Meet 13 people shaping Walmart’s ONE Fintech strategy

Hello. I’m Aaron Weinman. The most interesting thing I learned when I first visited a Walmart was the wide variety of items the retailer has on offer. It turns out that diversity extends to services – particularly banking – as well.

Walmart has been sowing the seeds of a booming fintech for some time. Last January, the retailer said it was pursuing a partnership with venture capital firm Ribbit Capital, which backed Robinhood.

The next month, Walmart lured Omer Ismail and David Stark, two executives from Goldman Sachs’ Marcus, over to work on a fintech initiative.

Now the company wants to roll out current accounts for employees and customers.

To be sure, it’s a tall order.

The US consumer banking market is saturated with legacy banks such as JPMorgan and Bank of America, and fintech upstarts including PayPal and Cash App.

Insiders Ann Gehan, Carter Johnson and Ben Tobin have identified the key people shaping this effort at their fintech called ONE.

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1. Walmart’s secretive fintech ONE is building a consumer banking offering that will complement retail. There’s a lot of upside, but there’s no doubt that Walmart is entering a crowded space.

The big banks are digging deep into their pockets to offer state-of-the-art mobile apps, while also investing in technology like robo-advisors to win over wealthier individuals. Walmart will also go up against the legion of fintech startups that offer myriad third-party electronic payment services or buy-now, pay-later initiatives.

However, the retailer has a US workforce of 1.6 million that could benefit from a digital banking service. It also has an army of customers who frequent stores across the country for everything from basic goods to fishing rods. And the hope is that these loyal customers will bet on Walmart’s consumer banking offerings.

ONE has captured people from a range of industries across technology and banking to build out the product and strategy of the business.

Get to know 13 people from ONE’s C-suite to product and engineering talent here.

In other news:

2. Insider surveyed 43 investors—including Bain Capital Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners—about the most promising fintechs to watch. Here are 61 disruptive companies that are changing the world of banking, trading and investment.

3. Santander has hired a law firm to investigate a group of bankers who visited a strip club, according to the Financial Times. The incident took place in February after the bank’s global debt capital markets team was in the UK for corporate meetings.

4. Volkswagen is offers 911 million shares in the first public offering by Porsche, in a nod to the iconic 911 sports car. Volkswagen is aiming for a valuation of up to $75 billion for the IPO, which, if successful, would be the second-biggest share sale in Germany. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Citi are leading the deal.

5. California’s public pension plan has admitted that putting its private-equity program on hold for 10 years had cost it up to $18 billion in returns. Nicole Musicco, Calpers chief investment officer, said the plan’s returns had suffered from not deploying enough capital to private markets during a boom.

6. Barry Sternlicht, Starwood Capital’s CEO, said the housing market could crash if the US Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates. More rate hikes could reduce demand for housing and lower prices, Sternlicht said.

7. Credit Suisse is considering rebranding its investment bank as First Boston, the bank Credit Suisse acquired decades ago, Bloomberg reported. A rebranding will increase speculation that the Swiss bank is considering a spin-off or separation of its investment banking unit.

8. Mortgages and credit cards are becoming more expensive. But this is nothing compared to what we will see at the end of the year.

9. Insider asked venture capitalists which creative economy startups they considered the most promising. Here are 14 companies to watch in 2022.

10. Here’s how a 34-year-old investor moved from Wall Street to psychedelics. Dina Burkitbayeva, an early psychedelic venture capitalist who founded Freedom Biosciences, has raised $10.5 million in seed funding from investors.

Made agreements:

• Acrisure, a fintech company that operates an insurance brokerage and property services company, has acquired B2Z Insurance. The deal is expected to complement Acrisure’s partnership with technical insurance platform QuickInsured.
• Aditxt, a biotech company developing technology around monitoring the immune system, raised $20 million after selling 3.33 million shares on the Nasdaq. HC Wainwright & Co. was the sole placement agent on the transaction.

Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @aaronw11. Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.