Shows
Japan FinTech ObserverJapan FinTech Observer #77This is an edited version of the LinkedIn Live session covering the Japan FinTech Observer #77 for the week ending September 15, 2024.
Please locate this weekly edition of the Japan FinTech Observer here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/japan-fintech-observer-77-norbert-gehrke-klulc/
👉 Subscribe to our weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", here: https://lnkd.in/gNjUuSxG
2024-09-1838 min
eXponential FinanceKevin Shimota, WeChat - The First Super App: The secrets of Tencent's platform strategy (S2E50)Kevin Shimota is a leading specialist in digital products and platforms, having been a senior executive at WeChat (Tencent) with over a decade of experience in the industry. His ongoing work includes understanding innovations and trends coming out of Asia and how they will impact and adapt to the global community.
Having recently published "The First Super App", Kevin traces with us WeChat's history from the beginnings as the QQ desktop messenger, to the launch of WeChat through an internal competition as a mobile internet platform, the addition of "push to talk", company pages, payments, and finally...
2022-10-0447 min
eXponential FinanceAdrien Barthel, Sleek - The startups' plumber: going from an idea to an operating company in hours (S2E49)In this episode, we talk about Sleek, the SMEs’ all-in-one digital platform, helping over 6000+ entrepreneurs to start and manage their businesses. Sleek effectively operates as the SMEs’ co-pilot for all back-office processing, so that the entrepreneurs can focus on growing their business.
Sleek is registered with the company registry and tax authorities of Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom. They are also regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Payment Services Act, and have recently been issued a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license. Sleek has raised a USD 25m Series A in December 2021 from...
2022-09-1326 min
eXponential FinanceFranz Waldenberger, DIJ - Monetary policy under Kuroda & the future of financial systems (S2E48)In this episode, we first have the opportunity to discuss Japan's monetary policy under Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda, whose term expires next year, contrasting Japan's zero-interest-rate policy with the increasingly highly inflationary environment in the rest of the world. In the second part, we discuss certain aspects of the book "The Future of Financial Systems in the Digital Age", such as the payment system in Japan, and the approach to digital currencies.
Professor Franz Waldenberger has researched the Japanese economy since 1992, when he joined the German Institute of Japanese Studies (DIJ) as a senior research fellow...
2022-09-0232 min
eXponential FinanceTiffine Wang, MS&AD Ventures - The Silicon Valley mindset gives you the freedom to build bigger things (S2E47)In this episode, Tiffine Wang, Partner at MS & AD Ventures, an early stage venture fund backed by one of Japan’s – and the world’s – largest insurance groups, shares with us the stages of her career, and how this has shaped her investment approach. Tiffine is passionate about investing in big market bets that positively impact humanity and was voted as one of the Emerging Leaders in Corporate Venture Capital in 2021 and 2022. Most recently, Tiffany has been named “Women of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
MS&AD Ventures portfolio companies mentioned in this podcast (please check https...
2022-08-2632 min
eXponential FinanceMariana Franza, Uala - If you are not in the traditional banking system, you cannot have Netflix (S2E46)In this episode, we explore the Latin American FinTech ecosystem through a conversation with Mariana Franza, Chief Operating Officer at Uala, a fintech app focused on driving financial inclusion. Founded in 2017 in Argentina, Uala started as a payment wallet, and has just obtained a banking license in its home market. Uala expanded to Mexico in 2020, where it is also currently in the process of acquiring a bank, and to Colombia in 2022, where it applied for a banking license organically.
"65% of our active users have never had a credit history."
"Cash is our worst enemy since...
2022-08-0328 min
eXponential FinanceOi-Yee Choo, ADDX - Using cutting-edge technologies to reformat traditional institutional capital for retail (S2E45)In this episode, we are going to talk about private markets with Oi-Yee Choo, Chief Executive Officer at ADDX.
ADDX is among a few Singapore-based platforms dealing in private market securities, offering global funds, real estate investment trusts, structured products and pre-IPO shares at fractional ownership to investors. ADDX offers issuance, custody and trading of digital securities using distributed ledger technology and counts South Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management and Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings among its backers.
Oi-Yee Choo has had a distinguished career in capital raising and mergers & acquisitions advisory before joining the startup wor...
2022-07-1228 min
eXponential FinanceJavier Tamashiro, Ospree - Compliance for Crypto: Onboarding, Analytics & the Travel Rule (S2E44)In this episode, we are going to talk about compliance for crypto with Javier Tamashiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Ospree.
Ospree has been founded in 2019, and bootstrapped ever since, launching their integrated suite of crypto compliance tools at the end of 2020, covering client onboarding, blockchain analytics, and the travel rule. Ospree has been initially focused on startup clients, and expects to rapidly grow with their successful ones. Their enterprise-scale product for first and second tier banks is also about to hit the market.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting...
2022-07-0528 min
eXponential FinanceBinur Zhalenov, Payments & FinTech Center of the National Bank of Kazakhstan - Striving to set the standard for central bank innovation (S2E43)In this episode, Binur Zhalenov will share his experience as the Chief Executive Officer of one of the most significant FinTech R&D companies in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. Leading the Payment and Financial Technologies Center of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Binur’s research focus is concentrated around payment innovations and artificial intelligence applications for macroeconomic modeling.
He is guiding a retail central bank digital currency pilot project, also known as the “Digital Tenge”, as well as a number of other initiatives related to digital financial infrastructure, such as decentralized finance, stablecoins and open bankin...
2022-06-2326 min
eXponential FinanceBruno Diniz, Spiralem - Pioneering is hard but it pays off: A deep dive into Brazil FinTech (S2E42)In this episode, we are going to take a close look at the FinTech ecosystem in Brazil. If you have not had this market on your radar screen yet, that likely changed with the record-breaking IPO of Nubank on the New York Stock Exchange towards the end of last year, making the company the largest digital banking platform outside of Asia.
The second focus of our conversation will be the work of the Brazilian Central Bank, which has been executing on a variety of initiatives at once, from Open Banking to a fast payments system called PIX...
2022-01-1836 min
eXponential FinancePaul Claudius, DIA - Trustable data for DeFi applications: taking Oracles beyond the "last mile" (S2E41)DIA is a decentralized, open-source data and oracle platform for DeFi that enables market actors to source, supply and share trustable data. DeFi applications are reliant on trustable and scalable data feeds to build reliable products and avoid exploitation and manipulation. DIA leverages crypto-economic incentives and the wisdom of the community to source, validate and deliver trusted financial data.
Paul Claudius is one of the Co-Founders of DIA and a Board Member of the DIA Association.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would l...
2021-12-0825 min
eXponential FinanceHans Greimel & William Sposato - "Collision Course" - The Carlos Ghosn saga and what was left in its wake (S2E40)In Japan it's called the "Ghosn Shock"—the stunning arrest of Carlos Ghosn, the jet-setting CEO who saved Nissan and made it part of a global automotive empire.
Even more shocking was his daring escape from Japan, packed into a box and put on a private jet to Lebanon after months spent in a Japanese detention center, subsisting on rice gruel.
This is the saga of what led to the Ghosn Shock and what was left in its wake. Ghosn spent two decades building a colossal partnership between Nissan and Renault that looked like a ne...
2021-11-2232 min
eXponential FinanceYan Fan & Mio Maeshima, Code Chrysalis - Reengineer yourself in a samurai culture with a Silicon Valley mindset (S2E39)Code Chrysalis is a software engineering immersive and consultancy in Tokyo, teaching computer science fundamentals and modern web application development through a project-based curriculum that promotes career longevity, autonomy, and teamwork.
