Shows
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaReceivables Financing for Small Businesses with Blockchain with Zach Marks of JiaIn this episode, I speak with Zach Marks, co-founder and CEO of Jia, a fintech leveraging blockchain for receivables financing for businesses in Kenya and the Philippines.
Zach has spent his career working in emerging markets, beginning with teaching English in India after college to development consulting in South Sudan. After building and selling his first tech company, an online jobs marketplace, Zach got into fintech when he joined Tala. He spent more than 5 years building and expanding Tala’s consumer lending products across 4 continents, after which he decided to take these skills to small business lending....
2024-08-1542 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaWealth Tech for Legacy Planning with Chandrima Das of TeleskopIn this episode, I speak with Chandrima Das, Co-Founder and CEO of Teleskop, a wealth tech that helps people track their family assets today and plan for their legacies in the future.
Chandrima has had an illustrious career in asset management, working at Prudential, ING, and Bank of Singapore in several countries, where she had a front-row seat to the sector’s globalization. In the last 10 years, Chandrima has emerged as a successful fintech leader in Singapore through her founding of robo-advisor fintech Bento and subsequent sale to Grab, becoming GrabInvest.
Now, Chandrima is working on...
2024-07-1851 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaOn-Chain Business Banking with Sharon Paul of HQ.xyzIn this episode, I speak with Sharon Paul, Co-founder of Headquarters (HQ.xyz), an on-chain business account.
Sharon is a Singaporean entrepreneur and has spent many years advancing the Web3 and payments infrastructure space. She is a founding member of StraitsX, a leading stablecoin issuer and fiat-crypto ramp and now serves on the Singapore Fintech Association's Web3 Subcommittee. Through this work, Sharon realized that despite the rise of on-chain businesses like stablecoins, DeFi, and GameFi, Web3 businesses still rely heavily on traditional banking and payments for daily operations.
Sharon founded HQ.xyz in 2022 to help...
2024-06-2045 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaFrom SuperApp to web3 Remittances Hussain Elius of WindIn this episode, I speak with Hussain Elius, Founder and CEO of Wind, a fintech that is enabling instant cross-border payments built on blockchain rails.
Elius has been a career entrepreneur, starting with building an event management business in university. Once he graduated, Elius took an experimental approach to developing the business model that would eventually become the well known Bangladeshi SuperApp, Pathao. After 6 years building Pathao, Elius changed gears and launched a web3 fintech that enables instant and low-cost global payments.
Wind has developed self-custodial crypto wallets that completely eliminate gas fees and are...
2024-05-1449 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaShariah Microfinance in Malaysia with Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin of MADCashIn this episode, I speak with Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin, Founder and Managing Director of MADCash, a fintech that drives financial inclusion through Shariah compliant microfinance and data analytics in Malaysia. Nuraizah, who goes by Aizah, started her career as an engineer, working for companies like Nokia and Motorola in the 1990s and 2000s.
Aizah founded MADCash in 2020 with a goal to improve financial access for women MSMEs in Malaysia. MADCash, which stands for Multiply Assist Donate Cash, works with women entrepreneurs by providing capital and financial education to grow their micro-businesses. MADCash raised a pre-series A round...
2024-05-0141 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaNeobanking Across Continents with Rachel Freeman of TymeIn this episode, I speak with Rachel Freeman, Chief Growth Officer of Tyme, a neobank that began operations in South Africa and has recently been making waves in the Philippines as GoTyme.
Rachel has lived in every corner of the world and has been a pioneer of inclusive financial services. She speaks fluent Russian and spent her early career in Russia building a microleasing business. She then spent 17 years at the IFC, which took her to Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Hong Kong. When she decided to join the startup world, she was impressed by the Tyme team...
2024-03-0748 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaIncome Smoothing for Gig Workers with Maria Hoyos of GoNSaveIn this episode, I speak with Maria Hoyos, co-founder and CEO of GoNSave, a fintech focused on income smoothing for gig workers in Southeast Asia.
Maria started her career in microfinance in Latin America. She brought her experience to Asia when she pursued her Master’ of Science in Innovation at Singapore Management University. We talked about the unique needs of gig workers when it comes to income visibility, how gig work should be regulated, and inclusive finance learnings that span Latin America and Southeast Asia.
