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Leaders & FoundersAuthor: Adam Kinder, Tom Callaghan
Leaders & Founders brings you advice, tips and amazing stories from some of the world's most successful Technology Leaders and Founders of today. We unveil the curtain on the most successful technology companies, those who lead them and give you real-life information and stories on how they have been successful, what has worked for them, and also - what hasn't! Powered by Gathered & Found, a leading Software Delivery partner based in London, UK. We build incredible digital products for the world's leading tech firms and drive forwards innovative technology initiatives globally. Language: en Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Building the world's first AI Native Bank: Andrew Smith on how SPORTA is changing Banking and Sport
Thursday, 4 December, 2025
Andrew Smith has spent his career quietly rewiring the plumbing of modern finance - the stuff that keeps the financial world running even when nobody’s looking.As the Founding CTO of ClearBank, he helped architect and launch the UK’s first new clearing bank in more than 250 years. What started as a blank sheet of paper became the backbone of real-time payments for fintechs, banks, and entire ecosystems. If you’ve used a modern UK fintech product in the last decade, there’s a good chance Andrew’s work helped move your money.Now, with SPORTA, he’s taking everything he learned from core banking, real-time payments, and RTGS-grade resiliency and applying it to a completely new space: grassroots sport. SPORTA is building the world’s first AI-native bank for sport, bringing financial access, automation, and operational speed to clubs and communities that have been left behind by traditional banking.In this episode we get into:How ClearBank was engineered from scratch: the architecture, the early bets, the existential risks, and the breakthrough moments.The reality of regulated, always-on payments infrastructure: what it takes to build systems that simply cannot go down.Behind-the-scenes lessons from working with schemes, regulators, and big-bank partners: including how to survive complex approvals and multi-year integrations.Why “boring” beats “flashy” in financial services: and how reliability becomes a competitive weapon.What Andrew is building now at SPORTA: and why the timing matters, from embedded finance in sport to AI-driven operations and compliance.Hard-earned advice for today’s fintech founders and product leaders: choosing the right problems, surviving regulation, and building products that last.If you’re curious about how money really moves, what it takes to build critical national-level financial infrastructure, or you’re a founder thinking about your next fintech play, this conversation will give you a rare, behind-the-curtain look at the systems and decisions that power the industry.
