Shows
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP33 Josh Fraser - Origin Protocol - Bringing DeFi and NFT to the massesJosh Fraser, the Co-Founder of Origin Protocol, founded the company in 2017 to bring NFTs and DeFi to the masses. Josh started coding at the age of 10. Prior to Origin, he co-founded 3 other venture-backed companies: EventVue, Torbit (acquired by Walmart Labs) & Forage.
Today, Origin Story has powered multiple record-breaking NFT sales for top creators. Origin Dollar (OUSD) is the first stablecoin that earns competitive DeFi yields while sitting in your wallet.
We covered all about NFTs and Stablecoins at #FrontierFintech Podcast:
*The difference between building Web2 vs Web3 startups
*Building NFT launchpad (Origin Story...2022-07-2244 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP32 Tayo and Tansaya - Bank of Thailand - Central Bank Digital CurrencyTayo Koonprasert and Tansaya Kunaratskul are Senior Specialists at the Central Bank Digital Currencies team at the Bank of Thailand.
Both of them have been instrumental in creating the Central Bank Digital Currency. We’ll cover all about the use cases for CBDC, different models of CBDC and it will be used in the future at #FrontierFintech Podcast.
Disclaimer: This interview was conducted in September 2021 and may not reflect the current status of the Bank of Thailand’s CBDC projects.2022-07-2134 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP31 Yoshi Yokokawa - Alpaca - Democratizing Equity Investing for Every Person on Earth“History Rhymes But Never Repeats”
Yoshi Yokokawa is the CEO & Co-founder of Alpaca, a company that powers more than 100 fintech applications around the world. When Robinhood came out in 2013, Yoshi, in Japan at the time, couldn’t download the app or invest in U.S. stocks. Ten years later, nothing’s changed.
Alpaca is based on the idea that every single person on the earth should have access to financial markets like Americans do. Today, Alpaca has raised series B from notable investors to offer equities and crypto trading software via API.
We covered...2022-06-2754 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP30 Sherry Jiang - Bluejay Finance - What Local Stablecoins Need is a DeFi Summer MomentSherry Jiang is the Co-Founder & CEO of Bluejay Finance, a protocol that creates stablecoins pegged to Asian currencies. By providing local currency stablecoins, Bluejay is laying the infrastructure to support the next billion users to use Web3 products.
Sherry has always been passionate about building products for people in emerging markets. She has founded a social impact company, Code for Community, to provide non-profit organizations with technical help. Fascinated by how technology is bringing financial access to people in ways that financial institutions cannot do, she joined Google Pay and brought payment innovations to India. Today, she’s...2022-03-1732 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
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP28 Jason Tay - M-DAQ - Heads you win, tails you don't lose"Foreign exchange will always be here to stay"
Jason Tay, the Regional Director of Business Development at M-DAQ, talks to us about how M-DAQ uses data and algorithms to allow merchants around the world to sell goods in foreign currencies and not lose out when the FX rate changes.
M-DAQ is creating the world without currency borders. The 11-year old fintech company is the first startup to be funded by Affinity Equity Partners who joined other notable investors, including Ant Group and Samsung.
M-DAQ is the FX solution that powers leading e-commerce platforms...2022-02-2849 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP27 [Bonus!] 3 Peas in a Pod-Cast: NFT PartyWelcome to “NFT Party”, the inaugural episode of 3-Peas in a Pod-Cast where we dissect current events and big themes in the world of fintech & crypto. This episode is hosted by Nat Wittayatanaseth, Diana Shih and Jason Tay.
As Russia is invading Ukraine, all our financial portfolios have gone red. While Diana keeps a strict Warren Buffett’s philosophy of checking her portfolio once a year, Jason can’t do that because his NFT portfolio is on the verge of being rug-pull.
This is the only episode you need to listen to to get s...2022-02-2543 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP26 Iwan Kurniawan - Funding Societies - What’s next for P2P lending in SEAIwan Kurniawan, the Co-Founder & COO of Funding Societies (Modalku), has spent the past 6 years building Funding Societies into the largest SME lender in SEA. The company’s raised funds from top-tier investors, including SoftBank and Sequoia India. He also serves as the Vice Chairman of Indonesia Fintech Association.
