2025: The Year of Data Sharing

Scaling Embedded Finance with Purpose

In this powerful episode of FinTech Focus TV, host Toby welcomes Nima Montazeri, Chief Product Officer at Liberis, for an in-depth conversation about scaling embedded finance, utilising generative AI (GenAI), and transforming underwriting through smart data sharing. For anyone interested in product leadership, the future of FinTech, or how to grow a global technology business with purpose at its heart, this episode delivers valuable insights. At Harrington Starr, a specialist FinTech recruitment agency, we are proud to spotlight stories like these that showcase the innovation and talent shaping the FinTech industry.

Driving FinTech Innovation with Purpose and Impact

Nima Montazeri begins by sharing his unique background, from his upbringing in Iran to moving to the UK in 2006 to study computer science at a master’s level. His early interest in computers led to a successful consultancy career and then a major role at Babylon Health, where he contributed to a meteoric scale-up journey and IPO.

After that chapter closed, Nima set out to find a company with purpose—where he could use his skillset to deliver positive societal impact. Liberis, a FinTech focused on providing funding to underserved small businesses, proved the perfect fit. The company’s mission to support SMEs (small and medium enterprises) that struggle to access capital from traditional banks resonated deeply with Nima.

At Liberis, product and purpose are intrinsically linked. Their innovative approach embeds financing options directly into platforms that small businesses already use—be it card processors, marketplaces like eBay, or food delivery platforms. This model empowers merchants to secure funding in minutes, without navigating the complexity of traditional financial systems.

Global FinTech Scaling: From Market Fit to International Expansion

Nima joined Liberis at a moment of transition. The company had found strong product-market fit and had a solution that partners and merchants genuinely loved. The challenge now was scale—how to expand this model internationally, across diverse markets, while maintaining service excellence.

Under Nima’s leadership, Liberis expanded its operations from five countries to over fifteen, with the goal of reaching eighteen countries by the end of 2025. Scaling the business meant more than geographical growth. It involved diversifying the product suite, building platform infrastructure, and investing in internal tools to streamline rollout.

He emphasises the importance of a strategic pause in 2023, where Liberis chose not to enter new markets and instead doubled down on platform optimisation. This deliberate investment prepared the business for rapid, sustainable expansion in 2024 and beyond. It’s a lesson in product strategy that many FinTech leaders would do well to adopt.

For companies looking to scale, the key takeaway is clear: the right talent—product managers, engineers, analysts, and commercial leaders—makes all the difference. At Harrington Starr, we work with firms at every stage of their growth to find individuals who can drive international scale without sacrificing product quality.

Embedded Finance in FinTech: Unbundling, Bundling, and the Power of Platforms

One of the most thought-provoking sections of the conversation explores the evolution of embedded finance. Nima references the longstanding trend of unbundling in banking, where FinTech companies carved out specialised services like FX, lending, and payments, building billion-dollar businesses by focusing on verticals.

However, he believes the sector has now entered a bundling phase. As fragmentation created complexity for small business users, the market began demanding unified, seamless solutions. That’s where embedded finance platforms come in.

Liberis sees immense potential in this new era. Whether it’s a neobank like Monzo or a tech platform like Shopify, these ecosystems can bundle financial services natively and intelligently. By plugging into these platforms, Liberis delivers hyper-relevant, personalised financial products exactly when merchants need them.

For FinTech employers, this shift requires hiring professionals with a deep understanding of platform ecosystems, API integrations, and customer-centric product design. Harrington Starr supports businesses by identifying those with proven experience in embedded finance—one of the fastest-growing areas in the industry.

GenAI in FinTech: How Human+AI is Transforming Product Development

The conversation then moves to one of the most exciting developments in modern FinTech: the rise of generative AI. Nima outlines a three-phase journey that Liberis undertook in adopting GenAI, offering practical lessons for any FinTech product or engineering leader.

Phase one focused on personal productivity. Employees were empowered to use GenAI tools like ChatGPT to enhance their day-to-day tasks. Phase two expanded to functional automation, where Liberis used GenAI to analyse customer service transcripts, automate quality checks, and uncover process improvements.

But it’s phase three that truly transforms the business. Liberis built ADA—an AI-powered underwriting agent that can analyse complex documentation, tap into a vast knowledge base of historical deals, and make recommendations on credit decisions.

Currently, around 85% of underwriting at Liberis is already automated through traditional AI. The remaining 15%, typically large, complex cases, previously required full human review. ADA helps accelerate and improve these reviews, enabling faster decision-making while keeping experienced underwriters in the loop.

Nima is clear: this is not a case of replacing humans with AI. It’s about Human + AI—augmenting talented people with powerful tools. In fact, underwriters learn from ADA, and ADA learns from underwriters, creating a feedback loop that enhances accuracy and decision-making on both sides.

