Americas Series with David Yakobovitch: How FinTech can make retail purchases more inclusive with Katapult's CEO, Orlando Zayas

<p>In this episode of the Americas Series, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidyakobovitch/">David Yakobovitch</a> spoke to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/orlandozayas/">Orlando Zayas</a>, CEO of <a href="https://katapult.com/">Katapult</a>, about how pandemic has changed the way we shop, Katapult's role in the value chain, alternative credit scoring, and BNPL, and on going public with the SPAC Finserv.</p><ul><li> <strong> </strong>The pandemic transformed the way we shop forever: </li></ul><p>eCommerce rapidly expanded; it would have taken 5-10 years to reach its point today without the pandemic. Online shopping and BOPIS (buy online and pick up in-store) is a purchasing trend expected to become permanent. What people are buying has changed also; people are spending more money on electronics, home goods, and appliances while clothing and apparel decreases. </p><ul><li>Buying power also changed during the pandemic:</li></ul><p>Buying power changed overnight, lenders immediately tightened up, and even prime customers were denied financing. Beyond the pandemic, non-prime consumers don’t have the same buying power as prime consumers; they need options. For prime consumers, when lenders tighten up, you need to have other options. </p><ul><li>AI &amp; Machine Learning: </li></ul><p>AI &amp; ML are forever changing all of the technology, including fintech. We can gather a massive amount of data, and after analyzing, we continue to optimize our behavior model (Katapult’s proprietary scoring model). Our Katapult score continues to outperform the fraud point score by a third-party-the-shelf model. The ability to now gather data with AI &amp; ML enhances the user experience and allows lenders to assess risk models better. </p><ul><li>BNPL is growing as rapidly as eCommerce:</li></ul><p>BNPL has expanded amid the pandemic as people found they needed additional financing options and retailers needed to capture a new segment of customers. Katapult focuses on the nonprime customer, which is one of our dif