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Built and led AI-powered financial products and businesses as a founder and at large tech…
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Kevin Lubega posted thisStablecoin issuers (like Circle and Tether) may soon be required to ask for your ID. Last week, the Fed, Treasury, OCC, FDIC, and FinCEN jointly proposed a rule under the GENIUS Act that treats stablecoin issuers like other regulated financial institutions when it comes to knowing their customers. Exchanges like Coinbase already perform KYC and know who’s transacting on their platforms. The gap for regulators is what happens once someone moves their stablecoins off the exchange into a self-custody wallet or sends it peer-to-peer where the issuer doesn’t know who’s actually holding it. This rule narrows that gap. Circle, for example, as the issuer of USDC, would now need its own customer identification program. However, one Fed governor flagged that this doesn’t go far enough to address risk once coins move through secondary markets. The more “issuer-level AML” becomes the standard, the more it favors and creates a moat for players like banks and fintechs entering the space, who already run bank-grade compliance.
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Kevin Lubega posted thisLast week Anthropic launched a suite of finance agents, including a Know Your Customer (KYC) screener agent that assembles files, reviews documents, and packages escalations for compliance review. While the KYC process is still too complex for a single agent to handle end-to-end today, this meaningfully improves the most manual parts like pulling documents and cross-referencing sanctions lists. An equally significant announcement was their partnership with FIS. FIS powers financial infrastructure for thousands of financial institutions worldwide, and together they’re building an AML investigation agent that will reduce case resolution times from days to minutes. KYC and AML are notoriously high-friction workflows, often with high false positive rates and significant manual review burden which slows down customer onboarding and money movement. AI agents can meaningfully change the economics of running a KYC program and also increase speed to benefit for the customers waiting on the other side of that review queue. What I’m most excited to see AI tackle next in this space is human vs agent detection for agentic commerce, beneficial ownership mapping to untangle complex corporate structures, and continuous real-time risk monitoring (perpetual KYC).
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Kevin Lubega shared thisQuickBooks 401(k) by Vestwell is officially live! Loved working on this with the Vestwell team and my Intuit colleagues. This launch strengthens our offering to help businesses take care of their employees. Super excited about this one! Shameless plug: we are looking for a superstar PM to build what’s next. If you’re excited about solving real financial problems for SMBs, apply here. https://lnkd.in/gwz-sWGnKevin Lubega shared thisVestwell has been selected as the exclusive partner for Intuit QuickBooks 401(k), a retirement savings offering built for QuickBooks Payroll business customers. Nearly two-thirds of employees at businesses with fewer than 50 workers lack access to a workplace retirement savings plan. With millions of employers already running payroll and managing their finances in QuickBooks, this new offering embeds savings into the tools businesses already use—expanding access by making it easier to get started. No extra systems. No added complexity. Just a simpler way to help teams save for the future. Learn more about QuickBooks 401(k) by Vestwell: https://lnkd.in/eVgn3W59 #RetirementSavings #QuickBooks401k #EmployeeBenefits
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Kevin Lubega posted thisLast week, Ramp raised $500M, pushing its valuation from $16B in June to $22.5B. That’s a 41% jump in weeks, and a 73% increase since March. Fintech funding is rebounding after the 2022-2024 “winter.” Before that, global VC funding hit $127.7B in 2021, capturing 20% of all VC dollars. After the end of zero interest rate policies (ZIRP), which fueled easy capital, fintech funding tanked starting in late 2021. Global fintech VC funding collapsed to $30B in 2023, while the share of VC dollars dropped from 1 in 5 to just 1 in 12 by 2024. Since late 2024, fintech has been bouncing back, though it’s not at 2020-2021 levels yet. Big rounds are happening across stages, especially in enterprise fintech, with players like Sardine ($70M), Imprint ($75M), Airwallex ($301M), Rippling ($460M), and Plaid ($575M) leading the charge. A few interesting trends reported by PitchBook: • Median deal sizes hit $6.5M in Q2 2025, up 29% year-over-year • Enterprise fintech is dominating, capturing 74.6% of 2025 funding so far • AI is a game-changer (no surprises there), with AI-native fintechs generating 4x value per dollar invested and commanding 242% valuation premiums Public markets are heating up too, as I’ve written before. Circle had a massive IPO and has climbed over 200% YTD. Robinhood surged 157% YTD, making it one of 2025’s top-performing stocks (regrettably, I sold my shares last year). With more fintech companies likely going public soon, the rebound might just be getting started.