GoNSave, or Zaver as its app is known to its cu...
2024-02-1552 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaPay-As-You-Sell Advance for SMEs with Ritwik Ghosh of SeedflexIn this episode, I speak with Ritwik Ghosh, co-founder of Seedflex, a brand new embedded SME lending fintech.
Ritwik started his career in banking but quickly moved into consulting at Oliver Wyman, where he focused on retail and SME financial services across South and Southeast Asia. For the last 5 years, Ritwik served as the Regional Head of Lending at Grab, where he drove the growth of embedded credit products for drivers, merchants, and consumers in the Grab ecosystem.
Ritwik also happens to be my former boss from when I led the regional driver lending business...
2024-01-2454 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSeason 5 TrailerHappy new year everyone, and welcome back to the Green Room! In this podcast, we go behind the scenes with fintech entrepreneurs and thought leaders in Asia about their careers, impact, and industry insights. I'm your host, Amrita Vir.
This is now season 5 of the Green Room. This season we’re covering some fintech basics - income smoothing, SME lending, and digital banking. We’ll also dabble in crypto and ESG and talk about some cross-border and cross-regional learnings. As always, we’re going to have some fun with our guests and really dig into the change they w...
2024-01-2300 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaCross-Border B2B Payments Infrastructure with Malini Kannan of ThunesIn this episode, I speak with Malini Kannan, CEO Office of Thunes, a global B2B cross-border payments infrastructure company.
Malini grew up in India and started her career in Singapore, working in research and strategy across a diverse set of sectors. After her MBA from INSEAD, Malini focused more directly on the fintech space, working across the industry and landing at TransferTo, which incubated the business that eventually become Thunes. At Thunes, Malini has covered every aspect of the business - starting as a Strategy & Operations Manager, moving up to COO, and now she leads the...
2023-12-0651 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaWomen-Centered Finance in India with Aditi Sholapurkar of SALTIn this episode, I speak with with Aditi Sholapurkar, Co-Founder of SALT, a savings and investment fintech in India that puts women at the center of its product and strategy.
Aditi grew up in India and began her career in banking and has spent time working at some of the most well known fintechs in India and Singapore, including Paytm and Nium. She came to learn that only 5% of customers of Indian fintechs were women and has been on journey to change that with her latest venture.
Aditi co-founded SALT in 2021, and they are currently...
2023-09-261h 01
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaNavigating Fintech in Uncertain Times in Myanmar with The Noe San of MOIn this episode, I speak with The Noe San, Founder and CEO of Modus Operandi, or MO, a digital financial solutions provider in Myanmar, offering services like wallet transfers, bill pay, earned wage access, cash withdrawal, and more.
The Noe grew up in Myanmar and Australia and started her career in law. She moved back to Myanmar in 2020 and got involved in the finance sector through SHWE Bank. She had a front row seat to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent military coup on financial services in Myanmar.
With that backdrop, The Noe...
2023-06-2044 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaBNPL and GMV Financing for SMEs with Vikram Kotibhaskar of Credilinq.AIIn this episode, I speak with Vikram Kotibhaskar, co-founder and CEO of Credlinq.AI, which provides embedded finance products to digital e-commerce players using alternative data. Vikram was born and raised in India, completed his Master’s in the US, and then spent many years working across diverse banking roles in Asia. Vikram made the jump to fintech founder with Credilinq.AI in January 2021.
Credilinq.AI is focusing their B2B credit services across Southeast Asia and Australia and already has quite a bit of traction in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. They raised a...
2023-04-1844 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaEquitable Transportation in Pakistan with Maha Shahzad of BusCaroIn this episode, I speak with Maha Shahzad, Founder and CEO of BusCaro, a mobility startup in Pakistan that is changing the way that commuters travel.
Maha grew up between the US and Pakistan and has worked at many well-known startups in Pakistan inluding FoodPanda, Careem, and Swvl. Maha has seen first-hand the financial, accessibility, and security challenges faced by commuters, particularly women, and started BusCaro to solve them. Maha started BusCaro in August of 2022 and is already active in 3 cities across Pakistan. You can learn more about them by visiting buscaro.com.
