollars tied up in slow, outdated processes.

Why Alix is attracting big names

It’s rare for two financial giants like Charles Schwab and Edward Jones to co-invest in a Series A. But it makes sense: estate settlement is deeply intertwined with wealth management, and modernizing it creates new opportunities for firms to serve families at critical financial moments.

Barry Metzger of Charles Schwab put it plainly:

“Alix blends AI technology with empathetic human expertise to guide and support clients through the estate settlement process — improving efficiency without losing the human touch.”

Lauren Kolodny of Acrew Capital sees the company as a category-defining play at the intersection of fintech and AI:

“We believe in the work Alix is doing to create a new category, bringing long-overdue innovation to the wealth settlement space.”

Why It Matters

Estate settlement isn’t sexy — but it’s an enormous, underserved market at the heart of the wealth transfer economy.

For fintech founders, operators, and investors:

• Few startups are tackling the messy, high-friction parts of intergenerational wealth transfer. Alix is proving there’s room — and demand — for innovation.
  

• Agentic AI can go beyond productivity hacks. Alix is applying AI to a deeply human, highly regulated process — a blueprint for other fintechs looking to use AI for real financial transformation.
  

• Partnerships are the play. With Schwab and Edward Jones on board, Alix shows how fintechs can plug into traditional players to accelerate distribution and credibility.

Plus, it’s positioning fintech to lead in one of the largest wealth shifts in history.

For an industry obsessed with disruption, fintech often ignores the “unsexy” realities of life and death.

But the future of financial services isn’t just about trading and lending — it’s about helping people navigate the most emotional, complicated financial transitions of their lives.

#3 The Investor’s Experiment: How Laura Bock Bets on What’s Next in Fintech

In the latest episode of Fintech Mavericks, Drew Glover and I sit down with Laura Bock, Partner at QED Investors, one of the most active and forward-thinking VC firms in fintech today.

With a background in biophysics and a career that spans global finance and data-driven investing, Laura brings a rare blend of scientific rigor and startup intuition to every deal she backs.

In this episode, she breaks down why venture capital is “one giant experiment,” the founder red flags she can spot in seconds, and how to tell a story that investors can’t stop reading.

Plus, she shares:

• What early signals does she trust before the metrics

• How to balance bold founder vision with investor logic

• Why some of fintech’s biggest opportunities are still hiding in plain sight

• The quote that lives rent-free in her head—and what’s on her deal-flow playlist

Whether you're fundraising, investing, or building what’s next in financial tech, this conversation is full of insights you’ll want to bookmark.

🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sponsored by Brex.

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🗓️ September 19 | 📍 NYC | 🌍 During Climate Week

I’m teaming up with climate fintech powerhouse Bhuva Shakti to bring together the leaders building real solutions—where climate meets capital, and women lead the charge.

Because let’s be real:

→ Climate fintech isn’t niche—it’s where the future is headed.

→ Closing the gender funding gap could unlock $12B in ROI.

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→ The next generation of climate innovation is already here—we just need to fund it.

A room full of the boldest fintech builders scaling what actually matters.

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That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