News: Chime buys Stride Bank, Molten raises £175m, UBS puts AI on the job spec

Ross Gallagher (0:04)

This is Fintech Insider News. This week, Revolut backer Molten Ventures hits £175 million first close of Growth Fund, chimed to buy nationally-chartered Stride Bank, and UBS makes AI proficiency a hiring requirement for junior bankers.

We'll be tackling all of this and more on today's News Show, so please don't go anywhere.

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Ross Gallagher (1:08)

Hello and welcome to episode 1098 of Fintech Insider News, brought to you by 11FS, the sixth time consultancy of the year that works with financial providers big and small to build the next generation of financial services.

I am Ross Gallagher, the head of consulting at 11FS. Now, to help me unpack the biggest and most interesting stories from fintech and financial services from the past week, I'm joined by a quite brilliant panel of guests. First up, we have a very welcome return to the show for Nadia Edwards-Dashti, the Chief Customer Officer at Harrington Star. Nadia, it's always lovely to see you. Welcome back to the show. Maybe you can just give our listeners a quick reminder about yourself and your role at Harrington Star.

Nadia Edwards-Dashti (1:50)

Thank you so much for inviting me back. I'm always excited to listen to this show and even more excited to be on it. But yes, Harrington Star is a company I've helped build from the ground up since 2010 We help people find jobs and firms and financial services and grow their businesses across tech sales and risk. I personally have spent over 20 years in this industry, and what I've consistently seen is that the challenge isn't only about talent, it's access, visibility, and progression. So I'm really keen to bring perspective to this conversation today. Thanks for having me.

Ross Gallagher (2:22)

Excellent Nadia, and I think we've got some really interesting stories to get your perspectives on as we move through the show as well. So thank you very much for joining us.

We also have a welcome back to the show for John Reynolds, Fintech Reporter at tech.eu. John, likewise welcome back to the show. Maybe you can just remind our listeners a little bit about yourself and obviously your role at tech.eu.

John Reynolds (2:42)

Yeah. Thank you very much for the return invite, Rob. I do appreciate that. So you've billed me as a Fintech Reporter.

I guess I might get my excuses in early. I'm a tech and startup reporter and Fintech is part of my beat, but I'm not a pure play Fintech specialist. So if my answers aren't up to scratch for your host audience, maybe I'll get my excuse in early. But I'm only doing news stories and I do an occasional podcast and some interviews. So I'm covering startups and tech companies across the UK and Europe.

Ross Gallagher (3:19)

Awesome. Well, look, we love a broad perspective as well. So John, as ever, thanks very much for joining us.

Last but of course, by no means least, we have Jason Mikula, Publisher of Fintech Business Weekly. Jason, always a pleasure. Great to see you. Maybe again, worth just a quick reintroduction to our audience if you don't mind.

Jason Mikula (3:40)

Yeah, absolutely. So I spent a bit over 10 years in operating roles in the consumer lending space both bankside and non-bank, which is going to be relevant today. For the past seven or so years have written and published Fintech Business Weekly, speak globally on fintech and banking, published a book on bank-fintech partnerships, and also relevant for today's conversation, I believe, I'm the token American, but I live in the Netherlands, so very relevant for I think one or two of the stories we're going to talk about today.

Ross Gallagher (4:12)

Absolutely relevant.

As always, Jason, I think your expertise and your perspectives, very, very welcome. So thank you so much for jumping on or for joining us. Right. I don't think I have disappointed in my billing of this panel being quite brilliant. I hope you'll agree. So that is our panel. I think all that's left to do is just jump in to the stories. Now, our first story does come from tech.eu with a headline, Revolut backer, Molten Ventures hits 175 million pound first close of growth fund. So Molten Ventures has announced a 175 million pound first close of its new Ventures growth fund working towards a 350 million pound target. The British Business Bank has committed 75 million pounds as a cornerstone investor, aimed at attracting further institutional capital. The fund will invest in Series B and later stage companies across the UK and Europe, including Fintech, AI, Space, Quantum and Deep Tech. Molten says it aims to address the UK and European scale up funding gap, which has historically seen successful companies turn overseas for later stage capital. Molten, which has previously backed Revolut and Zopa, is also reportedly in contention to manage the government's proposed 1 billion pound scale up fund.