Fintech
‘A Fantastic Journey’: Financial Conference Company Shuts Down, To Be Sold
Allen & Overy partner Alex Touma interviews Simon Khalaf, CEO of Marqeta Inc., at Fintech Nexus USA 2023 at the Javits Center in New York City. (John K. White/Fintech Nexus)
After failing to find a buyer, a digital media and financial conference company has closed its doors and agreed to liquidate its few assets in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Fintech Nexuswhich started as LendIt, hosted financial conferences around the world between 2013 and 2023. He also ran FintechNexus.com, a source of news and information about the financial technology industry, including newsletters and podcasts.
“Along the way, external challenges, including the pandemic, have forced us to take on additional financing, both debt and equity,” said Chairman and Co-Founder Peter Renton. he wrote on the company’s website on June 21, “and then in 2023 we suffered from the fintech crisis and had a very disappointing financial outcome for our big event in the United States.”
The company, which operated out of a coworking space in the Speer district, sold his events business around this time last year, so I could focus on the media side of things.
“We wanted to see if we could make it a sustainable business without the events business to support it,” Renton said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that.”
The company was put up for sale in April, but “that didn’t work either,” according to its co-founder, so Fintech Nexus shut down and filed for bankruptcy on June 21. A trustee will now take over the company, sell its assets, and distribute them among its creditors.
The company has $38,000 in a bank account, plus contacts and email lists of unknown value. It owes $2.2 million and had gross sales of $800,000 in the first half of this year.
According to Fintech Nexus’ bankruptcy filings, financial technology expert Dara Albright is owed $787,000 and events company Freeman is owed $450,000. An events center in New York is owed $185,000 and a hotel in Miami is owed $100,000, the company said.
Jeffrey Brinen of Kutner Brinen Dickey Riley in Denver represents Fintech Nexus.
“While this is certainly not a happy outcome,” Renton wrote, “we have had a fantastic journey.”