Yan Fan is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Code Chrysalis, and Mio Maeshima a recent graduate. In this conversation, we are looking at software engineering and computer science, the role of diversity, and the digital skills gap that Japan is facing. With Maeshima-san being a trained translator and interpreter, we are also touching on the transformation of one’s own career, possibly later in li...
2021-10-0639 min
eXponential FinanceRomain Zanolo, IDEMIA - The switch to lifestyle banking drives innovation in payments (S2E38)Romain Zanolo, Managing Director APAC, Financial Institutions at IDEMIA, discusses with us the payments & identity landscape across Asia.
- What is augmented identity?
- The value proposition for FinTech startups to work with IDEMIA and other companies made accessible through Visa's Partner Connect program
- How Razer FinTech used IDEMIA to launch the "hottest" payment card in Singapore
- How JCB and Digital Garage apply IDEMIA technology in Japan
- Whether and how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) might change the payments game
IDEMIA is the global...
2021-06-2328 min
eXponential FinanceChea Srun, XQuant - Seoul FinTech Lab: Building a global FinTech business from Korea (S2E37)Chea Srun is a French national with a distinguished career in derivatives trading, having worked and lived in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul, and being able to converse professionally in all three languages. Chea is the Founder & CEO of X-Quant, a startup that got accepted into the Seoul FinTech Lab accelerator last year. In addition to his experience with the program, we talk a bit about Chea's trading career, his transition into entrepreneurship, and the use cases XQuant has been developing to support OTC derivatives transactions/reporting as well as the extraction of ESG insights. Lastly, Chea is a...
2021-05-3126 min
eXponential FinanceMihir Gandhi, PwC India - Indian cashless payments are exploding, and the time for wallets has passed (S2E36)Mihir Gandhi is a Partner in the Consulting practice of PwC India and leads the Payments Transformation practice. With close to 15 years of consulting experience, he has developed a strong business and technology consulting exposure in India and international markets including the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.
Mihir has been part of the digital payments growth story of India and has successfully led marquee projects. He has managed the core team to set up the domestic card scheme of India. He has assisted new private sector banks and payments banks for setup of payments products...
2021-02-0237 min
eXponential FinanceMaria Guajardo, Soka University - Leadership is a perspective to be able to contribute to the greater good (S2E35)María Guajardo's passion is to do the greatest good for those with the greatest need; and to develop the next generation of global leaders. She served as Vice-President at Soka University, Tokyo, Japan, as the inaugural Dean of the Faculty of International Liberal Arts, and is recipient of the Soka University Award of Highest Honor. Soka University is one of eleven private universities with the distinction of being named a Super Global University by the Japanese Ministry of Education.
Maria served as a National Speaker and Trainer with a focus on Educational Equity, Leadership and Inclusive E...
2021-01-1933 min
eXponential FinanceManuel Silva Martinez, Mouro Capital - The boundaries of the financial services industry are getting blurrier and blurrier (S2E34)Manuel Silva Martinez oversees Mouro’s strategy, investor relations, resources and processes as the General Partner authorised by the FCA, with his day-to-day investment activity focusing more on UK, Europe and Latin America. Manuel sits on the boards of a55, bonify and Crosslend and, as observer, of Autofi, Creditas, Curve, Elliptic, Klar, Roostify and Tradeshift, among others. Manuel has been investing in fintech since 2010, having spent 5 years in San Francisco with BBVA Ventures (now Propel VC) before moving to London in 2015. He is a hiking enthusiast, world traveler and wine aficionado.
Mouro Capital is a venture capital fi...
2021-01-1221 min
eXponential FinanceMami Kato, Revolut Japan - Never Settle: European FinTech unicorn challenging for Japan’s consumer market (S2E33)Mami Kato is the Head of Public Relations and Communications at Revolut Japan, and the spokesperson for the business. Mami has over 15 years of experience as a corporate and financial communications professional. She worked at Japan’s largest PR firm and at a European strategic communications advisory company, where she mainly engaged in long-term corporate communications for the Fortune's most admired companies in the B2C and B2B space.
For those in FinTech, Revolut does not need an introduction. Founded in 2015 in London, it had initially focused on the European market, and then successively established a pr...
2021-01-0825 min
eXponential FinanceHeikki Vänttinen, API3 - Decentralized APIs for Web 3.0 (S2E32)Heikki Vänttinen is Co-Founder at API3, a collaborative project to deliver traditional API services to smart contract platforms in a decentralized and trust-minimized way. It is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), its code is open source and its operations are completely transparent.
In November, API3 announced the closing of their seed investment round with Placeholder, Pantera Capital, Accomplice, CoinFund, Digital Currency Group and Hashed participating, among others. API3 has raised $3 million in exchange for 10 million API3 tokens, representing 10% of the total supply.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an i...
2020-12-0724 min
eXponential FinanceChris Thomas, Swissquote - Straight to the Coin with Switzerland's favorite multi-asset trading platform (S2E31)Chris Thomas is the Head of Digital Assets at Swissquote Bank. Prior to joining the firm, Chris has combined his financial expertise with his passion for entrepreneurship as Head of European Innovation at Fidelity Investments, before successfully founding an institutional crypto-asset custodian.
Swissquote Bank specialises in online financial and trading services. Based in Geneva, it is the first FINMA-regulated Swiss bank to offer crypto trading, custody and ‘crypto-asset’ equity certificates for retail clients and global institutions
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like...
2020-12-0229 min
eXponential FinanceTuhina Singh, Propine - Singapore's first MAS-regulated digital asset custodian (S2E30)Tuhina Singh is the Co-Founder & CEO of Propine, a graduate from Singapore’s unique Entrepreneur First accelerator program, and the first native digital asset custodian regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) through the Capital Markets Services (CMS) License.
Propine is building a safe, regulated, and certified future for digital securities with the support and partnerships of reputed private, quasi-governmental and governmental organizations to create an ecosystem of trust, quality and compliance.
Propine is positioned to become the first independent digital securities custodian in a highly regulated environment. With the Capital Market Services License in...
2020-11-2736 min
eXponential FinanceRicky Lee, sync. - Good teams build good products (S2E29)Ricky Lee is the Founder & CEO of sync, and previously the creative mind behind the customer experience at Lloyds Banking Group and Revolut.
sync is looking to lead the way in Smart Open Banking, allowing users to instantly open a current account in British Pounds or Euros in minutes and to provide them with the ability to open up more than 30 other currency accounts. Users are able to exchange currencies between their accounts at the best rates and transfer money worldwide at unbeatable rates.
sync’s unique selling proposition is to allow users to synchronise al...
2020-11-2433 min
eXponential FinanceKim Schumacher, Tokyo Tech - Leadership requires the willingness to allow disruption & innovation to happen (S2E28)Kim Schumacher is a Lecturer in Sustainable Finance and ESG at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research focuses on ESG data and impact metrics, sustainable finance frameworks, green bonds, natural capital valuation, ecosystem services, renewable energy project development, and climate-related risk disclosure.
Kim is the creator and course director for Japan's very first graduate-level course on Sustainable Finance and ESG, part of the Graduate major in Global Engineering for Development, Environment and Society.
In addition, he is an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.
...
2020-11-2037 min
eXponential FinanceGraham Rodford, Archax - The first ever UK-based, FCA-regulated digital securities exchange (S2E27)Graham Rodford is Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Archax, an institutional-grade exchange for trading asset-backed tokens (digital securities, security tokens, etc.) based in London. Founded by experts from the financial markets and backed by an accomplished advisory board, Archax offers a credible bridge between the blockchain world and the traditional investment space.