We talked about *What’s next for P2P lending in SEA* at #FrontierFintechPodcast:
*How to start a fintech startup (hint: Every company starts with a hook)
*How to think about credit risks vs growth
*Why being the first mover in lending business is ad...2022-02-1941 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP25 Samir Chaïbi - Insignia Ventures Partners - We do need banking, but we don’t need banks“We do need banking, but we don’t need banks.”
Samir Chaïbi, Principal at Insignia Ventures Partners, talked to us about the fintech landscape in Southeast Asia, from banking API, lending, to insurance business.
Samir, a French Algerian, went to the U.S. to explore the startup and VC landscape before joining Insignia, a $450M+ AUM SEA-based VC fund, to help improve the startup ecosystem in SEA. At Insignia, he leads investments in fintech, insurtech, and proptech. Prior to this, Samir was a VC at STRIVE, a Tokyo-based VC fund.
We covered all abo...2022-02-1645 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP24 Bala Subramanian - Brankas - Scaling teams from 20 to 100“When you make your passion your profession, it’s not your job anymore.”
Bala Subramanian, Chief of Staff at Brankas, talks to us about scaling teams from 20 to 100. Since the pandemic started, Brankas has 5x its team in a remote first culture. We dig into frameworks on how to suss candidates for remote first culture, how to augment your process to 5x your team, and how to avoid the great resignation.
Founded in 2016, Brankas offers a roster of more than 10 “banking-as-a-service” embedded APIs, including ones for opening online bank accounts, credit scoring, identity verification, e-commerce transactio...2022-02-1438 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP23 Ryan Chew - Tribe Accelerator - Crypto & defi could be the backbone of the metaverseRyan Chew is the Co-Founder of Tribe Accelerator, Singapore’s first government-backed blockchain accelerator.
Tribe was founded in 2018 because Ryan and his co-founder noticed that funding opportunities for blockchain startups were very limited. Fast forward to 2021, Tribe has now supported startups with over $300 million in funding and it is in the forefront of shaping the blockchain ecosystem in Singapore.
This episode was extra special because we also had Jason Tay as a co-host and he brought tons of laughters (and sound effects) with him.
We covered all about Blockchain Use Cases & the Metaverse at...2022-02-0943 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP22 Raymond Hsu - Cabital - Earn High Yields from Crypto without the CrazyRaymon Hsu is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cabital, a simple elegant platform that allows anyone anywhere to earn passive income as much as 12% APY from crypto without the crazy.
Raymond started his career helping people access mobile payments in Kenya at a global bank. Having witnessed first hand how hard it is for people in Africa to send and receive money, he then joined Airwallex to drive the expansion of global payment networks. At Airwallex, his passion for technology grew and led him to found his own startup.
Raymond launched Cabital with the conviction...2022-02-0647 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP21 Brian Ma - Iterative Capital - My KPI is how many peoples’ lives have I changed“My life is not that long and the only thing I want to do is making a big impact”
Brian Ma is the Managing Partner of Iterative Capital, a YC-style accelerator focusing on increasing Southeast Asia’s GDP. He is also the Founder of Divvy Homes, a $2B company that allows customers to build equity credits as they rent. This episode is so special as we went through his founder journey and lessons learnt from founding 2 failed startups and 1 unicorn.
Brian is a third culture kid who moved to the U.S. when he was 8. He got...2022-01-2753 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP20 U-Zyn Chua - Co-Founder of DeFi Chain - Building DeFi infrastructure on Bitcoin blockchainU-Zyn Chua is an early pioneer of Bitcoin (fun fact: he interacted with Satoshi back when Bitcoin originated!). He also designed, developed and launched the world's first retail Central Bank Digital Currency for the Central Bank of the Bahamas.
Today, he’s the Co-Founder & CTO of DeFi Chain and Cake DeFi, a non-Turing complete blockchain that enables decentralized finance on Bitcoin. In addition, he is bringing decentralized finance to the people through cakedefi.com which is a consumer application built on top of DeFi Chain.
We covered all about Bitcoin as an infrastructure for DeFi, and...2022-01-2045 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP19 Jeffery Liu - CEO & Co-founder of Xanpool - Anyone can turn themselves into money changers and earn feesJeffery Liu, CEO & Co-founder of Xanpool, talks to us about decentralized market makers. Anyone can turn themselves into money changers and earn 25%APY on idle money on their bank accounts and crypto wallets.