This is...
2023-03-0840 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaPioneering Open Finance in Asia with Diego RojasIn this episode, I speak with fintech pioneer, Diego Rojas. He has been at the cutting edge of fintech across the globe.
Diego is from Argentina and started coding when he was 8 years old. He joined LendingClub in its very early days in 2011 and then moved to DianRong, another pioneer in fintech in China. He founded a fintech consulting firm called LEAP FINTECH based in Singapore in 2017 before founding open finance company, Finantier, in 2020. This episode was recorded toward the end of 2022 when Diego was CEO of Finantier, so we spend some time talking about Finantier’s bus...
2023-02-2353 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaPayments and Remittances for Overseas Filipino Workers with Rebecca Kersch of TANGappIn this episode, I speak with Rebecca Kersch, Founder and CEO of TANGapp, a remittance and payments company that helps overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the US send money to the Philippines.
Rebecca grew up in the US and the Netherlands, spent many summers visiting her family in the Philippines, and has studied and lived all over the world. Rebecca started her career in management consulting - the same one as me actually, and we crossed paths again when we were both doing our Masters at Harvard.
Rebecca started TANGapp in 2020 to help OFWs send...
2023-01-2858 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSeason 4 TrailerWelcome back to season 4 to the Green Room, a podcast where we go behind the scenes with fintech entrepreneurs and thought leaders in Asia about their careers, impact, and industry insights. I'm your host, Amrita Vir.
I’m excited to be back sharing my fintech conversations with you. This season, we’ll go back to some fintech basics like payments, lending, and insurance. In the current macro environment, I want to check in to see how these verticals are doing. Don’t worry, we’ll still talk about some alternative fintech models. I also have a couple bonus ep...
2023-01-2801 min
Bangladesh Angelswagely: Financial Empowerment in Frontier AsiaAmrita Vir is the Head of Strategy & Business Expansion, and Acting Country Manager at wagely and Sanjida Tanny is Lead of Community, and Communications, PR at wagely. wagely is Asia's leading financial wellbeing platform providing earned-wage access fintech operating in Bangladesh and Indonesia. It recently raised $8.3 million in pre-Series A funding, led by East Ventures (Growth Fund), with participation from returning investors like Integra Partners, the Asian Development Fund, Global Founders Capital, Trihill Capital, Blauwpark Partners and 1982 Ventures. The raise will go towards fueling Wagely’s expansion in Bangladesh, where it recently launched, and build other features to become a “holis...
2022-10-1540 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaStablecoins for Emerging Markets with Sherry Jiang of BluejayIn the last episode of Sesason 3 of The Green Room, I speak with Sherry Jiang, Co-founder and CEO of Bluejay, a web3 startup that uses a decentralized stablecoin protocol to issue stablecoins pegged to non-US currencies.
Sherry is from California, spent her early career in big tech and social impact, and moved to Singapore in 2018 with Google. She spent time working on Google Pay in India and had a first row seat to the challenges to financial inclusion with web2 payments. Seeing the infrastructure possilbities with web3, Sherry founded Bluejay a little over a year ago in...
2022-10-0252 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaBuilding Fintech DNA for Banks with Ankur Joshi of NucleiIn this episode, I speak with Ankur Joshi, founder and CEO of Nuclei, a B2B SaaS fintech that helps banks deliver consumer-centric experiences to their customers.
Ankur grew up in India, is an IIT grad, and has been a serial entrepreneur for more than 10 years. He’s worked in startups covering everything from e-commerce to quick serve restaurants to app aggregation - and he has used his lessons across industries and startups as he builds Nuclei.
Nuclei was founded in 2018 in India but aims to serve a global market. Nuclei has several modular products ta...
2022-09-1248 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaNFTs for South Asian Representation with Ananya Sinha of Brown BaddiesIn this episode, I speak with Ananya Sinha, the founder of Brown Baddies, an NFT project focused on elevating South Asian women.