The Archax team is used to working in highly regulated markets and has a deep understanding of the blockchain landscape and tokenisation too – as well as a vision of how to evolve them and open up digital assets to institutions in a transparent manner.
...
2020-11-1932 min
eXponential FinanceAaron Friedland & Ran Sommer, Simbi Foundation - Quality Education for the next 3.5m Learners (S2E26)Aaron Friedland & Ran Sommer, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Operations, respectively, are the Co-Founders of Simbi Foundation, a research-led startup designed to provide support for underserved and refugee communities who face challenges accessing quality education. Identifying lack of electricity, resources, and technology as principal barriers, Simbi Foundation was founded in 2015 to collaborate with partner communities in Uganda and create solar-powered, digital education initiatives. Simbi Foundation's stated goal is the deployment of enough self-sustaining classrooms, "Brightboxes", over the coming 10 years to address the needs of 3.5 million learners.
This is the second podcast episode produced in co-operation with...
2020-11-1737 min
eXponential FinanceChristopher Scheidel, Transaction Insights - How to anchor an IT Strategy in uncertain times (S2E25)Christopher Scheidel is a Co-Founder & the Chief Information Officer at Transaction Insights, where he is looking to provide financial services and insurance firms with a unique and powerful way to identify and navigate market changes.
In a world where rapid technological change makes building lasting strategies difficult, “Starting with Why” can be a powerful tool for anchoring an IT strategy. Learn how utilizing Simon Sinek’s leadership paradigm helped one Japanese IT organization create a focal point in a sea of ever evolving strategic imperatives, and how our guest adjusted the proven principles when joining a startup.
...
2020-11-1236 min
eXponential FinanceNicholas Smith, CLSA - Japan's markets are dirt cheap (S2E24)Nicholas Smith, Japan Strategist at CLSA in Tokyo, shares his perspectives on the Japanese markets, how foreigners have left just as profit growth was accelerating, why the Bank of Japan ETF buying spree has had little effect, and warns against underestimating Suga-san as Prime Minister.
Note: Any comments referencing the markets are made as of the recording on Tuesday, November 10, around 2pm JST.
Nicholas has ranked #1 for Japan strategy in Asiamoney’s Brokers Poll eight years running, since 2013. Nicholas has been in Japan since 1987, and has been covering Japanese equities since 1990. He first came to Japa...
2020-11-1127 min
eXponential FinanceDarren Goff, Department for International Trade - New opportunities for trade, overcoming traditional barriers with the UK/Japan FTA (S2E23)Darren Goff is the Head of Investments - Japan at the Department for International Trade in Tokyo, leading a team in a pivotal position, helping UK companies entering the Japanese market, and securing UK foreign direct investment.
We discuss the difficulties for UK and other foreign companies breaking into the Japanese market, why there is increasing cause for optimism and how the new Free Trade Agreement negotiated between the UK and Japan will bring new benefits for UK companies.
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA as it is known, is the first agreement that t...
2020-11-1133 min
eXponential FinanceMichael Wodzicki, Deloitte Consulting - Banks are winning in the Attention Economy (S2E22)Michael Wodzicki is a Partner at Deloitte Consulting, based in Poland, and the lead for this year's "Digital Banking Maturity" report. Over the last 2+ years, Michael has extensively worked across Asia. In addition to covering the report, we learn a little about the financial services industry in Poland and also ask Michael about his views on China, which has not been included in the report.
This is the fourth edition of the largest global benchmarking of digital retail banking channels, answering what leaders are doing to win in the digitalization race. It is providing a comprehensive outside-in ‘mys...
2020-11-0730 min
eXponential FinancePawel Kuskowski, Coinfirm - Analytics, Compliance and Forensics for Decentralized Finance (S2E21)Pawel Kuskowski is one of the Co-Founders and the Chief Executive Officer of Confirm, a well-recognized global leader in blockchain and cryptocurrency analytics. Their mission is to provide technology for regulatory compliance, bringing new levels of transparency and trust to the world of digital assets. Coinfirm aims to serve as a foundation for the safe adoption of blockchain by all actors in the economy, including traditional financial institutions, governments, regulators as well as ordinary citizens. They do that by applying regulatory technology for blockchain that solves a variety of compliance challenges. They provide anti-money laundering (AML) and know your...
2020-11-0515 min
eXponential FinanceMichael Schiltz, Hokkaido University - The Money Doctors from Japan: Finance, Imperialism and the Building of the Yen Bloc (S2E20)Michael Schiltz is Associate Professor for the Modern Japanese Studies Program at the University of Hokkaido. In his 2012 monograph “The Money Doctors from Japan”, Michael explores how money and finance have been among the most potent tools of colonial power. His study investigates the Japanese experiment with financial imperialism—or “yen diplomacy”—at several key moments between the acquisition of Taiwan in 1895 and the outbreak of the Sino–Japanese War in 1937. Through authoritarian monetary reforms and lending schemes, government officials and financial middlemen served as “money doctors” who steered capital and expertise to Japanese official and semi-official colonies in Taiwan, Korea, Chi...
2020-11-0337 min
eXponential FinanceAnton Golub, flovtec - Stay liquid! A primer for market making in digital assets (S2E19)Anton Golub is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of flovtec, an award-winning leader in the field of liquidity provision for digital assets. As a key player in the Blockchain ecosystem, flovtec fosters price stability and reduces transaction costs, for the benefit of all market participants. The firm is built on three pillars: a highly experienced and visionary team, tested investment strategies and a professional operational structure. The team is comprised of Blockchain pioneers with detailed insights into the ecosystem of digital assets and its future, experienced asset management professionals with proven track records, and quants that can deploy investment...
2020-10-2939 min
eXponential FinanceKamil Shafiq, POKET - Crowd-sourced mapping for Inclusive Trade (S2E18)Kamil Shafiq is one of the co-founders of POKET, a startup creating a crowdsourced, consensus-driven registry of undocumented places in the emerging world. Using technology suited to the lower specification mobile phones and data constraints witnessed in frontier markets, POKET drives new, previously undiscoverable insights into unmapped and undocumented areas. By incentivizing users to propose and verify points of interest around them, POKET creates a curated map/registry of new places and points of interest for industries like financial services, government institutions, consumer-packaged goods companies and more!
This is the first podcast episode produced in co-operation with...
2020-10-2340 min
eXponential FinanceRohit Taneja, Decentro - My passion is for solving problems that I have experienced myself (S2E17)Rohit Taneja is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Decentro, an Indian Open Banking platform and a Y-Combinator 2020 alumni.
Decentro was born both from a personal pain point that Rohit faced while running his previous venture, as well as addressing a major impediment that can be seen across the FinTech industry. When his first company tried to integrate banking APIs for simple money transfer, it took them more than five months just to get to a stable production setup. Turns out this is a common challenge for all neobanks, FinTechs and InsurTechs who need to interact wi...
2020-10-2123 min
eXponential FinanceHarumi Urata-Thompson, Celsius Network - Acting as Centralized Finance amongst the Decentralized Finance industry (S2E16)Harumi Urata-Thompson is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer for Celsius Network. Having started her career as the first woman on the Fixed Income desk at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, Harumi has had a long and successful career in traditional finance, both in capital markets/investment banking and with financial industry information providers (e.g., Thomson Reuters).
Celsius addresses the financial needs of today’s consumers worldwide through an earning and lending platform accessible via a mobile app. Built on the belief that financial services should only do what is in the best interests of the...