Xanpool was created to be a payment or liquidity network (think Visa or Mastercard), but instead of being a close network, it’s an open network made up of businesses and individuals, therefore settlements are faster and cheaper.
What’s special about Xanpool is it has built API that connects to bank accounts, e-wallets, crypto wallets that allow people to earn yields from...2021-11-1849 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP18 - Vidit Agrawal - CEO and Co-founder of Gajigesa - Solving financial challenges for blue-collar workersVidit Agrawal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Gajigesa, a financial health platform that provides Indonesian employees with financial education and early access to their salaries.
Vidit was the first hire at Uber Asia and he’s also a technology veteran with experiences across many leading startups, including Uber, Stripe, and Carro.
Together with his Co-Founder Martyna Malinowska, they are helping blue-collar workers in Indonesia access their financials and equip them with tools to free them from the vicious loan shark cycle.
We talked all about earned wage access in Indonesia and more:2021-11-0131 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP17 Stephane de Baets - Founder of Elevated Returns & XSpring - Hedge your future spending with tokenized assetsStephane de Baets is the Founder of Elevated Returns & XSpring. He is the first person to launch the world’s first real estate tokenization, Aspen Coin, and Thailand’s first real estate tokenization, SiriHub.
He foresees that we’re going to see the biggest hyper-inflation we’ve ever seen. Money depreciates all the time. That is why this is the right time to create a collateralized form of assets - assets for payment. You can hedge your future spending with assets that generates yield instead of value-losing cash.
We talked about:
*The processes and challeng...2021-10-2440 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP16 - Samuel Rhee - Founding Partner & CIO of Endowus - Cost is what you should focus on if you invest for the long-termSamuel Rhee is the Founding Partner & CIO of Endowus, a Singapore-based wealth platform that lets you invest towards your life goals and provides you exclusive access to best-in-class funds from around the world at low costs.
Samuel has been in finance his whole life, 27 years to be exact. He spent most of his time in the public equity market at Morgan Stanley Investment Management - starting as a portfolio manager, then as a CIO, and eventually as a CEO. He found two major gaps in Fintech, particularly in wealth management and capital markets which inspired him to...2021-10-1146 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP15 - Michael Shaulov - CEO of Fireblocks - We’re in the Early Adopters phase of institutional adoptionMichael Shaulov is the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, an all-in-one platform that helps enterprises store, transfer, and issue digital assets without getting hacked.
Michael was an expert in cybersecurity before he founded Fireblocks. North Korean hackers, the Lazarus Group, stole $7M from Bithumb, a South Korean exchange in 2017. Michael, along with Fireblocks' co-founders, was a part of the task force that investigated this massive cyber breach. This led him to found Fireblocks with the mission to build a transparent, efficient, and fraud-free financial system for blockchain-based assets.
Today, Fireblocks has facilitated $1 trillion in digital a...2021-10-0445 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP14 - Ian Lee - Associate Director of Merkle Science - There’s no way to stop people from using BitcoinIan Lee is the Founding Team and Associate Director of Merkle Science, a provider of blockchain transaction monitoring and intelligence solutions.
Ian started out as a capital markets lawyer. During that time, many people came to him to ask about how to engage with crypto in a legally compliant way. He saw the vision of what crypto can become and decided to join Merkle Science to create an infrastructure that would bridge the gap between crypto and the traditional world.
We talked about:
*How Merkle Science helps companies and financial institutions deal with crypto2021-10-0155 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP13 - Rohit Taneja - CEO of Decentro - Money is just bits and bytes on someone’s ledgerRohit Taneja is the Founder & CEO of Decentro, a full-stack API banking platform for financial integrations. Decentro handles the heavy lifting of bank integration and offers off-the-shelf financial products that any company can embed into their solution.
Rohit realized that “money is just bits and bytes on someone’s ledger. While money is so easy to understand, it’s so hard to move. He spent months working with banks on the simple problem of moving money. It was painful and long. That’s how Decentro was born.