Ananya was born in New Zealand, grew up in Australia, and is now telling the stories of South Asian women all over the world via NFTs. Ananya is relatively new to web3, but has been an entrepreneur since her uni days at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Ananya spent her pandemic years working as a consultant at Publicis Sapient, and in March, she turned investor with Artesian.
Brown Baddies has...
2022-08-2657 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaAlternative Data for MSMEs in SEA with Kunal Goel of PowerCredIn this episode, I speak with Kunal Goel, co-founder of PowerCred, which provides alternative data APIs for the MSME market, giving third party lenders real-time access to MSME business data to improve underwriting. Alternative data has been common in consumer credit in emerging markets for years, but the ability to access SME and microSME data from e-commerce, bank, and even utility sources is quite new.
Before PowerCred, Kunal played a major role in launching and scaling the business operations of Indian fintech Kuliza in Southeast Asia. He founded PowerCred in December of 2021, so it’s quite a yo...
2022-08-0840 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaLoyalty and Rewards in Vietnam with Lan Doan of TAPTAPIn this episode, I speak with Lan Doan, CEO of TAPTAP, which provides loyalty and rewards programs to consumers in Vietnam.
Lan grew up in Hanoi and then studied and worked in the US, including getting her MBA from Harvard Business School. Seeing the economic potential of Vietnam after graduation, Lan decided to come back to Vietnam to actually be a part of that growth. After a few years in management consulting, Lan volunteered to work on a business case for TAPTAP and became CEO of the entity when it was officially founded in November of 2020.
2022-07-2649 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaStablecoin-based Credit in Emerging Markets with Aaron Collett of GoldfinchIn this episode, I speak with Aaron Collett, Senior Credit Manager at Goldfinch, a decentralized credit protocol that connects investors and fintechs in emerging markets to provide stablecoin based credit.
Aaron grew up in Indonesia but has worked all over the world, including Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and New York, on various areas of structured financing. Aaron led Asia Origination at Lendable until last October, and then he made the jump to web3 by joining Goldfinch in New York.
Goldfinch is a marketplace that connects crypto stablecoin holders with emerging market fintechs that typically seek...
2022-07-071h 04
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSME Financing in Indonesia with Windy Natriavi of AwanTunaiIn this episode, I speak with Windy Natriavi, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of AwanTunai, which provides supply chain and financial services to micro-merchants in Indonesia. Windy is also the founder of WomenWorks, a “connectivity” marketplace that supports women’s network-building in Indonesia. Windy was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 for Finance and Venture Capital in Asia in 2019 and spent her early career as a consultant at McKinsey.
AwanTunai was founded in October of 2017 and raised their most recent round in December of 2021. You can learn more about them by visting awantunai.co.id.
2022-06-1951 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaPlay-to-Earn, Gaming Guilds and Financial Inclusion in the Philippines with Luis Buenaventura of Yield Guild GamesIn this episode, I speak with Luis Buenaventura, Philippines country manager for Yield Guild Games, or YGG, which is a play-to-earn gaming guild, giving metaverse players opportunities to earn in blockchain-based currency.
Luis has also been a pioneer of web3 in the Philippines. He has founded several businesses, including syndeo media, Infinite.ly, Rebit.ph, and most recently, the BloomX cryptocurrency exchange. Luis is an NFT artist, founder of the Cryptopop Art Guild, which supports underprivileged Filipino artists, author of two books on cryptocurrencies, and has been a contributing writer to Rappler and Bitsonline.
Lastly...
2022-05-2658 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSeason 3 Trailer
Welcome to the Green Room, a podcast where we go behind the scenes with fintech entrepreneurs and thought leaders about their careers, impact, and industry insights. I'm your host, Amrita Vir.
In season 3 of the Green Room, we’ve expanded our scope beyond Southeast Asia to all of ASEAN and will spend some time going down the web3 rabbit hole with play to earn startups, NFT projects, and stablecoins. But don’t worry, we’ll still cover some web2 topics like SME lending and payment rewards. We also had International Women’s Day in March, and I realized...
2022-05-1900 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP29 Amrita Vir - Grab - Financial system isn’t fair to people who are just making a livingAmrita Vir is the Head of Driver Lending at Grab. She manages over 20 financial programs, including cash loans, BNPL, and fuel financing, for Grab drivers across 6 markets in Southeast Asia. She’s also the host of The Greenroom, a SEA fintech podcast.