2020-10-1626 min
eXponential FinanceParissa Haghirian, Sophia University - Japanisches Management: Arbeiten im Japanischen Unternehmen (S2E15)>> This is the German edition on the topic of Japanese management, you can find a related English language podcast in Season 1, Episode 34 of this programme (Anchor link follows): https://anchor.fm/exponentialfinance/episodes/Episode-34---Parissa-Haghirian--Sophia-University-ee4kpt
Japanische Unternehmen und japanische Arbeitsmoral scheinen auf den ersten Blick den deutschen sehr ähnlich. Dennoch unterscheiden sich deutsche und japanische Organisationen sehr stark, was sich auch sehr stark auf die Arbeitsprozesse auswirkt. Das Webinar gibt einen Überblick über die Unterschiede der deutschen und japanischen Organisation und bespricht, welche unterschiedlichen Managementpraktiken daraus resultieren und welche Herausforderungen sich dadurch für die interkulturelle Zusa...
2020-10-1235 min
eXponential FinanceAlisa DiCaprio, R3 - Nobody is questioning anymore whether blockchain can help their digitalization drive (S2E14)As the Head of Trade and Supply Chain at R3, Alisa DiCaprio is responsible for trade strategy, standards and governance design, with a current focus on mobility, logistics, and finance. Alisa's previous role at ADB involved leading institutional initiatives on trade finance, digital economy, regional integration, and innovation. She has experience in both public and private sectors on trade, export promotion, labor issues, and designing and implementing development projects. She has worked in Cambodia, Chile, Finland, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the US. Her work on global digital economy issues include chairing committees at the ICC, BAFT, Trade Finance...
2020-10-0919 min
eXponential FinanceDigital Transformation in Japan with Will Baber, Kieran Gane & Raja Karim (S2E13)We hosted a presentation & discussion with three of the editors and contributors of the "Transforming Japanese Business - Rising to the Digital Challenge" book that was published in early 2020 by Springer, with the authors sharing their individual perspective as follows:
- Will Baber: The State of Digital Transformation in Japan
- Kieran Gane: The Digital Organization
- Raja Karim: Transformation in the Face of Legacy Constraints
If you would like to read further, you can find the book here: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811503269
Speaker...
2020-10-0740 min
eXponential FinanceFinTech Tandem with John Ho - Central Bank Digital Currencies (S2E12)John Ho is the Head of Legal - Financial Markets at Standard Chartered Bank. We often talk about all things FinTech across Asia, and beyond.
As part of a webinar held in September, we extensively discussed Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs):
- What categories of CBDCs are there?
- What is the current regulatory view on CBDCs?
- What type of proof-of-concepts or pilot implementations do we see across the globe?
- What is our perspective on the Chinese Digital Currency/Electronic Payments (DCEP)?
We hope to...
2020-10-0531 min
eXponential FinanceRolands Mesters, Nordigen - In the Baltics, the markets are small, but the capabilities are huge (S2E11)Rolands is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nordigen, an open banking data analytics platform in Riga, Latvia, that help banks, lenders and FinTechs to use open banking data to build more powerful applications in lending, personal finance and other verticals. Nordigen has obtained an Account Information Service Provider (AISP) license and is ISO27001 certified.
We talk about the origins of access to bank account data long before Open Banking regulation came into force, what the landscape in Europe looks like currently, and how Nordigen has followed their clients around the globe, deploying their highly specialized...
2020-10-0234 min
eXponential FinanceMax Kordek, Lisk - Resist the temptation to follow every hype and focus on execution (S2E10)Max Kordek is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lisk, a blockchain platform for decentralized applications established in 2016 together with his Co-Founder Oliver Beddows, who is the CTO. Lisk was one of the earliest pioneers of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithms, specifically Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS), as well as drawing out the vision of blockchain inter-operability through sidechains. Lisk is reaching the end of the current implementation roadmap with the SDK in version 5.0 having been marked as "development complete".
Max talks to us about the various new products (e.g., Lisk Service) and functionalities under development and the state of r...
2020-09-2640 min
eXponential FinanceSophie Meralli, Eight Roads - The future of venture capital is female (S2E9)Sophie Meralli joined the Japan Ventures team at Eight Roads at the beginning of 2020, focusing on Enterprise Tech and FinTech investments. Previously, she has worked at Innospark Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm in Boston. Originally trained and qualified as a CPA, Sophie was used to financial analysis, before taking her MBA at MIT's Sloan School of Business. Joining the AI-focused Innospark meant changing her mindset to discovering new technologies led by bold and passionate founding teams.
Also while at MIT, Sophie worked with the Digital Currency Initiative, and wrote her first academic paper, which got recently...
2020-09-1333 min
eXponential FinanceZia Zaman, Beaver Lake Capital - A longer, happier, thicker, and fuller life for you and your family (S2E8)As the CEO of LumenLab, MetLife Asia’s innovation centre, Zia has spent the last six years steering the company’s innovation agenda across the region and around the world, with a passion for finding new ways to help the under-served. Globally, LumenLab delivered over 70 projects and won many awards addressing the health, aging, and wealth needs of Asia-based consumers. Zia was also the Chairperson for Diversity & Inclusion for Asia.
Before insurance, Zia spent 22 years in the software and tech/telecoms industry with a couple of exits including FAST (sold to Microsoft). Zia has been a frequent keyno...
2020-09-0940 min
eXponential FinanceMirko Ross, asvin - Trust and security for the Internet of Things (S2E7)Mirko Ross is the Chief Executive Officer of asvin, an early German startup developing solutions for a trusted and secure Internet of Things (IoT). A recognized cybersecurity expert, Mirko is a Member of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) IoT Security Expert Group, and a Co-Chair of the Alliance Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) Distributed Ledger Working Group. Our shared believe is that ultimately, the volume of machine-to-machine (M2M) commerce will exceed traditional (human-to-human or human-to-machine) payments, so it is imperative to provide an infrastructure that cannot be compromised.
asvin.io provides a blockchain-secured update s...
2020-09-0730 min
eXponential FinanceMatthew Chan, ASIFMA - Addressing securities & derivatives market fragmentation through the policymaking lifecycle (S2E6)Matthew Chan is the Head of Public Policy, Regulatory Affairs & Sustainable Finance (APAC) at the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA), an independent, regional trade association with over 130 member firms comprising a diverse range of leading financial institutions from both the buy and sell side.
ASIFMA, jointly with Oliver Wyman, recently published a well-researched paper on market fragmentation in Asia. The paper projects growth of APAC capital markets at a rate triple the rest of the world, so that by 2030, they will make up 50% of global activity. With regional economic growth and stability relying on capital...
2020-08-2034 min
eXponential FinanceHenry Chong, Fusang - Laying the foundation for a sustainable stakeholder capitalism by enabling digital security ownership for all (S2E5)Henry Chong is the Chief Executive Officer of the Fusang Group. At Fusang, Henry is responsible for the group’s overall strategic direction & mission. He works closely with global institutional investors and financial regulators to bring professionalism and structure to the industry, and is a regular keynote speaker on the subject of digital assets. He is also a member of the University of Oxford’s research group on digital assets law and regulation.
Fusang has evolved out of Portcullis, a family business, and Asia's biggest independent group of trust companies, a one-stop shop for corporate, trustee and fund...
