Frontier Fintech Podcast
Nat Wittayatanaseth
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The definitive voice on Fintech in Asia. Bridging CeFi and DeFi and connecting Asian Fintech companies to the rest of the world.
Available episodes
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Jul 22, 2022
EP33 Josh Fraser - Origin Protocol - Bringing DeFi and NFT to the masses
_Josh 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) for artists and getting 3LAU and Paris Hilton as advisors
*How OriginDollar is an innovative take on stablecoin
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Jul 21, 2022
EP32 Tayo and Tansaya - Bank of Thailand - Central Bank Digital Currency
_Tayo 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.
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Jun 27, 2022
EP31 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 all about “why investing in U.S. stocks is so hard for non-Americans” at #FrontierFintech Podcast.
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Mar 17, 2022
EP30 Sherry Jiang - Bluejay Finance - What Local Stablecoins Need is a DeFi Summer Moment
_Sherry 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 building Bluejay to provide a seamless way for people in Southeast Asia to use Web3.
We talked about Local Currency Stablecoins and more at #FrontierFintechPodcast:
*Why do we need local currency stablecoins
*What are the challenges for local stablecoins to take off
*What is Bluejay doing differently than others
*How does Bluejay solve the liquidity issue?
*What will be the catalysts for local stablecoin adoption
*When will the market be ready for this
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Mar 6, 2022
EP29 Amrita Vir - Grab - Financial system isn’t fair to people who are just making a living
_Amrita 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 SEA.
We talked all about “financial access and inclusion” and more at #FrontierFintech Podcast:
*Challenges of microfinance in SEA vs US
*Data availability and collection infrastructure as prerequisites for digital lending
*The missing pieces of digital lending in SEA
*How to improve financial health, not just financial access
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Feb 28, 2022
EP28 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 and stock markets around the world. With increasing cross-border e-commerce trades, sellers are forced to quote prices in foreign currency. The problem is you don’t know when the product will sell, hence, the FX risk falls on the sellers. Sellers markup a lot more than usual and the ultimate losers are the consumers.
Wouldn’t it be better if the platform takes care of that and ensures sellers’ bottom line is fixed? That is what M-DAQ does. It gives power back to consumers by giving power to sellers.
We talked all about foreign exchange amidst the cross-border world and more at #frontierfintechpodcast:
*How M-DAQ helps sellers sell goods in foreign currency
*How buyers can get refunds at the same rate after 3 months of purchase
*How M-DAQ does this at ⅙ of the banks with 3 months’ guarantee
*The role of FX and e-commerce
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Feb 24, 2022
EP27 [Bonus!] 3 Peas in a Pod-Cast: NFT Party
Welcome 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 started on NFT. We talked all about:
*What to look for when evaluating which NFT to buy
*How to start buying your first NFT
*What scam techniques are out there
*NFT fraud vs. pop culture
About our hosts:
*_Nat Wittayatanaseth_ is the founder of _Frontier Fintech Podcast_ and an angel-operator in Web3
*_Jason Tay_ is the a prolific fintech moderator and the Regional Director Of Business Development at M-DAQ Global
*_Diana Shih_ is the founder of _The Curious About Podcast_ and a marketer in Web3
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Feb 19, 2022
EP26 Iwan Kurniawan - Funding Societies - What’s next for P2P lending in SEA
_Iwan 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 advantageous
*Is lending business in SEA saturated yet
*What’s next for P2P lending in SEA
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Feb 16, 2022
EP25 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 about the fintech landscape in SEA and more:
*Fintech revolution in SEA
*The holy trinity of consumer fintech companies
*Why consumer fintech companies should be a media company
*Community as the new approach for marketing
*Regulatory hurdles for fintech vs banks
*Market gap Samir wishes someone would tackle: lending for healthcare and personal financial management app for debt
*Insurance exclusions and opportunities in insurtech
About Insignia Ventures
_Insignia Ventures Partners_ is an early-stage technology venture capital firm with US$450 million+ AUM partnering with unstoppable founders to build great companies in Southeast Asia. Since 2017, we have invested in 70+ emerging technology companies across industries and geographies in the region, including unicorns Carro, Ajaib, GoTo, and Appier, and category leaders including Payfazz, Shipper, tonik, and Flip. We partner early with founders and support them from seed through growth stage as their companies create meaningful impact for millions of people in Southeast Asia and beyond. With our team of 30+ investment and operating professionals who bring together decades of experience and proprietary networks, we equip our founders with the tools they need for growth. Learn more on our _website_ and _Insignia Business Review_. Follow us on _LinkedIn_, _Instagram_, and _Twitter_.
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Feb 13, 2022
EP24 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 transactions and gig economy payments.
We covered all about #talent and more:
*Remote first culture: The why, the issues, the process, the culture
*Why every employee should be an HR person
*Why there’s no lack of talent and how companies can augment process to get the right talent
*How to avoid the great resignation
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Feb 9, 2022
EP23 Ryan Chew - Tribe Accelerator - Crypto & defi could be the backbone of the metaverse
_Ryan 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 #FrontierFintechAsia:
*How Tribe is bridging the gap between blockchain startups & corporate
*How enterprise is adopting blockchain technology
*Is the metaverse hype or here to stay
*Why decentralization is a crucial for the metaverse
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Feb 5, 2022
EP22 Raymond Hsu - Cabital - Earn High Yields from Crypto without the Crazy
_Raymon 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 that no one should be left behind when it came to innovation in financial services. _Cabital_ is backed by leading global funds, such as _SIG Susquehanna_, _Dragonfly Capital_, and _GSR Ventures_.
We covered in-depth about earning yields on DeFi:
*What’s behind the high yields in DeFi
*How can you get high yields without the downside risks
*The role of stablecoins in DeFi yields
*How DeFi will evolve going forward…
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Jan 26, 2022
EP21 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 into college at the age of 15. When he graduated, like many of us, he didn’t know what to do. One thing he knew was he wanted to make a ‘big impact’ and starting a company would allow him to do that. At 17, he joined _Zillow_ as an early employee and helped the company grow from 13 to 300 people. He then left to start his own company at 21.
Those companies failed, but the lessons he learned paved the way for Divvy Homes, a company that reflects his pas…
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Jan 20, 2022
EP20 U-Zyn Chua - Co-Founder of DeFi Chain - Building DeFi infrastructure on Bitcoin blockchain
U-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 more:
*Why Bitcoin is an attractive and secure infrastructure for DeFi
*Trade-offs for using Bitcoin blockchain for DeFi
*How DeFi Chain provide infrastructure for DeFi protocols to be built on Bitcoin
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Nov 18, 2021
EP19 Jeffery Liu - CEO & Co-founder of Xanpool - Anyone can turn themselves into money changers and earn fees
_Jeffery 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 facilitating the settlements without having to do anything.
We talked about:
*The mechanics behind Xanpool
*How you can participate and earn yields from your idle cash
*The future of payments
*Why CBDC will accelerate crypto adoption (and more!)
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Nov 1, 2021
EP18 - Vidit Agrawal - CEO and Co-founder of Gajigesa - Solving financial challenges for blue-collar workers
_Vidit 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:
*How Gajigesa is helping help blue-collar workers across Indonesia
*How does earned wage access work on the backend
*How does Gajigesa positively contribute to employers and companies
*The future of earned wage access in SEA
*Challenges of starting a company amidst the pandemic
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Oct 24, 2021
EP17 Stephane de Baets - Founder of Elevated Returns & XSpring - Hedge your future spending with tokenized assets
_Stephane 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 challenges behind the world’s first real estate tokenization
*Why tokenization is more attractive than REITs
*Why this is the right time for asset tokenization
*How to overcome the liquidity problem
*Why people will hold assets for payments instead of cash which is a value-losing cash
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Oct 10, 2021
EP16 - Samuel Rhee - Founding Partner & CIO of Endowus - Cost is what you should focus on if you invest for the long-term
_Samuel 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 co-found Endowus.
We talked about “The Future of Wealth Management” covering:
*How roboadvisory platforms are not solving the problem of low-cost investments
*How funds and brokers make money and what makes Endowus different
*Why the distribution model in wealth management should change
*How Endowus finds yields for customers
*The biggest generational challenge our society faces
*How Endowus bridges the gap…
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Oct 3, 2021
EP15 - Michael Shaulov - CEO of Fireblocks - We’re in the Early Adopters phase of institutional adoption
_Michael 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 asset transfers and is trusted by the world’s top banks and institutions, including BNY Mellon and Siam Commercial Bank.
Other areas of discussion:
*What’s needed for institutions to adopt crypto?
*How much capital is sitting on the sideline?
*What is the infrastructure that institutions need to adopt crypto
*Where we are i…
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Sep 30, 2021
EP14 - Ian Lee - Associate Director of Merkle Science - There’s no way to stop people from using Bitcoin
_Ian 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 crypto
*The effect of AML and crypto adoption
*The need for coordination between the regulatory bodies on a global scale
*Southeast Asian regulators’ stance on crypto
*How Merkle Science help regulators protect against AML issues
*What we need to do to promote crypto usage while keeping regulators happy
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Sep 26, 2021
EP13 - Rohit Taneja - CEO of Decentro - Money is just bits and bytes on someone’s ledger
_Rohit 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 watershed moment for embedded finance in India, what does it take for SEA to have embedded finance, why the government needs to move fast in providing unified cross-border payment rails at #FrontierFintechPodcast.
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Sep 12, 2021
EP 12 - Willie Chang - CEO Hg Exchange - Southeast Asia’s first Tokenized Asset Exchange
_Willie 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 exchange.
We covered all about how HGX works, listing requirements, and the future of tokenized assets at #AsianFintechPodcast.
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Sep 5, 2021
EP 11 - Beryl Chavez Li - co-Founder Yield Guild Games - Bringing Players Together to Earn via Blockchain-Based Economies
_Beryl 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 stop there and she later founded YGG with _Gabby Dixon _when they both noticed that Filipinos in Cabanatuan in the Philippines were converting NFTs earned from playing Axie Infinity into fiat money to put food on the table.
YGG helps anyone get access to play-to-earn games by renting out the in-game assets for players. YGG is on a mission to help players earn a living in times of crisis by playing games in the metaverse and support game developers ea…
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Aug 29, 2021
EP 10 - Guillaume Le Saint - CEO Atato - Secure Computing Operating System
_Guillaume__ __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 secure properties to the internet like never before.
Atato is building tools for businesses and people to interact with secure computing. As more applications use secure computing, Atato starts with custody because the standard of secure computing today is token, but it aims to facilitate access to different applications in the future.
We covered all about the internet vs Web 3.0, challenges of today’s blockchain technolog…
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Aug 22, 2021
EP 09 - Earl Martin Valencia - Plentina - Unlock Financial Services for Billions with BNPL
_Earl 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.
_Plentina _is providing credit card-like experience to the underserved in emerging markets, allowing them to buy everyday purchases, build a credit history, and learn responsible borrowing so that one day they will get access to formal financial services.
“This is the first time in history that someone can build a credit history with just $2.”
We covere…
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Aug 14, 2021
EP 08 - Pelle Brændgaard - Notabene - Bridging Crypto to Real World Use Cases
_Pelle 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 cryptography to build financial products on top of the internet. When bitcoin was born, the members of that group became the people who built a lot of the core technology on top of Bitcoin.
Pelle views that blockchain technology is very close to where he’d imagined it’d be today vs. a decade ago and he’s never been as excited as before. The reason behind his enth…
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Aug 8, 2021
EP 07 - Chia Jeng Yang - Fintech Angel Operators - Southeast Asia’s First Fintech Angel Group
_Chia 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 name a few.
Realizing that the future belongs to founders and operators, he co-founded _Fintech Angel Operators_ to provide operational advice and network for fintech founders in Southeast Asia.
We covered all about Southeast Asia’s fintech trends here at #AsianFintechPodcast.
This podcast also comes with a special treat on SEA Fintech Landscape from _Xfers _and _Saison Capital_ _here_.
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Aug 2, 2021
EP 06 - Pang Xue Kai - Founder and CEO of Tokocrypto - Indonesia's First Cryptocurrency Exchange
_Pang Xue Ka_i 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 Farming Pool and NFT Arcade, while BIDR, as an Indonesian rupiah-pegged stablecoin, will be the medium for Indonesians to participate in DeFi for greater financial inclusion.
We covered all about the Indonesian crypto landscape, the integration of CeDeFi, and founder lessons here at #AsianFintechPodcast. @tkobytokocrypto #TKObyTokocrypto #SalamToTheMoon
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Jul 25, 2021
EP 05 - Hayden Simmons - Founder of Rally Cap Ventures - Emerging Market FinTech
_Hayden 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 scale, you need to be creative about economics.”
We covered all about the challenges of first-time fund managers, trends in emerging markets’ FinTech, the impact of YC on startups, and expansion strategies at #AsianFintechPodcast.
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Jul 12, 2021
EP 04 - Khai Lin Sng - co-Founder and CIO of Fundnel - Democratize Private Capital Markets
_Khai 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 private companies and PE/VC funds from more than 15,000 investors across the world.
We covered all about how technology enables Fundnel to screen and match thousands of deals in a year, how blockchain plays a role in allowing retail investors to invest in private shares, and how tech companies can facilitate secondary shares for employees.
We covered all about democratizing…
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Jun 26, 2021
EP 03 - Felix Feng - Co-Founder and CEO at Set Protocol - We Will See the Two Worlds Converge
The 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 the power of the internet and how it transformed people’s lives. He saw the same properties of the internet in Bitcoin, believing that Blockchain and distributed ledger technology can reinvent the financial services industry. Fast forward to today, Felix believes that the future of financial services will be one that is decentralized and accessible for everyone globally.
“Once people upload their assets, they don’t bring it back to the trad…
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Jun 26, 2021
EP 02 - Diego Rojas - Co-Founder & CEO at Finantier - Transforming People's Lives Every Day
The 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 that was missing in Southeast Asia.
“At Finantier, we wake up, ready to work, and think about how we’re transforming people’s lives every day.”
What is Open Finance? Is Southeast Asia ready? How does Finantier overcome the chicken-and-egg problem of getting data providers and data consumers? How can banks and FinTech companies leverage Finantier?
We had an in-depth discussion abou…
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Jun 26, 2021
EP 01 - Sharon Lourdes Paul - Head of Regional Payments (Southeast Asia), Xfers - Accessibility Means Being There At Every Touchpoint
The 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 crypto in payment interoperability? Why does financial inclusion matter to her, Xfers, and Fazz Financial Group?
We discussed Southeast Asia’s payment rails in detail and the role of crypto in facilitating payments in this inaugural episode of #AsianFintechPodcast.
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