We talked all about why UPI was a watershe...2021-09-2631 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 12 - Willie Chang - CEO Hg Exchange - Southeast Asia’s first Tokenized Asset ExchangeWillie Chang is the CEO of Hg Exchange, Southeast Asia’s first private exchange that offers tokenized private company shares and luxury products to accredited investors.
Member firms - such as Phillip Securities, Prime Partners, and Fundnel - do the heavy lifting of identifying assets, conducting due diligence, and getting the assets ready for tokenization. HGX then uses blockchain technology to power transactions, making them cheaper and faster for investors. This allows investors to get exposure to alternative assets and companies, even small ones, to access alternative sources of funding by listing their private shares on the ex...2021-09-1232 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 11 - Beryl Chavez Li - co-Founder Yield Guild Games - Bringing Players Together to Earn via Blockchain-Based EconomiesBeryl Li is the Co-Founder of Yield Guild Games, a play-earn gaming guild that brings players together to earn via blockchain-based economies. YGG is the first company in the Philippines to be funded by A16Z, a leading VC firm based in the U.S. As of the 25th of August 2021, YGG has generated >$7M in earnings and is paying >$1M to its players on a weekly basis.
Beryl was fascinated by the use of Bitcoin to reduce fees for cross-border payments and became a founding team member of Coins.ph in 2014. Her curiosity in crypto didn’t...2021-09-0534 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 10 - Guillaume Le Saint - CEO Atato - Secure Computing Operating SystemGuillaume Le Saint is the Co-Founder & CEO of Atato, a company that’s building a secure computing operating system.
Computers were designed for one role: to process data as fast as possible. That is fine if there are only a number of computers exchanging data on the internet. Today, there are billions of devices on the internet, but the lack of secure computing is an issue (think ransomware and data leaks). We have come to accept those limitations as part of our lives.
Welcome to Web 3.0! Blockchain and encryption technologies have enabled us to add sec...2021-08-2953 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 09 - Earl Martin Valencia - Plentina - Unlock Financial Services for Billions with BNPLEarl Martin Valencia is the Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer of Plentina, the Philippines’ leading buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company with the aim to unlock financial services for billions by changing credit bureaus and credit cards.
Earl dreamed of becoming an astronaut and went to work for the largest aerospace company in the world. But, he discovered that business plus engineering equals magic at Stanford business school. He then entered the business world at Bridgewater, the most influential hedge fund in the world, Charles Schwab, the largest brokerage company in the world, and Dell, the pioneer in computers.
Pl...2021-08-2246 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 08 - Pelle Brændgaard - Notabene - Bridging Crypto to Real World Use CasesPelle Brændgaard is the Co-Founder & CEO of Notabene, a YC-backed company that bridges crypto to real-world use cases by providing a regulatory compliant layer to crypto transactions.
Pelle spent 20 years in crypto, self-sovereign identity, and fintech. Pelle was the co-founder and head of uPort, the Identity platform from ConsenSys built on Ethereum. As an early member of the Financial Crypto community, he built pre-blockchain crypto platforms, helped develop OAuth, and brought Bitcoin to Africa with Kipochi.
In the early days of the internet, Pelle, together with a group of pioneers, explored how to use c...2021-08-1444 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 07 - Chia Jeng Yang - Fintech Angel Operators - Southeast Asia’s First Fintech Angel GroupChia Jeng Yang is the Co-Founder of Fintech Angel Operators, Southeast Asia’s first fintech angel group, and a Principal at Saison Capital, the VC arm of Credit Saison, one of Japan's largest consumer credit companies.
Chia started his career as a firefighter and did a hard pivot from policy-making work to building an eCommerce company with Rocket Internet in South Asia because it seemed way more fun. He later found his way to venture to invest at Antler and Saison Capital where he led investments in notable companies, such as Koinworks, Oy, Bukukas, and Ula, to na...2021-08-0834 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 06 - Pang Xue Kai - Founder and CEO of Tokocrypto - Indonesia's First Cryptocurrency ExchangePang Xue Kai is the Founder and CEO of Tokocrypto. Tokocrypto is the leading crypto exchange in Indonesia and backed by the world’s most active crypto exchange Binance.
Despite being a Singaporean, Kai packed his bag, moved to Indonesia, and hustled his way to be the first crypto exchange to get a license in Indonesia. Since then, Tokocrypto has seen a meteoric rise with $60-100M daily trading volume and 1M+ registered users today.