2020-08-1738 min
eXponential FinanceMattia Fiorentini, Cambridge Quantum Computing - The future is hybrid, quantum laptops are not near, and your blockchain is safe (most likely) (S2E4)Mattia Fiorentini is the Head of Machine Learning and Quantum Algorithms at Cambridge Quantum Computing, a world leading independent quantum computing software company, with operations in US, Europe & Japan, and more than 60 scientists including 35+ PHD’s, in Quantum Computing (“QC”), Chemistry, Molecular Electronics, Physics, Maths, Computer Science, and Nanoscience.
CQC builds tools for the commercialisation of quantum technologies whose long-term impact will be profound. CQC design solutions that benefit from quantum computing even in its earliest forms and allow the most effective access to these solutions for the widest variety of corporate and government users.
With Ma...
2020-08-1339 min
eXponential FinanceThomas McMahon, AirCarbon - Making Carbon trading frictionless, starting next week (S2E3)Thomas McMahon is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AirCarbon, a Singapore-domiciled digital exchange focused on eliminating market friction in a carbon-constraint economy by securitizing carbon credits into fungible and tradable securities with transparent pricing and real-time settlement. The soft launch is currently planned for August 19, with the full go-live in September 2020.
A veteran of the global commodities markets, with long experience in establishing by now well-accepted benchmarks like WTI, Tom is leading the push towards creating the first commodities exchange establishing a global carbon standard in compliance with various ESG and SDG requirements.
Ou...
2020-08-1137 min
eXponential FinanceMarkus Hillebrand, ControlExpert - Bringing a delightful claims experience to car insurance (S2E2)Markus Hillebrand is the Chief Executive Officer - Asia Pacific for ControlExpert, a German InsurTech company employing ~900 people in 17 locations, including offices in Japan, China (Mainland & Hong Kong), and Thailand.
Policyholders typically do not interact with their insurance company. When they actually use the product, it is almost by definition a negative experience, because they were involved in an accident and need to file a claim. The traditional processes can be daunting, involving multiple conversations between the insured, the insurance company, a claims adjuster, and possibly a repair shop.
Since 2002, ControlExpert has been focused on remo...
2020-08-0736 min
eXponential FinancePaul Rowady, Alphacution - Robinhood, the upstart financial casino targeted at underemployed millennials (S2E1)Paul is the Director of Research at Alphacution who recently made some waves by digging deep into how Robinhood, the commission-free trading app valued at upwards of USD 8 billion, actually makes money. Paul is a veteran of the proprietary trading community, and an expert in market structure.
Alphacution is the first digitally-oriented research and strategic advisory platform uniquely focused on modeling and benchmarking the impacts of technology on global financial markets and the businesses of trading, asset management and banking. This groundbreaking, data-driven approach allows Alphacution to reverse-engineer the operational dynamics of these market actors to showcase t...
2020-08-0355 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #50 - Lex Sokolin, ConsenSys: Defi-ning the next financial systemWe were super-excited to welcome Lex Sokolin, the Co-Head of FinTech at ConsenSys, *the* venture studio in the Ethereum ecosystem, as our honorable guest for our 50th anniversary podcast.
Lex is a New York & London entrepreneur with senior operating and board-level FinTech experience (i.e., thick scar tissue) in digital advice, personal finance, and wealth management. He has held a variety of roles on Wall Street (with Lehman Brothers, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank), but also hand-coded websites and programmed generative abstract art. Lex founded the FinTech practice at Autonomous, a financial services equity research firm (acquired by A...
2020-07-2943 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #49 - Chintai, Live from Singapore Blockchain Week: Tokenized Securities & StablecoinsLive at Singapore Blockchain Week, we hosted a panel discussion sponsored by Chintai with leading minds in the world of compliance enabled decentralized finance - tokenized securities & stablecoins.
We discussed compliance enabled blockchain technology, issuance/custody/secondary trading for tokenized securities, stablecoins, how tokenized securities can change global financial systems, what it will take to reach broad institutional adoption and much more.
Panelists
Tuhina Singh - CEO, Propine - 16 years experience, computer engineer from BITS Pilani, MBA Indian Institute of Management.
Thomas McMahon - Co-Founder AirCarbon, Exchange architect, 30 years of experience...
2020-07-2231 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #48 - Merkle Science, Is Hong Kong a competitive jurisdiction for virtual asset businesses?For this episode, we are listening in to a webinar hosted by our friends at Merkle Science, a panel discussion that assessed whether Hong Kong is a competitive jurisdiction for virtual asset businesses from the perspectives of regulation, operations and market opportunities.
Featured panelists:
- Ian Lee, Lead Investigator, Merkle Science - Moderator
- Urszula McCormack, Partner, King & Wood Mallesons
- Alessio Quaglini, CEO, HEX Trust
- Jehan Chu, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kenetic
Topics discussed:
- Current regulatory environment for virtual asset businesses in Hong Kong
2020-07-1929 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #47 - Ryukichi Sakuta, Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial AdvisorySakuta-san is leading venture finance advisory business in Japan at Deloitte Tohmatasu, supporting startup fund raising and M&A as well as the corporate venturing journey of large global corporates.
In this conversation, we are taking a health check on the Japanese venture capital and corporate venture capital ecosystem, and Sakuta-san explains how he sees VCs and CVCs responding differently to the pandemic. We dive deeper into the differences between Japanese VCs/CVCs and their Western counterparts, what technology areas and geographical regions Japanese investors are currently focused on, and why it does not hurt to be...
2020-07-1023 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #46 - William Baber, Kyoto UniversityWilliam W. Baber has combined education with business throughout his career. His professional experience has included economic development in the State of Maryland, language services in the Washington, DC, area, supporting business starters in Japan, and teaching business students in Japan, Europe, and Canada. He taught English in the Economics and Business Administration Departments of Ritsumeikan University, Japan, before joining the Graduate School of Management at Kyoto University, where he is an associate professor, in addition to holding courses at University of Vienna and University of Jyväskylä.
The book "Transforming Japanese Business", which Will co-authored and co-ed...
2020-07-0837 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #45 - InsurTech in APAC, Global InsurTech Alliance (GITA)The Global Insurtech Alliance was formed to represent leading insurtech ecosystems across the globe. We all share a common purpose, to create a global ecosystem for insurtech to thrive within. In this first Global InsurTech Alliance (GITA) event, we focused the discussion around insurtech across the Asia Pacific region and includes representatives from:
George Kesselman, President and Founder Insurtech Asia
Jason Roberts, Founder Insurtech NZ
Rita Yates, CEO and Co-Founder Insurtech Australia
Kai Dwyer, CEO and Co-Founder Vallum.Insure as Panel Moderator
We covered topics including:
An Intro...
2020-06-1931 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #44 - Marta Allina, Seoul StartupsMarta is the Founder of Seoul Startups, an international community partner of Tokyo FinTech, leading a startup community in Korea with an online and an offline presence, and currently more than 1,300 members.
Having experienced Korea as a child when her father became a diplomat in post-communism Poland, Marta wanted to spread her wings upon graduating, returned to the country on a Korean government-sponsored scholarship program - and has never left. Joining Samsung Electronics upon graduation, after passing the regular strict recruitment tests, Marta became a model employee, excelling at the Samsung company song & dance in front of...
2020-06-1623 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #43 - Hena Mehta, BasisHena Mehta is the Founder & CEO of Basis, a first-of-its-kind company focused on the financial independence of (initially) Indian women. Basis is building a digital platform powered by tailored financial content, engaged communities and curated services and products for women.
Hena talks about her own experience as the motivation behind Basis, the target market of professional, well-educated, young women in India's metropolitan areas, and how conversations about money differ depending on whether men are present or not. Hena explains why the Indian market is considered so complex. We also take a look at the Indian startup ecosystem...