Amrita found her passion for fintech from a young age. She founded a non-profit microfinance company in college to help the low-income access financial services in the U.S. where she grew up. It was her mission to improve financial inclusion and her roles at various fintech companies took her from LATAM, Africa, Middle East, to...
2022-03-0635 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaHacking Green Finance with Tek Yew Chia of Oliver Wyman and Puneet Chaddha, Winner of Singapore Fintech Fest HackceleratorIn this final episode of Season 2 of The Green Room podcast, we’re going to be talking about green finance with those involved in this year’s Global Fintech Hackcelerator.
For those not familiar, the Global Fintech Hackcelerator is a hackathon that happens in the lead up to Singapore Fintech Fest every year. If you listened to our episode with Pat Patel from Elevandi where we went behind the scenes of Singapore Fintech Fest, one of the highlights that he mentioned was the Hackcelerator. The theme of this year’s Hackcelerator was “Harnessing Technology to Power Green Finance...
2022-02-0349 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaFinance for Freelancers with Nirali Zaveri of FrizIn this episode, I speak with Nirali Zaveri, co-founder and CEO of Friz, a fintech for freelance workers. Nirali, who previously worked at Mastercard, talks about starting Friz after realizing that freelance workers are completely undserved by banks due to their project-based income. We talk about Friz’s word of mouth go-to-market strategy across Southeast Asia, and Nirali tells me about “the human cloud of the future” and her new year’s resolutions.
Friz provides financial services, including debit cards, credit cards, and invoice financing to freelance workers on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. Friz was founded in Febru...
2022-01-0836 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaFighting Financial Crime with Regtech with Abhishek Chatterjee of TookitakiIn this episode, I speak with Abhishek Chatterjee, Founder and CEO of Tookitaki, a regtech startup that is focused on delivering a full suite of machine learning-based compliance solutions to banks and fintechs who are vulnerable to financial crime and increasingly subject to strict compliance regulation. Abhishek talks about the fact that only 1% of laundered money is recovered every year, how Tookitaki's culture is rooted in their purpose of fighting financial crime, and the differences in Western and emerging market regtech. Abhishek started Tookitaki in 2014 and now has offices in Singapore, India, London, and the US. You can learn...
2021-12-0849 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaBehind the Scenes of Singapore Fintech Festival with Pat Patel of ElevandiThis week, we have a special Green Room episode for you. We are going behind the scenes of this year's Singapore Fintech Festival with Pat Patel, General Manager of Elevandi, the Singapore Fintech Festival's new parent company.
We also have a discount code for those of you who still haven't gotten your SFF tickets. Use The Green Room's promo code GREENROOM50 at the SFF checkout page to get 50% off your ticket, but move fast because this code is only valid for the first 50 users.
The Singapore Fintech Festival begins on November 8th and runs through...
2021-10-2954 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaBNPL for Factory Workers in Cambodia and Laos with Pablo Alonso Caprile of iCare BenefitsIn this episode, I speak with Pablo Alonso Caprile, CFO of iCare Benefits, which provides buy now pay later services to low-income factory workers, particularly women, in Cambodia and Laos. This isn't your typical point of sale BNPL model, but for iCare's customer base, this model makes a huge difference in their monthly purchasing power.
Pablo talks about the history of BNPL in Cambodia, the strategic advantage of going deep in a customer segment rather than having massive scale, and how NGOs and investors have played a pivotal role in shaping the local market landscape.
...
2021-10-2146 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaMicroinsurance and Healthcare in Emerging Markets with Gustaf Agartson of BIMAIn this episode, I speak with Gustaf Agartson, founder and CEO of BIMA, a microinsurance and healthcare provider. Gustaf talks about seeing the need for e-wallet enabled financial services, launching BIMA in Ghana 11 years ago, and leading the company's emerging market expansion across Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, as well as branching out into new customer offerings like tele-medicine and health screenings. Gustaf also talks about how BIMA's insurance can cost as little as 2 USD cents per day.
Today, BIMA serves 25 million customers across 9 markets and is continuing to expand. You can learn more about them...