It launched the TKO token earlier this year. TKO is the gateway for the CeDeFi ecosystem with DeFi products, including Fa...2021-08-0232 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 05 - Hayden Simmons - Founder of Rally Cap Ventures - Emerging Market FinTechHayden Simmons is the Managing Partner and Founder of Rally Cap Ventures, a FinTech angel community that invests in emerging market FinTech startups across LATAM, Africa, and Asia. Rally has grown into 200+ angels in less than 1 year and consists of FinTech operators and investors across the world.
Hayden used a first principle approach to creating Rally Cap with a hybrid fund model between an angel community and a VC fund. He, together with the Rally Cap community, invests in infrastructure that enables any consumer app to launch financial service capabilities.
“Doing things on a small sc...2021-07-2548 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 04 - Khai Lin Sng - co-Founder and CIO of Fundnel - Democratize Private Capital MarketsKhai Lin Sng is the co-Founder & CIO of Fundnel, Southeast Asia’s private capital markets. Khai Lin’s dream is to bring investment access down to the retail investors and, to do that, she’s taken a leading role in utilizing blockchain technology to create Hg Exchange, the first-of-its-kind private shares exchange.
She took the risk and left a comfortable job at a bulge bracket investment banking firm to co-found Fundnel with a mission to ensure efficient capital allocation to small entrepreneurs, therefore, generating employment and building nations. Under her wing, Fundnel has funneled over $540M to privat...2021-07-1249 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 03 - Felix Feng - Co-Founder and CEO at Set Protocol - We Will See the Two Worlds ConvergeThe Asian FinTech Podcast spoke to Felix Feng, a co-Founder and the CEO of Set Protocol, the Stripe for Asset Management. Set Protocol's mission is to accelerate the adoption of decentralized asset management.
Felix got his first taste of entrepreneurship when he mined and sold Zynga poker chips on eBay when he was 17 years old. He went on to start many small ventures before making his way into crypto. “If you are able to have an idea and spot opportunity, you can benefit a lot of people as well as oneself as an entrepreneur.”
Felix saw...2021-06-2741 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 02 - Diego Rojas - Co-Founder & CEO at Finantier - Transforming People's Lives Every DayThe Asian FinTech Podcast spoke with Diego Rojas, a Co-Founder & the CEO at Finantier, a YC-backed company that provides the simplest solution to access consumer financial data across Southeast Asia.
Diego was born a builder. He started coding at 8 years old in a small town in Argentina. He later discovered his passion for FinTech as a tool to improve people’s lives, while cutting his teeth at first-generation FinTech companies, even before FinTech was a thing. At Lending Club and Dianrong, he found that getting access to consumer data is the fundamental building block of financial inclusion th...2021-06-2741 min
Frontier Fintech PodcastEP 01 - Sharon Lourdes Paul - Head of Regional Payments (Southeast Asia), Xfers - Accessibility Means Being There At Every TouchpointThe Asian FinTech Podcast spoke to Sharon Lourdes Paul, the Head of Regional Payments at Xfers, a YC-backed company that is now a part of Fazz Financial Group. Xfers was founded in 2015 to make payments accessible for the unbanked population and underserved sectors, such as crypto exchanges, in Southeast Asia. Layered on top of banking rails, Xfers facilitates non-card payments for merchants, warungs (mom-and-pop stores), and exchanges.
“Accessibility means being there at every touchpoint when customers want to make payments.”
What do we need to make payments interoperable across borders? What is the role of cryp...2021-06-2737 min
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)Nat Wittayatanaseth on US vs. SE Asia VC, Taking Risks with Intention & Relinquishing Control - E64Nat is an Investment Associate at Monk’s Hill Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage tech companies, primarily Series A, in Southeast Asia. She is based in Thailand and is responsible for deal sourcing and execution, investment analysis and portfolio management. With a strong passion for financial inclusion, Nat brings in a decade of experience in fintech, capital markets, and macroeconomics from Thailand.
Prior to joining Monk's Hill Ventures, she spearheaded fintech and blockchain investments at Beacon Venture Capital, a corporate venture arm of Thailand’s top three largest banks. Prior to that, Nat advised corp...2021-06-0352 min