2020-06-1230 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #42 - Gustav & Johan, FintechpoddenViking alert! Gustaf Hård af Segerstad and Johan Lindskog are the podcast host for Fintechpodden, one of the leading shows in the Nordics. What better people to talk to about the Swedish and Nordics FinTech ecosystem overall?
Gustaf and Johan talk about the cashless society, how the government has made small interventions to introduce a little bit of friction back into the purchasing process to protect people from taking on too much debt, how open banking and its extension to other industries drives transparency and innovative business models, and what the Swedish central bank is doing ab...
2020-06-0927 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #41 - Jenna Huey Ching, FortNynjaRanked multiple times among the Top 100 Women in FinTech globally, and one of the absolute top voices for FinTech in Malaysia, Jenna is the Co-Founder of FortNynja, a cyber security startup. Previously, she was responsible, as part of the digital government initiative, for drafting the FinTech strategy for Malaysia. Jenna is passionate about making Fintech education available more broadly, and is one of the initiators of the E-Fintech School, which will run during July for 100 participants across the APAC region. Registrations are open until June 15 at the following link: https://efintechschool.peatix.com/ Participation is free once you get...
2020-06-0529 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #40 - David Gurle, SymphonyDavid is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Symphony, the secure collaboration platform focused on global markets. David’s ideas have influenced the major trends in consumer and enterprise communications and most recently secure collaboration technologies over the past two decades. He founded and ran Microsoft’s unified communications products (Skype for Business) and as Global Head of Collaboration Services at Thomson Reuters, introduced the first consumer-to-business federated communications to the financial services industry. After the sale of Skype to Microsoft where he was the GM of Skype’s Enterprise Business, David founded and sold Perzo before founding Symphony.
...
2020-06-0329 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #39 - Assaf Marco, Sompo Cyber SecurityAssaf Marco is a General Manager and leading the Product Strategy team at Sompo Cyber Security, a fully owned subsidiary of one of the three Japanese Mega Insurers. As such, Assaf is responsible for pre-sales, marketing and technical services development. Prior to his current position, Assaf had served in the Israeli Embassy in Japan as a Senior Commercial Officer promoting and developing the Japanese market for the Israeli security industry and took key part in strengthening the partnership between Israel and Japan in the homeland security and cyber security fields. Assaf shares his perspective on the global cyber security...
2020-06-0224 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #38 - Kristof De Spiegeleer, ThreeFold FoundationKristof is a passionate serial entrepreneur with six exits under his belt. He believes that respect & transparency is the basis for solid business, and that doing good for the world & providing return for investors can co-exist. One of the most exciting, and best hidden secrets so far, the ThreeFold Foundation builds the infrastructure for the new internet, and internet that empowers equality, autonomy and sustainability.
Equality - ThreeFold's peer-to-peer Internet is available everywhere and owned by everyone - across geographical and cultural borders. Everyone has equal chances to learn, partake and succeed.
Autonomy - ThreeFold is d...
2020-05-2931 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #37 - Martin Kassing, UpvestMartin is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Upvest, a FinTech startup providing the first pan-European securities account API. Upvest is a BAFIN-licensed (the German financial services regulator) custodian and enables any neo broker to offer securities accounts to their end users instantly in their apps.
We talk to Martin about:
- His journey from venture capitalist early in his career to founder
- Why good founders pivot fast
- The importance of choosing the right customers
- The economics of issuance on custody in a regulated blockchain business m...
2020-05-2729 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #36 - Mikaal Abdulla, SoFi (formerly 8 Securities)Mikaal is the SVP, International at SoFi, a finance company based in San Francisco that offers a range of lending and wealth management services to Millennials, after 8 Securities, which he founded and was the Chief Executive Officer of, got acquired in April. This was SoFi's first international acquisition.
Launched in 2012 in Hong Kong with zero-commission securities trading as the proposition (so this was even one year before Robinhood, commonly seen as the North Star of zero-fee trading, started), 8 Securities shortly afterwards launched an operation in Japan. Mikaal shares his experience of working across two cultures, and what h...
2020-05-2636 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #35 - David Packham, Founder & CEO at EOS42 & ChintaiChintai started off as a community contribution by EOS42, one of the early EOS block producers, to provide an effective marketplace for token leasing. On EOS, the tokens that you hold allow you to use bandwidth on the network. Rather than tying up your capital by purchasing token, Chintai supports the idea that you can just lease them (for a fee, of course).
Since presenting at the Tokyo FinTech Meetup for the first time in April 2018, David and his team have generalized the Chintai technology and turned the company into a B2B FinTech service provider for i...
2020-05-1933 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #34 - Parissa Haghirian, Sophia UniversityParissa Haghirian is Professor of Japanese Management at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. She has lived and worked in Japan since 2004 and is an internationally renowned expert in international management practices with a focus on Japan. Professor Haghirian earned an MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Vienna in 1999 followed by an MA and PhD in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in 2000 and 2003 respectively.
Together with her students, she has compiled the book "Japanese Management Concepts You Should Know", which is available for download from her website: https://www.haghirian...
2020-05-1638 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #33 - Matt McKibbin, DecentraNetMatt is the Founder & Chief Decentralization Officer at DecentraNet, where he is working on the Monetary Reformation. As an analogy, he views the Reformation as the open sourcing & forking of Christianity. The Catholic Church still exists today, but you do not have to use them. The Monetary Reformation will do the same to central bank money.
We also talk about a data-centric future, where you own your data, a cause that is greatly advanced by Brittany Kaiser's suitably named Own Your Data Foundation. We touch upon PegNet, founded by David Johnston based on the Factom protocol, and c...
2020-05-1429 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #32 - Shaul David, RailsbankRailsbank was co-founded by Nigel Verdon, who also founded Currencycloud - the most famous FinTech startup that nobody has ever heard of, as its engine powers Revolut, Monzo and Starling Bank, among others. Railsbank is taking a similar trajectory in enabling any company to become a FinTech.
We talk with Shaul David, Head of Growth, and previously in a role as a FinTech Sector Specialist with the Department for International Trade (DIT) of the UK Government, where he also promoted London as a FinTech hub to Japanese financial services players. We define what the "invisibility cloak" implies, h...
2020-05-1328 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #31 - Go Masuda, Japan Security Token Association (JSTA)Masuda-san is the Chairman of the Japan Security Token Association (JSTA) and the Chief Operating Officer at Blockchain Hub. Previously, he also worked at SMBC, one of Japan's three megabanks, where he was setting up an Innovation Lab in Silicon Valley. We talk about the recent changes in crypto assets and digital securities regulation in Japan, how we expect the market to react to those rules that came into effect only on May 1, 2020, as well as the role the JSTA has to play in adoption, and how that contrasts with the Japan Securities Token Offering Association (JSTOA), the self-regulatory...
2020-05-0822 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #30 - Fabrizio Villani, FintasticoFabrizio is the Co-Founder & Head of Growth at Fintastico, curating a comprehensive database of of FinTech services and FinTech news to address the financial needs of consumers, retailers, enterprises and financial institutions, with a primary focus on European and North American FinTech startups. Following their recent funding round, they are working hard to become a FinTech aggregator, leveraging Open APIs to create a consumer-centric one-stop-shop for all things FinTech.
As an Italian who studied in Amsterdam and moved into a FinTech job in Barcelona in 2013, quite a bit of our conversation centers around the Italian and Spanish...