2021-10-0548 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaStudent Loans and Social Impact with Ketty Lie of ErudifiIn this episode, I speak with Ketty Lie, co-founder of Erudifi, a student loan fintech that allows students to pay their tuition in installments to their schools. Ketty talks about moving back and forth between Southeast Asia and the U.S., her work in economic development and social impact, and her conviction that an educated workforce is critical for an economy to succeed.
Erudifi is a student loan provider in Indonesia and the Philippines. They work directly with universities and other educational institutions to allow their students affordable access to student loans. Erudifi raised a $5M series...
2021-09-1956 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaAlternative Credit Models with Tobias Fischer of wagelyIn this episode, we speak with Tobias Fischer, co-founder and CEO of wagely, an earned wage access fintech that helps employees access their wages before payday. We hear about Toby's journey - as a student in Germany learning about Southeast Asia's opportunity for financial inclusion from afar to venturing to the region himself and paving the way for new credit models through his work at several startups. Toby also gives us a detailed understanding of the earned wage access model and employee financial health.
wagely is an earned wage access fintech that partners with employers to advance...
2021-09-0346 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSeason 2 TrailerWelcome to the Green Room, a podcast where we talk to fintech entrepreneurs and thought leaders in Southeast Asia about their careers, impact, and industry insights. I'm your host, Amrita Vir.
In season 2 of the Green Room, we are exploring even more fintech hot topics like buy now pay later, regtech, microinsurance, student loans, and alternative credit models. We go behind the scenes with some pioneering founders to learn about their journeys and their work that is driving real societal change.
We are sponsored by the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (or AFIN), Oxygen by APIX...
2021-08-2801 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSustainable Finance through Carbon Offsets: Lessons for SEA from ANZ with Dave Rouse of CarbonClickIn this episode, we talked with Dave Rouse, co-founder and CEO of New Zealand-based CarbonClick. We hear about Dave's journey from pilot to green tech, joining CarbonClick after hearing the team's carbon offsetting pitch, and the convergence of fintech and green tech in ANZ and SEA.
CarbonClick is a green fintech, and they raised their seed round in October of 2020, and you can learn more about them by visiting carbonclick.com.
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2021-06-2454 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaEmpowering Women through Finance in SEA with Debbie Watkins of LucyIn honor of International Women's Day in March, we spoke with Debbie Watkins, CEO and Co-Founder of Lucy to share about her career beginning in the UK and shift to focus on financial institutions and startups in Southeast Asia. We talk about the unique challenges that women face in accessing financial services, especially in emerging markets and the surprising lack of private sector focus on this customer base. Debbie also shares some of her secrets for women working in male-dominated spaces.
Lucy is a fintech focused on empowering women. They recently raised 575K USD in their pre-seed...
2021-06-2448 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaCrypto, Crime, and Compliance in Asia with Payal Patel of BitGo and FINTRAILIn this episode, we speak with Payal Patel, Chief Compliance Officer of APAC at BitGo. At the time of this interview, Payal was Managing Director of FINTRAIL Asia, and we spoke about her series of career shifts, ultimately leading her to fintech compliance in Asia. Payal shares her experience starting her own financial crime consulting firm in Singapore and synergies that led her to join FINTRAIL. We also discuss the risks posed by innovative financial solutions, the importance of having a robust compliance function, and why working with regulators is critical to fintech success in Southeast Asia.
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2021-06-2445 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaShaping Fintech in Indonesia with Niki Luhur of Vida and the Indonesia FinTech AssociationIn this episode, we hear from Niki Luhur, CEO and Founder of VIDA and Chairman and Co-Founder of the Indonesia Fintech Association, or AFTECH. We learn about Niki's journey in Indonesia - from joining payments company Kartuku and its acquisition by GoJek to spotting digital identity needs and founding VIDA. Niki also shares the parallel story of the Indonesia Fintech Association, an important organization in driving fintech policy and industry collaboration in Indonesia.
VIDA provides digital solutions for KYC and identity verification for financial service providers. You can learn more about them by visiting vida.id.
