Jason Mikula is the publisher of Fintech Business Weekly, an independent newsletter that reaches more than 90,000 subscribers with critical, no-favors analysis of banking, fintech, and crypto. After more than a decade scaling consumer lending businesses at Enova, LendUp, and Goldman Sachs, he became one of the most-cited independent voices on Banking-as-a-Service and fintech regulation, writing the award-winning book on BaaS and co-hosting the Fintech Business Podcast. He works from outside Amsterdam, covering the U.S. fintech-banking ecosystem from across an ocean.
Lead Bank is a state-chartered, FDIC-insured commercial bank turned API-first Banking-as-a-Service platform. Acquired in 2022 by an investor group led by former Square Capital chief Jackie Reses, the 1928-vintage Missouri community bank now provides regulated banking infrastructure - payments, card issuing, lending, and deposit accounts - to fintechs, consumer brands, and digital-asset companies.
Unit is an embedded finance platform that lets software companies add bank accounts, cards, payments, and capital to their products via API — without becoming a bank. Founded in 2019 by Israeli entrepreneurs Itai Damti and Doron Somech, Unit reached unicorn status in 2022 at a $1.2B valuation, becoming the first BaaS provider to hit that milestone. The company processes $80B+ in annual transactions and serves 2M+ end-customers across 140+ software platforms, from workforce management apps to real estate marketplaces.