2020-05-0530 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #29 - Luc Falempin, TokenyLuc is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tokeny Solutions, a Luxembourg-based software vendor building an full lifecycle platform to issue, manage and transfer tokenized securities, such as tokenized loans, structured notes, equity and funds, in a compliant way, allowing companies operating in private markets to benefit from using blockchain technology.
Technically built on the Ethereum protocol, and hence leveraging the vast ecosystem of engineering talent as well as of existing wallets, Tokeny shields the implementation details from the user by providing pre-defined business processes. Primarily, the components are a compliant issuance solution (cloud platform to is...
2020-05-0432 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #28 - Ganesh Iyer, DotinDotin taps into the subconscious mind through colours and contrasts to develop personality profiles that create greater certainty in hiring decisions, identifying top talent within the organization, and help the organization develop the right professional development plan around an individual, all based on science originally developed in Japan in the mid-1980s, and still in use at all major marketing agencies.
You can perform the one minute assessment free of charge at the following link: https://hrtool.dotin.us/registration
Dotin is a Business to Business (B2B) SaaS decision-making Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform that al...
2020-05-0327 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #27 - David Brear, 11:FSDavid is the Group CEO of 11:FS, a challenger consultancy that builds and launches next generation digital propositions for some of the biggest banks in the world. They believe that digital banking is 1% done and that digital reform is needed to improve systems and services for banks and their customers. David's co-founder was part of the founding team at Monzo and Starling, and 11:FS has worked with the likes of Standard Chartered and NatWest, among others, on digital propositions.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and wo...
2020-04-2438 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #26 - Makoto Shibata, FINOLABWe refer to Shibata-san as the "Godfather of FinTech in Japan", not in a Mario Puzo sense (you won't find the head of a horse next to you when waking up), but because of the influence Shibata-san had in shaping many careers and mentoring so many of the startups in the overall ecosystem. Also a sought-after speaker and panelists at conferences in Japan and abroad, we were delighted that the pandemic allowed us to find some time to take a 360 degree view on the hot FinTech topics in Japan.
So beyond some general commentary on the health o...
2020-04-2232 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #25 - Algorand & MoonstakeFor the first time, we welcome two guests to the podcast: Haichao Zhu, Associate Director at the Algorand Foundation, and Alex Hui, Director at Moonstake and Co-Founding Chairman at the APAC Blockchain Association.
With Haichao, we discuss Algorand's Pure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol, the features of Algorand 2.0, namely Algorand Standard Assets (ASA), Atomic Transfers and Algorand Smart Contracts at Layer 1 (ASC1), and the latest development with the so-called Co-Chains.
The research document mentioned on the podcast can be found at the following link: http://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/stanford-blockchain-conference/2020/no-incentive/
From Alex, we learn h...
2020-04-1635 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #24 - Kyle Ellicott, Topio Networks - Part IIKyle Ellicott is a Founder, Investor and Analyst deeply involved with Blockchain and Open Finance. We had such an extensive conversation that we will publish it in two parts. In this episode, we round out our discussion on digital identity & authentication, debate friction vs frictionless financial services, and cover robustness and resilience in light of the Robinhood and MakerDAO issues during "Black Thursday".
Kyle is a Co-Founder of ReadWrite and Topio Networks as well as the Chief Labs Officer of ReadWrite Labs. He is also a noted TEDx and global keynote speaker, strategist, published author, & technologist with...
2020-04-1431 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #23 - Kyle Ellicott, Topio Networks - Part IKyle Ellicott is a Founder, Investor and Analyst deeply involved with Blockchain and Open Finance. We had such an extensive conversation that we will publish it in two parts. In this episode, we cover some of Kyle's background, his perspective on the evolution of the FinTech and Open Finance ecosystems over the last decade, the case for targeted efforts on financial literacy, and the urgent need for a reliable digital identity.
Kyle is a Co-Founder of ReadWrite and Topio Networks as well as the Chief Labs Officer of ReadWrite Labs. He is also a noted TEDx and g...
2020-04-1042 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #22 - Benjamin Tsai, Wave FinancialWe welcome our first returnee to the podcast, Benjamin Tsai, President & Managing Partner at Wave Financial, a digital asset management company based in Los Angeles.
Having been a close observer of the Japanese crypto markets, Ben shares his perspective on the developments in the securities token market in Japan. We then discuss Wave's second product launched in November 2019, the Bitcoin Income & Growth Fund, taking advantage of the developing derivatives markets, in particular the option markets, for crypto assets. Last but not least, hitting the headlines over the last week, Wave's announcement of a new whiskey fund, tokenizing K...
2020-04-0148 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #21 - Michael O'Loughlin, TokenIn our latest episode of the Tokyo FinTech Podcast, we welcome as our guest Michael O'Loughlin, the token Irishman in Berlin. Actually, the Token Irishman in Berlin, where he is the Managing Director of Global Solutions, putting a bank in every app.
Founded by Steve Kirsch, who invented and patented an early version of the optical mouse, and had his biggest exit as an entrepreneur with the sale of Infoseek, Token is the industry’s leading open banking infrastructure provider. Token is creating the digital connectivity shaping the future of banking-enabled commerce.
Token’s open bankin...
2020-03-2648 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #20 - Mohamed Roushdy, Dubai Asset ManagementMohamed Roushdy is among the most well-known Chief Information Officers in the Middle East, and after having previously achieved "CIO of the Year" honors, was just recognized as a "Digital Leader" by CXO Insights. Mohamed has built multiple banking startups, and is currently the CIO for Dubai Asset Management, a holding company focused on developing, acquiring and managing a diverse portfolio of for-rent residential communities.
Dubai AM has been the first company to implement UAE Pass for digital signature of all legal contracts. UAE Pass is the first national digital identity and signature solution that enables users...
2020-03-2543 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #19 - Hayato Kameta, ZweispaceBefore founding Zweispace, Kameta-san was CEO of ARK Asset Management, the fund arm of Openhouse, and previously at the legendary Century21 world wide #1 real estate company in Tokyo's Shibuya district. With Zweispace, he looks to digitalize the real estate industry, by applying analytics to the valuation process, assessing earthquake robustness with IoT sensors, and putting the necessary documentation onto the blockchain. Kameta-san's ultimate goal is to re-create a real estate-based/backed financial system. Zweispace has just been accepted into the Plug & Play accelerator program in California, and is one of a few Japanese startups looking at markets globally at...
2020-03-2236 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #18 - Charles Hoskinson, Input Output HKCharles Hoskinson, CEO of Input Output HK and creator of the Cardano blockchain protocol, had a passionate response when asked about his Twitter fights with Dan Larimer during a recent Tokyo FinTech Meetup. This is only a short excerpt of almost two hours of opening comments and Q&A, which you can find in full length on our YouTube channel. We had the honor to host Charles three times in Tokyo over the last two years, this last appearance was in mid-2019.
Charles' Opening Comments
https://youtu.be/4vx-c-7kNC0
Charles Q&A Part I...
2020-03-2005 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #17 - Arne Peder Blix, AccA InvestHaving come to Japan initially as an 11-year old on a school exchange program, Arne has been an admirer of Japan all his life. An illustrious career as submarine officer, shipping executive, FinTech founder & investor later, he has just spent a week in Tokyo, joining a Nordic delegation also including members from Denmark, Estonia, Sweden and Finland, to take a closer look at the startup & investment ecosystem.
We discuss - of course - Arne's career, and very quickly get carried away on discussions about politeness and respect (still plentiful to be found in Japan), the need to l...
