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š¤ Wake-Up Call
Why fintechās role in building a more resilient economy has never been more urgent.

Hi, fintech fam š
This week, I canāt stop thinking about the devastating floods in Texas. Over 100 lives lost, including dozens of children. Billions in damage to homes, infrastructure, and communities. Itās personalāthis happened in my home state. Itās also political, economic, and moral.
And itās a brutal reminder: what weāre building at Fintech Is Femme isnāt just relevantāitās urgent. Our next event covering climate fintech will dig into the role each of us plays in shaping a more human-centered financial future.
Weāre not just talking about financial innovation. Weāre building infrastructure for survival. For resilience. For a future that doesnāt leave people behind. Because, as I kept circling back to while writing this weekās column:
Women are the key to unlocking a better financial future for the worldāthrough climate, healthcare, and everything in between.
Letās get into it.
INNOVATION
What the Big Beautiful Bill Really Means for Fintech ā And Why Women Will Rescue This Economy (Again)

Fireside Chat with Rochelle Gorey, Founder & CEO, SpringFour, and Kelly Uphoff, CTO, Tala. Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit on April 23, 2025. New York City.
As deadly floods devastate Texas and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) strips funding from climate and healthcare systems, one truth is undeniable: fintechās role in shaping a more resilient economy is no longer optionalāitās urgent.
Fintech is built on agility and innovation. But no amount of hustle can offset the damage of defunding the very systems that support progress.
American fintech risks being left behindānot because we lack talent, but because we are defunding the very ecosystems that make innovation possible.
For those of us building for the 99%, this is not the time to pause. Itās a wake-up call. Standing stillāor worse, retreatingāis not an option.
Since its passage, Iāve dug through the analyses, spoken with experts, and followed the numbers.
Hereās what I found.
A Gut Punch to Innovation
The OBBBA sets the stage for an economic slowdown that punishes the most vulnerableāwhile sabotaging the exact innovation we need to survive the next chapter.
It slashes nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid. It eliminates clean energy tax credits. It cuts food assistance and federal support for climate resilience, while channeling billions into border militarization and fossil fuel subsidies.
According to the Center for American Progress, household energy costs will rise by $110 next year. By 2035, gas prices could climb by 37 cents per gallon.
This isnāt just bad policyāitās anti-innovation.
Labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards, writing in Bloomberg, estimates the bill adds $3.3 trillion to the national debt within a decade, triggering higher interest rates across the economy.
That drives up the cost of capitalāespecially for early-stage founders and emerging innovators. In fintech, where tight margins collide with bold ideas, it lands like a punch.
āIt raises borrowing costs throughout the economy due to the volume of borrowing,ā Edwards wrote in Bloomberg.
āThe rosiest projections are that tax cuts would add a nominal amount to GDP in the first few years, but require so much borrowing that the deleterious effects of higher interest rates negate any budget gain that comes from a bigger economy.ā
She also warned of the downgrade from Moodyās Ratings in May, which stripped the U.S. of its top AAA credit score and cited an unsustainable fiscal pathātimed right as the OBBBA was being debated.
The warning was clear: large, debt-financed tax cuts in an already overleveraged economy are a dangerous bet.
Edwards also laid out a brutal history lesson: tax cuts are the largest contributor to U.S. debt this centuryāmore than war spending, Medicare expansions, or recession responses.
Yet their return is weak. Even at considerable cost to the federal budget, the biggest tax cuts yield only modest increases in family incomesāpennies on the dollar.
The second wave of harm comes from deep cuts to healthcare and nutrition for low- and middle-income Americans. The bill is projected to:
Remove Medicaid access for 12 million people (mainly due to work requirements)
Leave 17 million uninsured (from Medicaid and ACA subsidy cuts)
Cut food stamps for 2 million, with benefit reductions for 40 million more
The average annual food stamp benefit? $4,000. Medicaid spending per enrollee? About $7,600. Yet the OBBBA offers an average annual tax cut of $13,500 to the top 10% of earners.
Slashing support for the most vulnerable doesnāt just break social contractsāit hurts the economy.
Food stamps raise test scores and bolster consumer spending. Medicaid reduces mortality and enhances financial security.
It is a grim measure of our priorities that a bill can boast the largest-ever cuts to Medicaid and food stampsāand still add $3 trillion to the national debt.
Meanwhile, countries like China are ramping up public investment in renewable energy, semiconductor manufacturing, and next-gen technology.
The global innovation race is acceleratingāand the U.S., once a leader, is tying its own hands.
If fintech leaders want to stay globally competitive, now is the time to:
Forge international partnerships,
tap into global talent pools,
and push for policies that protect long-term growth.
Read more in my past column: Why Every Fintech Needs a Global StrategyāAnd How to Build One Smart.
We cannot afford to be insular or reactive. This is a moment to double down on purpose-driven innovation, diversify our capital pathways, and build ecosystems that are resilient not because theyāre shielded from policy shocksābut because they are designed to withstand them.
The Human and Fiscal Costs of Inaction
The recent floods in Texas are tragic.
More than 100 lives lostāincluding nearly 30 children. Up to $22 billion in damages. Homes, roads, and emergency systems wiped out in hours.
I grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I spent summer vacations floating down the Guadalupe River as a kid. This isnāt an abstract policy failureāitās a catastrophe in my old backyard.
I spoke to Bhuva Shakti, a longtime Wall Street executive and climate fintech expert. Her diagnosis was blunt: āThis was preventable.ā
Warmer air holds more moisture, making rain more intense and less predictable. The Guadalupe River rose 20 feet in under an hour. Flash floods gave families and first responders minutesānot hoursāto act.
NOAA and Texas 2036 report that extreme precipitation has increased 20ā30% over the last 50 years. And yet, the National Weather Service has lost 600 employees just this year, thanks to budget cuts and buyouts from the current Presidentās administration.
This is what happens when we defund our climate defenses.
The OBBBA accelerates this trend, gutting environmental protections and safety net programs.
The result? An estimated 930 additional pollution-related deaths per year by 2035. Personal health costs rising by $2,500 annually per household. A power grid pushed to the brink.
Climate-related health issues already cost the U.S. $800 billion annually, according to the American Lung Association. Deloitte warns that climate inaction could strip $14.5 trillion from the U.S. economy over the next 50 years.
Itās an economic collapse on a rolling schedule.
Fintechās Roleāand Responsibility
Fintech touches everything from credit access to disaster recovery. If we want to protect our usersāand our futureāwe canāt ignore the risks ahead.
As Shakti said in her TED Talk, āPutting people in the risk equation is a nonnegotiable, even when there is no backup plan or safety net.ā
In other words: prioritizing people isnāt a riskāitās the smartest investment you can make.
Right now, there is no safety net. And if fintech is to live up to its missionāespecially among those building for the 99%āit must create one.
Fintech alone canāt stop climate change. But we can build systems to help people survive it.
Trust in institutions is evaporating. Families are living one emergency away from crisis. And yet the financial tools that could helpāembedded insurance, emergency lending, climate-informed underwritingāremain niche.
Itās time to change that.
Every 1°C rise in global temperature could reduce GDP by over 1.2%, per the World Bank. And Deloitteās warning of a $14.5 trillion cost to climate inaction isnāt just a numberāitās a roadmap for whatās at stake.
Fintech leaders can respondānot by chasing vanity metrics, but by building for durability.
The future belongs to those who design for resilience. That means savings tools for gig workers. Adaptive credit models. Disaster-proof infrastructure.
It means leading like we are an essential serviceābecause we are.
Women: Not Just the Most AffectedāThe Most Effective
Letās not forget: women are 14 times more likely to die in climate-related disasters, according to the UN.
But theyāre also the key to solving them.
A 1% increase in women managers corresponds with a 0.5% drop in emissions. In 2023, 45% of new climate fintech startups had a woman co-founder.
Yet all-women teams still receive just 1.1% of total climate tech funding. According to RMI, fixing that gap could unlock $12 billion in ROI.
Thatās not philanthropy. Thatās smart investing.
Take Rochelle Gorey, CEO of SpringFour. Her platform helps banks and fintechs connect customers to emergency financial resourcesāhousing aid, utility relief, job support. It reduces delinquencies. Builds trust. Saves lives.
SpringFour is a model for what fintech for good really looks like. But we need thousands more like it.
As Cindy Gallop often says, we need to fund and support women-founded fintech companies at scaleānot as a niche, but as a global necessity.
Where We Go From Here
At Fintech Is Femme, weāre not waiting for government leadership. On September 19, weāll host the Emerald Climate Fintech Summit to spotlight the founders building for resilience and equity.
Weāll explore the capital flows, product strategies, and policy interventions that actually move the needle. And weāll do it with the people already doing the work.
Fintech wonāt fix everything the OBBBA broke. But it can be a force for recovery. For reinvention. For real momentum in a broken system.
If our government wonāt invest in the future, women will. Because we always have.
This bill is a warning. But itās also a call.
Fund the people solving real problems. Build for the future you want to live in. And never bet against women in fintechāweāre building the economy youāll depend on next.
Join us at the Emerald Climate Fintech Summit on September 19. Support the founders in designing a safer, more equitable financial future.
We donāt need another ābig beautifulā promise.
We need bold action, clear values, and leadership that prioritizes people.
Letās build them together.
WTF ELSE?
Fintech is unlocking financial access for the āinvisibleā economy
Female founders defying odds: These 14 startups raised $113.5M, UK leads the charge
The global impacts of pay by bank and open banking: What will it take to get the US on board?
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I WANT IT, I GOT IT
š§ Todayās Listen: ICYMI: The latest episode of Fintech Mavericks is liveāfeaturing Ryan Breslow, founder of Bolt and Love.com, on reclaiming his company, rewriting the rules of leadership, and building fintechās next big play. Listen on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
š Todayās Watch: Just watched K-Pop Demon Hunters on Netflix this weekendāfierce, fun, and full of meaning. Seeing bold, underrepresented heroes take the spotlight and save the world? Feels a lot like what weāre building at Fintech Is Femme.
š§āāļøTodayās Self-Care: On Sundayāaka Self-Care SundayāI wandered into Ling Mak Beauty Salon in NYCās Chinatown and had one of the best facials of my life. My facialistās advice? Come back every five weeks. Message received.
FINTUNES
New single from Lizzo. This is such a great vibe, and the SZA feature makes it even groovier.

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Thatās all for now! See you Thursday!
Love,
Nicole š