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Kevin Lubega posted thisWith Perplexity launching Comet and OpenAI rolling out ChatGPT agent, we are rapidly moving towards a world where AI will buy and sell on our behalf. These agents will handle everything from product discovery and price comparisons to negotiating terms and checking out. A few things that will need to evolve fast: Data Access & Permissions: Agents may need access to your personal or financial info to complete a purchase. How much access is too much? Should they be allowed to use BNPL? Authentication & Delegation: Banks and card networks will need ways to confirm that an agent is truly acting on your behalf. We’ll need new controls like spending limits, and merchant whitelists. Fraud Detection & Disputes: New tools bring new threats. AI-powered fraud is inevitable. Risk systems will need to distinguish between your trusted agent and a malicious bot, which will make disputes and chargebacks a lot messier. Big players are already making progress. Amazon’s “Buy for Me” experience is an early look at how this might work. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal announced that they are working on solutions, such as AI-enabled credit cards, to support agentic commerce. While the incumbents are laying the groundwork, there’s massive white space for startups to build enabling technology — from agent permissioning protocols to agent-friendly wallets to fraud engines built for bot-to-bot transactions.
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Kevin Lubega posted thisCoinbase just rebranded its Wallet app to “Base” and is turning it into a full-blown super app—where users can trade, earn, pay, and even chat with friends. Super apps have seen massive success in other parts of the world, but they’ve struggled to gain traction in the U.S. Could this time be different? Coinbase is adding a social layer—and that could be a game changer. Social could be the missing flywheel for mainstream crypto adoption. By making crypto products more engaging with embedded social features, Coinbase could dramatically increase usage. They already have a cult following among crypto enthusiasts and have built a strong product foundation. With regulatory tailwinds like the GENIUS Act supporting stablecoins, Coinbase is well-positioned to scale beyond trading. Of course, capturing consumer attention from Meta, TikTok, Snap, and X won’t be easy—but introducing social into a fintech app, especially one that promises to pay creators regardless of following or virality, could be an exciting wedge into the creator economy.
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Kevin Lubega posted thisKYC and AML processes are ripe for AI transformation. Today’s systems are weighed down by manual reviews, high false positive rates, and operational overhead. While customer onboarding has improved, back-office AML operations remain largely manual and reactive. The opportunities for AI are significant: Perpetual KYC / Ongoing Monitoring: AI enables real-time monitoring that flags high-risk cases based on evolving customer behavior and data—replacing periodic reviews and easing the burden on compliance teams. Automated SAR Generation & Submission: AI can draft suspicious activity reports with relevant data and even handle regulatory submissions—saving AML teams hours of manual work. Smarter Transaction Monitoring: Instead of flooding analysts with false positives, AI models can learn patterns and detect true anomalies, allowing legitimate transactions to go through seamlessly—improving the customer experience and reducing manual work. These solutions are already being deployed. However, as AI agents increasingly manage onboarding and transactions, intelligent compliance infrastructure will become mission-critical.
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Kevin Lubega posted thisWhether you love crypto, hate it, or still think it’s a fad—it’s getting harder to ignore. In the U.S., Coinbase joining the S&P 500 puts crypto exposure in millions of retirement portfolios. The government removed barriers to holding crypto in 401(k)s, opening the door for more retail investors to add digital assets. And just this week, the Senate passed the GENIUS Act, which would bring new structure to stablecoins. Globally, Hong Kong’s new stablecoin law positions it as a growing crypto hub, and the EU is ramping up licensing under their MiCA framework. These are strong signals from institutions and policymakers worldwide. Index inclusion, retirement access, and regulatory clarity all point in the same direction: crypto is moving from the fringe to a core component of modern finance.
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Kevin Lubega posted thisFintech is having a moment in the public markets. Circle recently went public in a blockbuster IPO with shares surging over 200% at my last check. Chime’s reportedly up next and are targeting an $11.2B valuation. And Gemini recently disclosed they had confidentially filed for an IPO. After years of staying private, fintech unicorns are eyeing the open IPO window. A strong debut like Circle’s can spark a flywheel—boosting valuations, fueling M&A, and creating liquidity that VCs can reinvest into the next wave of startups. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more companies dusting off their S-1s before the year is out. Excited to see who steps up next. Stripe (the big one everyone’s waiting for)? Plaid? Revolut? Who’s your pick for the next filings?
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Kevin Lubega liked thisKevin Lubega liked thisToday I'm announcing Alma's $17M Series A. For fast-growing AI companies, the choice is simple: you can hire the best talent, or you can avoid immigration. You can only pick one. Getting immigration right is now an edge in the talent war. Annual growth in STEM degrees awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents has slowed from 4.7% a decade ago to 0.7%. Meanwhile, AI roles keep surging, and about 60% of top AI researchers in the U.S. did their undergrad abroad. Your team increasingly needs immigration support. And your new hires meet your immigration law firm before they meet their colleagues. Alma is an immigration law firm built to bring immigration back to what it should always have been: a relentless focus on people. Our in-house attorneys work with software that handles the legwork. That frees them to focus on strategy, judgment, and the employee experience, and to act as a true extension of your company's immigration program. Every visa we touch is a dream, a life, and a key hire a company gets to keep. I've lived this as an immigrant and a founder. The numbers show what our "10x attorneys" can do. We save HR teams 80% of their time, hold a 98%+ approval rate, and turn visas around in 2-3 weeks. Our O-1 and EB-1 approval rates also run 20-30% above the national average. Thank you to Benjamin Ling, Bling Capital, Forerunner, MVP Ventures, Conviction, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Interplay, Village Global, NFX, Silkroad Innovation Hub, and Martin Rudigier for believing in this mission, and to our angels: John and Patrick Collison, Amjad Masad, and Guillermo Rauch, who each came here with a big idea, built something the world uses, and know firsthand what the right immigration support unlocks.