2020-03-1150 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #16 - Nicolas Michelon, Asia Intelligence AdvisoryNicolas Michelon is the Founder of Asia Intelligence Advisory and an Editor of Asia Power Watch. He is speaking frequently at conferences and corporate events about geopolitical trends, economic power and competitive intelligence, with a specific focus on Europe/Asia relationships.
In this episode, that as an exception is neither Fin- nor -Tech, we evaluate the Carlos Ghosn case from an economic warfare perspective, speculate as to the future of the Renault/Nissan alliance, including future options especially on the Japanese side, as well as for the broader France/Japan trade relationship. We also take a look a...
2020-03-0742 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #15 - The Asian Century: How to Build a Thriving FinTech HubThis session of the Global FinTech Index Briefings features FinTech Australia, FinTechNZ and Tokyo FinTech. Re-broadcast with kind permission by Findexable.
In December 2019 Findexable launched the Global FinTech Index City Rankings 2020, the first fully global ranking of FinTech ecosystems – across more than 230 cities, 65 countries and over 7,000 fintech companies. Join the GFI Briefings to hear from FinTech disruptors and innovators and to learn what it takes to build a thriving hub that supports growth, attracts investment and engages with regulators to create a competitive and fair landscape for FinTech.
The Speakers
Simon Hardie, Co-founder and CE...
2020-03-0152 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #14 - Nir Netzer, FinTech-AvivNir Netzer is the Chairman of the Board for FinTech-Aviv, the Israeli FinTech Association, a highly valued Community Partner for Tokyo FinTech.
With their Annual Summit just behind them, it was an excellent time to catch up with Nir and to discuss:
- Startup Nation Israel
- The strength of the Israeli FinTech sector, also in comparison with startups in other industries
- How Israeli startups are looking at the opportunities abroad
- The origin and motivation behind FinTech-Aviv
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you...
2020-02-2330 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #12 - Meetup with the FSA (Japanese)On January 16, the FinTech Association of Japan held a meetup with the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the financial regulator in Japan. The FSA updated on a variety of regulatory initiatives, including cryptocurrencies, ICOs and STOs.
This presentation is in Japanese
The slides accompanying the presentation are available from our Medium Publication: medium.com/tokyo-fintech/meetu…slides-827056079a8b
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com
You ca...
2020-02-1614 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #13 - Yuki Kishi, Plug and Play JapanYuki Kishi has been the FinTech Director for Plug and Play Japan since its inaugural startup batch two years ago. Since the beginning of 2020, he is also responsible for Brand & Retail. Listen in on this episode to learn... - Yuki's advice for startups entering the Japanese market - What to expect when working with Japanese corporates - More about the startup that Yuki found most impressive over this two year period - How much Yuki values his personal and professional network!
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our...
2020-02-1632 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #11 - Ryan Lackey, Tezos FoundationRyan Lackey, Chief Security Officer at the Tezos Foundation, came straight from a red eye flight from Bangkok to talk to us about his career, the role of the Tezos Foundation, governance in the crypto/blockchain world, and some of the largest projects that are under way with Tezos in Thailand and Brazil, for example.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com
You can also find us on....
Home...
2020-01-2133 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #10 - Sopnendu Mohanty, Monetary Authority of SingaporeSopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the financial services regulator, kindly gave us the opportunity for a brief interview during his recent visit to Tokyo.
We talk about the FinTech innovation ecosystem in Singapore, ASEAN and Japan, the upcoming Singapore FinTech Festival, APIX as an open innovation platform, and how regulators might respond to the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech...
2019-10-1011 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #9 - So Saito, So & Sato Innovative LawyersWith So Saito, one of Japan's most prominent FinTech lawyers supporting several high-profile blockchain & crypto companies, as well as other startups, we discussed ICO and STO regulation in Japan, stablecoins and Libra.
There are significant changes coming in the regulatory environment over the next nine months, so please tune in!
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com
You can also find us on....
Home Page: https://tokyofintech...
2019-07-2429 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #8 - Alex Topaloski, pulse iDThe cashless payment wars are on. Millions are being spent on rewards and loyalty programs, in Japan and in markets across Asia, by the competing payment platforms.
pulse is an identity platform that provides seamless customer recognition, payment geo-validation & contextual engagement for banks, telcos and media organizations, allowing them to differentiate themselves.
With Alex Topaloski, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, we talk about his payments journey over the last decade, the emerging convergence of loyalty & payments, and how much fun it is to be an entrepreneur!
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you...
2019-07-1243 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #7 - Jose Casanueva, Electronic IDentificationThe accelerator program by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), the FinTech Business Camp Tokyo 2019, is open for applications until July 5 at the following link: www.senryaku.metro.tokyo.jp/bdc_tokyo/e…intech2019/
Jose Casanueva from Electronic IDentification has lead the company's effort as part of the 2018 accelerator program, and shares his experience. You will not be surprised to hear that he highly recommends it for anyone considering a Japanese market entry.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on th...
2019-06-2415 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #6 - Benjamin Tsai, Wave FinancialBenjamin Tsai is the President & Managing Partner of Wave Financial, a Los Angeles-based asset management firm focused on the cryptocurrency space, providing asset management products for high net worth and institutional investors. Ben shares his view on how the development of the crypto markets will mirror traditional markets, which requires the development of passive strategies and derivative products. Ben also focuses specifically on the securitization of hard assets. The benefits of securitizing whiskey are made very clear during our conversation.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience...
2019-06-2339 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #5 - Thomas Glucksmann, DiginexThomas Glucksmann is the Head of Data Management Solutions at Diginex, a leading provider of enterprise blockchain solutions, where he is focused on product management for a suite of blockchain enhanced Data Integrity solutions for corporations, governments and NPOs.
Going beyond the hype and the crypto markets, our conversation centered around real-world use cases that government agencies and corporations are deploying today, for example in helping to secure the rights of migrant workers, and identifying fraud. We hope you enjoy listening to the discussion as much as we enjoyed recording it.
Produced in collaboration with...
2019-06-2147 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #4 - Makoto Takemiya, SoramitsuTakemiya-san is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Soramitsu, the gem among Japanese blockchain companies. Founded in 2016, the company's blockchain technology, Iroha, was accepted by the Hyperledger under the Linux Foundation's governance by November that year, complementing Fabric, Sawtooth Lake, and other potential projects by creating reusable components in C++ that can be called from languages such as Go. Just a few weeks ago, the Web3 Foundation has released a grant to Soramitsu to develop a Polkadot runtime environment in C++.
In between these two milestones were several implementations with the likes of Rakuten (for KYC...
2019-06-081h 02
eXponential FinanceEpisode #3 - Harumi Urata-Thompson, HUT ConsultingHaving started her career as the first woman on the Fixed Income Trading Desk at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, Harumi has pursued a fascinating path across three continents, including roles in digital & innovation, fintech and space. We talk about the blockchain and crypto ecosystems in Tokyo, New York and the Bahamas, Harumi's space venture, and of course about diversity & inclusion in finance, technology and fintech.
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com
2019-04-1137 min
eXponential FinanceEpisode #2 - Travis Kling, Ikigai Asset ManagementIn our second episode of the Tokyo FinTech Podcast, we welcome Travis Kling, Founder & Chief Investment Officer of Ikigai Asset Management, who discusses his journey to becoming a crypto fund manager, why crypto will be the best performing asset class for years to come, the Fed and......Johnny Football!
Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech. If you have an interesting story to share with our audience, and would like to appear on the podcast, please contact us via podcast@tokyofintech.com
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2019-04-0551 min