Webull CEO Anthony Denier Talks About the Burgeoning World of Commission-Free Investing

In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we talk with Anthony Denier, CEO of Webull Financial, a free trading app from the minds of former Alibaba team members.

Webull started out in China as market data app and quickly gained a following. After it hit more than six million downloads in its first 18 months, its founders decided to expand to the U.S. market as a broker dealer with no fees and no account minimums. Webull offers active traders technical indicators, ratings from research agencies, margin trading, and short-selling for experienced investors while also offering new investors a more user-friendly first step into the financial world.

We speak with Denier about the zero commission landscape in the U.S. and if this world is big enough for multiple commission-free platforms.

In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we look at Software as a Service (Saas) from the lens of institutional investors. 

Imagineer (not the Disney-owned tech workshop for engineers) is a relationship management software company, with products designed to help fund managers and institutional investors operate more efficiently, helping them effectively manage their clients and market themselves. Their clients usually fall in the $3-5 billion AUM category.

We speak with the company’s CEO, Jeremie Bacon, a lifelong entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in financial services technology and how institutional investors use technology like his.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.

In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we’re diving into the world of ETFs with Raj Lala, president and CEO of Evolve ETFs.

Evolve has made a name for themselves as one of Canada’s leading providers of ETFs in emerging industries, such as cybersecurity, cannabis, and the future of autos. Their latest offering, the Evolve E-Gaming Index ETF (HERO), officially launched on Monday.

Before founding Evolve ETFs, Lala oversaw WisdomTree Canada and spent some time heading up asset management divisions and investment management firms in Canada. Just two years after founding the firm, Evolve has 43 ETFs and over $450 assets under management.

Listen to the podcast below to hear more about how Evolve ETFs, and Lala, are tapping into this ever-expanding and developing market.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.
  
In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we look at the world of fintech in a whole new way—a way that’s not explicitly dealing in dollars and cents, but still looks to maximize efficiencies in the industry. What does that mean exactly? Well, it’s a little tricky to explain.

That’s why we have Erkin Adylov do the talking here. Adylov is the CEO of Behavox, an AI platform that runs like an operating system in the workplace, specifically in financial services. Companies in the industry generate a lot of data. Behavox gathers that data, analyzes it, and generates actionable insights for companies.

Listen to the podcast below to hear more about how Behavox is tapping into the human element of the financial services industry and helping companies run more efficiently.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.

In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we’re taking another look at the world of mobile payments with Jay Klauminzer, the CEO of Raise. If you were a fan of last week’s episode in which we chatted with mobile payment company Ibotta, then gear up for round 2.

Raise is essentially a marketplace for gift cards where consumers can sell those cards for cash or buy discounted cards. To date, Raise has, for lack of a better word, raised more than $150 million, they’ve got more than 2.5 million users on the platform currently while working with more than 5,000 brands.

For Klauminzer, whose background is highlighted by stints at Groupon and DoorDash, joining Raise was about taking the next step in a career dedicated to e-commerce and mobile payments.

Listen to the podcast below to hear more about the future of this growing market.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.

In this episode of Fintech Focus, we spoke with Bryan Leach, founder of Ibotta, a consumer app that throws some seriously great cash back at its users when they make everyday purchases. From online retail to picking up some squash and grapes at the grocery store, ibotta offers its users rewards in real time.

Interestingly enough, Leach’s background has nothing to do with shopping or startups apps or the tech sector, not even close. In fact, Leach studied law at the holy trinity of Harvard, Oxford, and Yale before clerking for former Supreme Court Justice David Souter and starting his own successful practice in Denver. But that’s not where his passion was. So, he decided to take a gigantic leap of faith and dive into the world of e-commerce in 2012.

Although Leach didn’t go to business school, didn’t know the first thing about starting a business, and had virtually no technical prowess to claim, he had a vision. And that vision has expanded into a company that boasts 31 million downloads, over 500 employees, and funding of nearly $100 million.

Listen to the full interview below to hear more on how Leach made it happen.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.

In this episode of Fintech Focus, we spoke with Lule Demmissie, the new president of Ally Invest, Ally Bank’s online trading platform.

Demmissie previously served as Managing Director of Investment at TDAmeritrade. She’s been on the job at Ally Invest for exactly one month, and we discussed how digital trading can become successful, the evolution of revenue streams for financial services, and gaining confidence to pursue career changes.

Listen to our podcast below to hear more on Demmissie’s ideas.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.
  
In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we take a look at the world of fintech through a broad lens with Michael Kopelman, general partner at Edison Partners, a growth equity firm in Princeton, New Jersey.

Fintech is a big focus for Edison—the firm was named the Top Fintech Equity Investor at LendIt 2018, and about half their portfolio companies are in fintech.

Kopelman, who leads Edison’s fintech practice, gives us a little insight into what Edison looks for in a new company, as well as where the fintech industry is going as a whole.

Listen to the podcast below to hear more from one of the top fintech venture firms in the country.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events

In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we enter the brokerage wars with Jeff Myers, co-founder and co-CEO of Gatsby.

Just like the name of the eponymous book it gives a nod to, this Gatsby also sees the green light when it comes to opportunity—and that opportunity is giving people access to commission-free options trading.

By providing a clean, easy-to-use app and simplifying the options buying process, Gatsby is trying to do for options what Robinhood has done for stocks.

Among the things we discuss with Myers: how the app works, who it’s meant for, payment for order flow, and why there’s no such thing as something being “too easy.”

Listen to the podcast below to hear how Myers is set to make the options world go gaga for Gatsby.

Benzinga’s Fintech Focus Podcast features conversations with the biggest names in fintech. Subscribe to the Fintech Focus newsletter to get a roundup of industry news delivered to your inbox weekly, and check out upcoming programming at Benzinga events.
  
In this episode of the Fintech Focus podcast, we talk about the science of, well, talking.

Conversational AI has already changed how we interact with computers—thanks in large part to Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant—but we’re only just beginning to see the transformative power that this technology can have on our daily lives.

Leading the charge in this arena is Clinc, a company that was born out of a research project at the University of Michigan.

On Episode 27 of the Fintech Focus Podcast we chat with Dr. Johann Hauswald, co-founder and chief product officer of Clinc, about the company’s beginnings, why they’ve chosen to focus on financial services right now, and what makes conversational AI such a difficult technology to crack.

Listen to the podcast below to hear how Hauswald is helping to help out the financial services world through the help of artificial intelligence.

Listen to the podcast below to hear how Hauswald is helping to help out the financial services world through the help of artificial intelligence.