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Kevin Lubega liked thisKevin Lubega liked thisI've joined Anthropic on the product team! I'm excited to work with Catherine Wu and team to help build Claude. Grateful for almost 5 years at Notion (time flies!). I met so many talented friends and learned how delightful software can be when you make it both beautiful and useful. "We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us." This is Notion's tagline and it feels more true than ever. Claude has already had a huge impact on how I work and live, and I'm so excited to help build it!
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Kevin Lubega liked thisKevin Lubega liked thisI'm hiring a Principal, Growth Strategy & Operations for Intuit's Workforce Solutions business, which sits at the heart of Intuit's Services Group alongside Payments, Capital, and Bill Pay. This is a rare chance to build the growth playbook behind a new Human Capital Management business (Payroll, HR & Benefits) at one of fintech's biggest platforms, and to shape how Intuit serves small and mid-market employers for years to come. The role ties directly to two of Intuit's company-wide Big Bets: becoming the center of money for businesses, and accelerating our right to win in the mid-market. Here's what you'll own: This is a high-visibility individual contributor role designed for a strategic operator. You'll drive end-to-end execution of our cross-functional growth initiatives — generating and qualifying hypotheses across acquisition, switching, upgrades, retention, partnerships, and new monetization vectors. You'll have the opportunity to reshape our strategy and business case for HCM investments, act as a thought partner to the segment leadership and CEO staff, and own the operating mechanisms that keep Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams accountable to outcomes. What I'm looking for: • 8–10+ years in Marketing, Sales, or Business/Revenue Ops. • Outcomes-driven — a track record of putting points on the board (GTM/PLG-led growth), not building process • Cross-functional influence without authority in a matrixed environment • Proven ability to run an operating system: drive cadence, create clarity, instill accountability • Deep customer empathy and competitive insight that translates into strategic action • Executive presence; synthesizes complexity into clear, decision-ready narratives • Bonus: high-growth SaaS/FinTech experience, MBA 📍 Based in San Francisco or Mountain View 👉 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gtKEmuYf
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Kevin Lubega liked thisKevin Lubega liked thisEarlier this summer I passed my 7-year mark at Carta. When I joined from venture, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew my way around a cap table, but had never worked in an operating company before, I had no idea what it meant to operate in a strategy team, and at that time Henry Ward was just someone that I followed on Medium. The past 7 years (and in particular the past 2 as Henry's Chief of Staff) have been the most rewarding of my career. And it still feels like there's so much ahead of us. Which is why I'm excited to announce that today I'm stepping into the role of Chief Strategy Officer at Carta. Big thank you to the strategy legends who came before me Ali Liaqat Sumeet Gajri James McGillicuddy and an even bigger thank you to Henry Ward and the entire Carta exec team for the vote of confidence and continued partnership. Finally, massive thank you to the entire office of the CEO and strategy team, the founders who have joined us from acquisitions over the past couple of years, and the entire Carta team 💙 🚀
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Kevin Lubega liked thisKevin Lubega liked thisCredit Karma was one of the most beautiful chapters of my career. The impact we achieved was unparalleled, and the friendships we built are for life. Kenneth Lin, Ryan Graciano, Joe Kauffman, Armond Bigian, Wan Agus, Susannah Stroud Wright, Gannesh Bharadhwaj, Frank Vitale, CFA, Nicole James, and Natasha Madan: thank you for your leadership, support, and partnership. To my teams and cross functional partners: you made these years unforgettable. Now, what's next. Nearly 5 billion devices run Unity every day. Odds are, one of them is in your pocket and multiple in your home. I've joined Unity as Chief Information Security Officer, leading Cybersecurity, Core Platform, IT and IAM. Games made with Unity see 3 billion downloads a month. The Unity platform runs an ads business serving 68 billion impressions a month, and it powers real-time 3D for automotive, manufacturing, and robotics. Few companies sit this deep in the world's software supply chain. Fewer still do it at this scale. And now, with Unity 7, game developers and AI agents will build games together. Keeping an ecosystem this vast trusted is a challenge I'm excited to take on. To the Unity team: thank you for the warm welcome. Let's build. #Unity #CISO #Cybersecurity
Experience & Education
Volunteer Experience
Honors & Awards
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100 Most Influential Young Africans
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Forbes 30 under 30 - Technology
Forbes
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Obama Foundation Leader, Africa
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Stanford Africa MBA Fellow
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Young Achiever of The Year (Finalist) - ICT & Innovation
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Languages
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English
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Luganda
Native or bilingual proficiency
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Chinese
Elementary proficiency
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Swahili
Professional working proficiency
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