2021-06-2453 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaOptimizing Ethical Debt Collection in Asia with Arun Pai of FlowIn this episode, we hear from Arun Pai, Chief Sales & Strategy Officer at Flow about Arun's career path in SEA, from options trading to joining early-stage startups, the value proposition for artificial intelligence (AI) in fintech, and how Flow uses AI to personalize debt collection.
Flow uses AI to revolutionize the way financial service providers in Asia collect their debt. Instead of employing heavy manual operations and potentially shady collection methods which are common in Asia, Flow uses AI and behavioral insights to optimize debt collection. Flow was founded in 2016 and raised their series A as well...
2021-06-2452 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaFinancing the Unbanked: The Future of Microfinance in Asia with Taejun Shin of GojoIn this episode, we speak with Taejun Shin, Co-Founder, Representative Director & CEO at Gojo & Company, Inc. about his experiences growing up as an ethnic minority in Japan, starting Gojo and its strategies for supporting Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Asia, and the future of the microfinance industry globally, especially in light of Covid-19.
Gojo invests in microfinance institutions across Asia to enable financial inclusion of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Gojo was founded in 2014 and closed their series D in 2020. You can learn more about them by visiting gojo.co.
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2021-06-2449 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSavings and Investments in the New Normal with Michele Ferrario of StashAwayIn this episode, we speak with Michele Ferrario, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based wealth management fintech StashAway. Michele talks about how founding StashAway was a blend of his experience in the finance and online retail sectors, the impact of Covid-19 on saving and investment in Southeast Asia, and the importance of culture in a growing fintech startup.
Since interviewing Michele in July of 2020, StashAway has raised two rounds of funding, launched in the UAE and Hong Kong, and rolled out a new life insurance product. You can learn more about them by visiting stashaway.sg.
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2021-06-2447 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaOpen Conversations on Open Banking with Todd Schweitzer of Brankas and Arvie de Vera of UnionBankIn this episode, we hear from Arvie de Vera, SVP & Fintech Business Group Head of UnionBank, and Todd Schweitzer, CEO & Founder of Brankas about open banking in Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines. Arvie and Todd talk about key inflection points in their careers that have led them to their current work in fintech, opportunities for banks and fintechs to collaborate, and how Covid-19 has accelerated digital adoption in the region.
The UnionBank Fintech Group is part of Philippines-based UnionBank and seeks to co-create financial solutions with emerging financial technology. You can learn more about them by visiting...
2021-06-2450 min
The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in AsiaSeason 1 TrailerWelcome to The Green Room, a podcast where we talk to fintech entrepreneurs and thought leaders in Southeast Asia about their careers and industry insights, hosted by Amrita Vir.
Southeast Asia is an incredible theatre for fintech. It's huge, it's diverse, and there's a growing middle class where people are digitizing quickly. This dynamism and potential is what drew me here from the US in 2019, and we'd like to share it with you.
Join us on season 1 of The Green Room where we delve into fintech hot topics like open banking, green finance, crypto, wealth...
2021-06-1301 min
The Seeds: Growing Ideas into ImpactThe Hype Around Finance for GoodAmrita Vir helps us untangle the complicated web of finance – across the dimensions of inclusion, development, access, scoring, and health reform. Our conversation spans the micro-macro and international-domestic spheres as she shares on her experiences creating her own micro-finance start-up and working for the fin-tech social enterprise, Cignifi, using big data to help underserved people lacking credit histories get access to banking tools. Currently finishing up her business and policy degrees at Harvard, Amrita’s next big challenge is to understand how to realign incentives for financial institutions in order to promote financial health in the United States.
2019-02-0400 min
Yes, this.Finance for Good not Evil: Amrita VirAmrita Vir helps us untangle the complicated web of finance – across the dimensions of inclusion, development, access, scoring, and health reform. Our conversation spans the micro-macro and international-domestic spheres as she shares on her experiences creating her own micro-finance start-up and working for the fin-tech social enterprise, Cignifi, using big data to help underserved people lacking credit histories get access to banking tools. Currently finishing up her business and policy degrees at Harvard, Amrita’s next big challenge is to understand how to realign incentives for financial institutions in order to promote financial health in the United States.
2019-02-0450 min