Shawn Budde
Ensemblex General Partner
I am the Co-founder and General Partner at Ensemblex. Ensemblex has grown to help lenders and fintechs across five continents start, scale, and adapt their businesses through expertise across the credit lifecycle. I bring four decades of lending experience across nearly every product and credit segment. At Capital One, I grew the Sub-Prime credit card business to $1B in after-tax profit, reduced cycle time for direct mail campaigns, and grew the recoveries business from breakeven to $35M profit. I later served as Capital One’s first Chief Customer Officer, where I increased net promoter scores by eight points in a single year. I co-founded Zest.AI, the first companies to apply AI underwriting to consumer finance, and served as CEO of 2Checkout, an international payments business. At Ensemblex, I co-founded two other fintechs - Coign and Gestalt. I have a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from The Wharton School.
2026 Agenda Sessions
Is it ‘game over’ for the credit score?
In the game of lending, credit scores have kept track of who is winning and who is losing for decades. Today, ‘alternative' data sources and methodologies from yesterday have become mainstream as lenders, regulators and consumers grapple with a changing economy. What’s working today and what will scale tomorrow on the new field of play?
Takeaways:
• Explore the emerging underwriting models
• Learn how AI interprets cashflow and behavior in credit decisioning.
• Hear how inclusion-focused lenders are balancing risk and mission.
Wednesday 01 April 08:50 - 09:30 Lending
AI & Agentic Systems
Crypto & Digital Assets
Data & Personalization
Security & Fraud
Takeaways:
• Explore the emerging underwriting models
• Learn how AI interprets cashflow and behavior in credit decisioning.
• Hear how inclusion-focused lenders are balancing risk and mission. Lending US/Pacific
