Finovate Podcast · 2026-06-03 · 16 min
In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg speaks with Oren Buskila, CEO and co-founder of Cobalt, a FinovateSpring 2026 Best of Show winner. Cobalt has developed enterprise architectural intelligence specifically designed for financial institutions, addressing a critical challenge in modern banking: the lack of understanding of complex system dependencies. Banks operate on enormously intricate systems comprising their own code and dozens of third-party vendor applications, yet most institutions don't fully comprehend how these systems interconnect and depend on one another. This knowledge gap leads to significant problems, including development slowness - with banks spending 70% of their IT budgets on maintenance rather than innovation - and costly production failures that can result in millions of dollars in direct and indirect costs when changes are deployed without full visibility into system dependencies. Cobalt's solution automatically maps both IT systems and business processes in real-time by scanning existing data sources including event logs, API logs, code, and database tables.
Finovate’s own Heather Stowell talks about IMPACT Funders and Founders Forum - a new initiative coming from Finovate this fall in New York.34 / 100FinovateSpring Best of Show Winner Zengines on shining a light into the black box that is data lineageFinovateSpring Best of Show Winner Clockout on the benefits of earned-wage-access for community FI’s.FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Finalytics.AI on data and personalization in community FI’s and beyond.FinovateSpring Best of Show winner Crebit on stablecoins, international remittance, and a strong UX