Not Fintech Investment Advice: Rail, Anchor, Sencillo, and ClosingLock

Welcome back to Not Fintech Investment Advice, where instead of doling out investment advice (we’re not doing that), we spotlight interesting, new fintechs and share our perspectives. I’m Alex Johnson, creator of Fintech Takes, joined (as always) by my esteemed cohost Simon Taylor.

First up: Rail, aka stablecoin APIs for B2B money movement across borders. Though not a new concept (hello, Bridge and BVNK), Rail has 12 partner banks across 12 countries. If you know anything about cross-border banking, you know that’s a big deal. With $11B in processed volume last year, Rail isn’t Stripe, but it’s not small potatoes either. So, can stablecoins finally knock out legacy systems in B2B payments?

Next up is Anchor, an all-in-one platform for service-based small businesses that streamlines proposals, agreements, invoicing, and payments. Granted we’ve seen this model before, but Anchor integrates everything—plus, their $5 flat fee per transaction challenges subscription models as the pricing norm. Is this the future of financial automation?

Over in the UK, Sencillo is helping parents unlock home equity to cover rising childcare and private school fees. With education costs now rivaling mortgage payments, fintech is stepping in where banks hesitate. But can this scale, especially as tax hikes loom? And what happens when borrowing against your house to afford tuition becomes the norm?

Last and least (for this episode anyway!), ClosingLock tackles real estate wire fraud with a secure payments platform. Identity verification, document uploads, insured transactions—real estate needs this. But why hasn’t this level of security been the standard all along? And could this model expand to high-value sectors like luxury goods or auto sales?

Plus, how do we change the center of gravity in lending, so pricing can be smarter, more personalized, and fairer to the consumer?

00:02:34 - Rail

00:13:57 - Anchor

00:31:20 - Sencillo

00:43:35 - ClosingLock

00:54:16 - Manifesting Fintech Ideas 

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Follow Simon:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sytaylor/

Substack: https://sytaylor.substack.com

 

Follow Alex: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

Companies featured:

https://rail.io/

https://www.sayanchor.com/

https://www.sencillo.finance/

https://www.closinglock.com/