This kind of collaboration is shaping the future of FinTech recruitment. At Harrington Starr, we’re seeing increased demand for candidates who understand both product development and artificial intelligence—those who can build, train, and work alongside AI to deliver smarter solutions.

Smart Data Sharing in FinTech: Driving Personalisation and Automation

Toby and Nima delve into the role of smart data sharing as a foundation for embedded finance. In a traditional bank, data collection and underwriting involve manual uploads, lengthy forms, and document reviews. Liberis changes that.

Through embedded partnerships, platforms can share merchant data, such as sales volume, transaction history, or even Google review scores, at the moment of consent. This real-time, contextual information enables Liberis to offer bespoke funding solutions without unnecessary friction.

Rather than forcing SMEs to go through the long process of applying for funding, Liberis uses data to pre-qualify and present options within the platforms they already use. That could mean offering a cash advance to a restaurant via Deliveroo, or a tailored loan to an online retailer on eBay.

This intelligent underwriting model improves accuracy, reduces risk, and speeds up funding. More importantly, it meets small business owners where they are, helping them grow, preserve jobs, and make long-term plans.

As FinTech recruitment specialists, Harrington Starr sees the growing need for data engineers, machine learning specialists, and risk modellers to help FinTechs harness data more effectively. Smart data sharing is not just a feature, it’s a competitive advantage.

Banking Partnerships and the Aggregator Model in FinTech

Despite being an innovative FinTech, Liberis does not see itself as a disruptor in the sense of replacing banks. Instead, Nima highlights a collaborative model, where banks provide capital, infrastructure, and regulated services, while Liberis focuses on distribution, product design, and user experience.

In this aggregator role, Liberis acts as a bridge between banks and technology platforms. They aggregate services from banks and integrate them into merchant-facing platforms, ensuring SMEs receive a seamless, embedded experience without needing to visit a branch or fill out endless paperwork.

This model allows each player to focus on their strengths, banks offer scale and compliance; Liberis offers agility and customer insight; platforms offer reach and context.

To succeed in this ecosystem, FinTech firms need talent that understands both financial services and digital product design. At Harrington Starr, we work with banks and FinTechs alike to recruit people who can bridge these worlds and drive collaborative innovation.

Learning Across Industries: What FinTech Can Learn from E-Commerce

One of the most unique aspects of the episode is Nima’s focus on cross-industry learning. He shares how Liberis borrows strategies from e-commerce, particularly in understanding how digital ad spend affects revenue generation.

By analysing the return on investment for online ads, Liberis can predict a merchant’s growth potential and offer financing accordingly. These insights, while initially developed for online retailers, are now being adapted for offline businesses too, such as butchers or cafés using Google ads to bring in foot traffic.

It’s a reminder that FinTech innovation doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The smartest product teams are constantly learning from other industries, testing ideas, and adapting them to financial services.

Harrington Starr increasingly supports clients looking for talent with diverse backgrounds—whether it’s from SaaS, retail, logistics, or healthcare. Innovation happens at the edges of experience, and FinTech leaders like Nima are showing how powerful cross-pollination can be.

The Future of FinTech: Personalised Financial Products Powered by AI

In the closing segment, Toby invites Nima to share his long-term vision for FinTech. Nima predicts that within five years, AI will play a central role in designing financial products—not just automating decisions but building entirely new funding constructs tailored to each merchant.

Rather than using segmentation and buckets, AI could create personalised loan structures based on yield requirements, customer data, platform behaviours, and business goals. Each SME could receive a unique financial product that meets their exact needs, generated in real-time by an intelligent system.

This level of personalisation would have been impossible just a few years ago, but with GenAI, it’s fast becoming reality. Liberis is already laying the foundation, and others are sure to follow.

At Harrington Starr, we believe this is where FinTech is heading. Product design, data science, and AI development will become deeply intertwined. Hiring for these future skills requires a recruitment partner that understands the nuances of the industry—exactly what we offer.

Liberis’ Ambition: A Product for Every Partner, Country, and Merchant

Nima closes the episode by outlining Liberis’ grand ambition: to have a financial product for every partner, in every country, for every merchant. It’s a bold vision, but one grounded in execution, innovation, and empathy for small business needs.

From expanding globally to transforming underwriting with GenAI, Liberis exemplifies what’s possible when product leadership, purpose, and technology align. For SMEs around the world, this means faster funding, simpler processes, and more opportunities to grow.

And for FinTech professionals and employers, it signals a new era—one where hiring the right talent is more important than ever. At Harrington Starr, we’re proud to play a role in shaping that future by connecting businesses with the people who will power the next wave of financial innovation.