The future of payments won’t be card-swiped or cash-counted — it’ll be fast, digital, and deeply integrated. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Floris de Kort, CEO of Thunes, joins to unpack what it really takes to build a global payments network across 130+ markets, from wallets to banks to mobile rails.

Crypto isn’t dead, it’s going institutional.
In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Rifad Mahasneh, CEO of OKX MENA, joins the show to unpack what real digital asset adoption looks like beyond the headlines. We explore how OKX is building for scale, trust, and regulation - especially in the UAE, where crypto is becoming infrastructure, not just innovation.

What’s the real fintech miracle? Lending to SMEs — and staying alive 9 years later. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Nikhilesh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO of Validus, Southeast Asia’s largest SME financing platform. We unpack how Validus scaled to $5B+ in credit across the region by avoiding the hype and building disciplined, anchor-based lending models that actually work.

AI isn’t a campaign. It’s a core banking reset. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Amith Rajan, CEO of Neo Ventures and Head of Digital Wholesale Banking at Mashreq, for a candid conversation on how AI, tokenization, and infrastructure transformation are reshaping the banking stack from the inside out.

The core of banking is broken, and duct-taping legacy systems won’t fix it. This week on Couchonomics with Arjun, we’re joined by Myles Bertrand, CEO of Tuum, the modular core banking platform built in Estonia and now scaling across Europe and the GCC. Tuum isn’t selling digital lipstick. They’re rebuilding the real plumbing of modern banking — one composable, cloud-native layer at a time.

In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, we sit down with Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, the UK’s only publicly listed fintech venture capital firm. From going public to backing infrastructure instead of hype, Tim shares what permanent capital allows that traditional VC structures don’t and why he believes the next decade of fintech will be won with discipline, not just disruption.

The next banking stack won’t just be fast — it has to be human.

In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Nick Drewett, Chief Commercial Officer at Engine by Starling, joins the conversation to share what it actually takes to launch and scale a digital bank — not in theory, but in practice.

Engine is the tech spinout from Starling Bank — one of the world’s first profitable digital banks — and it’s now powering next-gen banking infrastructure globally.

There’s a $260B SME financing gap in MENA, and most players are still offering copy-paste solutions. In this episode of Couchonomics with Arjun, Craig Moore, Founder and CEO of Beehive, shares how one of the region’s original fintechs is tackling real problems with real results. Since 2014, Beehive has built a lending model that combines technology, regulatory know-how, and operational depth to serve the segment banks continue to overlook.

The Venture Model Broke. But Startups Are Still Building. In this episode, Arjun is joined by Devin Kohli, General Partner at Outward VC, for a candid conversation on what’s next for venture capital. Devin shares what conviction really looks like in a post-hype market — and why MENA founders are ones to watch. No pitch decks. No jargon. Just a candid chat about cycles, conviction, and building through uncertainty.

Phygital is the new digital. On Episode 2 of Couchonomics with Arjun Season 4, we sit down with Coenraad Jonker — Founder & Group CEO of Tyme — a digital banking pioneer who’s built real scale across emerging markets.

Tyme raised $250M in Series C. Reached a $1.5B valuation. Signed up 17M+ customers across South Africa and the Philippines. All while keeping CAC at one of the lowest levels globally. This isn’t hype. This is hard-earned traction.

We break down regulation, scale, AI-native banks & why incumbents can't keep up. If you want to understand the next decade of retail banking — this is the conversation.

Season 4 of Couchonomics with Arjun kicks off with a venture builder shaking up the system — Gautam Jain from SC Ventures by Standard Chartered.

From launching digital banks in Asia to building full-stack ventures in the GCC, Gautam’s now part of a team transforming how venture-building happens inside a bank.