Bradley Leimer

Bradley Leimer is a globally respected financial services, fintech, and innovation leader, connecting emerging technologies, startups, and venture capital with global financial institutions. He is currently advising and sourcing early stage fintech startups through his work at Darrery Capital. At SMBC, Bradley led Fintech Partnerships and Open Innovation, driving top of funnel ecosystem engagement across fintech, AI, and venture partners. His team's 60+ partnerships helped build and scale transformative business use cases through partners like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Databricks. An active angel investor, Bradley has formally advised dozens of startups and venture firms with two exits and $44M+ raised. He's co-hosted over 250 episodes of the One Vision podcast and co-founded the fintech consulting firm Unconventional Ventures. As Head of Innovation and Fintech Strategy at Santander, he helped connect the bank to the fintech ecosystem and shaped strategic insights for global leadership and helped establish Santander InnoVentures (now Mouro Capital, $400M AUM). Bradley brings decades of experience in marketing, analytics, AI/ML, and digital transformation from across banks, credit unions, and across the fintech ecosystem. Bradley is co-author of Beyond Good, a frequent public speaker, and contributor to publications like American Banker, International Banker, The Economist, Forbes, Financial Brand, and New York Magazine. He has collaborated on projects with corporate leaders including IBM, Samsung, Adobe, AT&T, Ant Financial, Accenture, PwC, Bain, Oracle, TCS, and Omidyar Network. Bradley's work spans strategic planning, product development, and ecosystem design across startups, financial institutions, accelerators, and enterprise partners. Bradley continues to explore how AI, embedded finance, ESG tech, and platform innovation will shape the future of financial services. A passionate advocate for inclusive design, ethical technology, and systems thinking, Bradley brings a human-centered lens to the future of finance. He believes that collaboration between startups and legacy institutions is essential to solving the industry’s biggest challenges—from climate risk and data transparency to financial wellness and inclusion. Whether building new partnership models, mentoring founders, or designing innovation programs across borders, Bradley is driven by one goal: Make banking better. For Speaking/Consulting/Writing Inquiries please contact: bleimer@gmail.com