Pagaya is a fintech company using machine learning and data analytics to reshape the asset management space. They appeared on my radar after recently announced its launch in the U.S. with $75MM in debt financing from Citigroup. Pagaya will use the funding to create a new leveraged fund suite called the Opportunity Fund. Financial technology has come a long way to improve the experience of individual investors, but there has been little progress made at the institutional level. After learning that the company also secured a 20-year BlackRock veteran as chief investment officer, I wanted to find out more about how Pagaya is working with the largest lending marketplaces to retool the backend and deliver better returns for institutions. Founded in Tel Aviv in 2016, Pagaya has raised $200MM in capital to date, mainly from institutional investors. Utilizing state-of-the-art, machine learning algorithms, Pagaya also serves the institutional markets with a focus on independent, alternative asset management. Being highly data-driven and fragmented in nature, scaling up investments in alternative credit, including consumer credit, demands a new approach--one in which traditional tools & investment strategies become increasingly irrelevant. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUxucdJgIs

I recently came across some mouth-watering pics on the internet that would give anyone a severe case of the munchies. But I quickly noticed many of the best photos on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter were from a company called Goldbely who call themselves a curated e-commerce food marketplace. Goldbely finds America’s most unique, creative, and legendary foods from across the country, and ships them to your front door. It’s one of those moments where you see a video or picture of your friend eating something delicious, and you want to try it, except – you’re not in the same city as them. Goldbely solves this and creates a new revenue stream for small and local food shops. For the first time, people are now able to connect with the foods they remember from childhood/their hometowns, give the gift of nostalgia, or experience the latest viral sensations or most popular food trends. Goldbely’s model is continuing to disrupt the supply chain and empower small shops to reach new audiences. By taking once obscure and artisanal products and making them available to everyone, Goldbely is uniquely positioned within the space, as it is among the first to offer regional/iconic food heroes with a new revenue stream. After hearing how Goldbely also raised a $10M Series A to ship food from America’s most popular restaurants, I invited Joe Ariel, CEO, and CoFounder of Goldbely on to the show. We talk about the technology behind scaling local cuisine experiences to a national audience. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDX4BzNFl2g

Etherisc is developing a protocol for decentralized insurance applications. We use blockchain technology to make the purchase and sale of insurance more efficient, enable lower operational costs, provide greater transparency into the industry. Christoph Mussenbrock shares how Etherisc is on a mission to make insurance fair and accessible through its open-source, decentralized insurance protocol and collectively build insurance products on the Ethereum blockchain. Since its launch in 2016, the Etherisc protocol has been reimagining insurance solutions to democratize the process in the interest of the consumer. Etherisc is currently working with ACRE Africa on the Bima Pima crop insurance product, which offers farmers weather index insurance policies to protect them against climate-related risks for their crops. This crop insurance is more affordable, fairer, and more transparent than the traditional insurance solutions available to farmers to protect their livelihoods in case of extreme weather events fueled by climate change. Other projects currently hosted on Etherisc’s open-source Generic Insurance Framework include Flight Delay Insurance, Crop Insurance, Social Insurance, and Hurricane Protection. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bGHqnhtn9w

Mike Vesey has founded companies providing transformative solutions for the global enterprise. He has developed award-winning products in unified communications, service operations, security, and data management. Mike co-founded DBVisions Inc producing enterprise-grade content management and security platform that was later acquired by a leading CMS provider. Mike went on to found VCI Inc with a focus on identity and security integration for global organizations. VCI developed the enterprise Single Sign On solution for Microsoft Live Meeting. VCI was the exclusive Microsoft integration partner for deployment of Live Meeting into complex, global enterprise environments. VCI has supported and maintained complex identity management integrations with some of the world's largest organizations. This success led Mike to design IdRamp, a decentralized integration fabric focused on automating identity security and application interoperability. IdRamp is a decentralized identity service to simplify integration, improve security and continuously innovate your business. With IdRamp you can easily integrate and orchestrate multiple identity silos. Tailor authentication and access control policies according to your business strategy. Add decentralized self-sovereign identity to any business strategy. Through distributed authentication, IdRamp secures the identity threat surface by eliminating the need for public network-facing identity and access management systems. I invited Mike onto the podcast to learn more about his tech startup story and IdRamp. I also learn more about how IdRamp is providing adaptable digital bridges that interoperate across all generations of identity management. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvgLljvDwsc