The Green Room | Fintech Journeys in Asia

In this episode, I speak with Zach Marks, co-founder and CEO of Jia, a fintech leveraging blockchain for receivables financing for businesses in Kenya and the Philippines. Zach has spent his career working in emerging markets, beginning with teaching English in India after college to development consulting in South Sudan. After building and selling his first tech company, an online jobs marketplace, Zach got into fintech when he joined Tala. He spent more than 5 years building and expanding Tala’s consumer lending products across 4 continents, after which he decided to take these skills to small business lending. Jia helps businesses finance their receivables to access more capital and smooth their cash flows. Jia was founded in early 2023 and has launched operations in Kenya and the Philippines, with plans to scale across emerging markets. Jia has used web3 platforms like Huma to tokenize their loan book and create a pathway for cryptocurrency and stablecoins to be invested in emerging market businesses as an alternative asset class. You can learn more about Jia by visiting jia.xyz. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Chandrima Das, Co-Founder and CEO of Teleskop, a wealth tech that helps people track their family assets today and plan for their legacies in the future. Chandrima has had an illustrious career in asset management, working at Prudential, ING, and Bank of Singapore in several countries, where she had a front-row seat to the sector’s globalization. In the last 10 years, Chandrima has emerged as a successful fintech leader in Singapore through her founding of robo-advisor fintech Bento and subsequent sale to Grab, becoming GrabInvest. Now, Chandrima is working on her newest venture, Teleskop, to tackle the legacy wealth management space. Teleskop seeks to aggregate every family’s “Excel sheet” of financial and emotional assets into real-time information capsules that can be accessed by key beneficiaries upon death or incapacitation. They were officially launched just a couple of months ago in May of 2024 and are scaling through B2B partnerships with employers and benefits providers. Teleskop is currently raising their first round of capital - reach out if you would like to get involved. You can learn more about them by visiting teleskop.tech. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Sharon Paul, Co-founder of Headquarters (HQ.xyz), an on-chain business account. Sharon is a Singaporean entrepreneur and has spent many years advancing the Web3 and payments infrastructure space. She is a founding member of StraitsX, a leading stablecoin issuer and fiat-crypto ramp and now serves on the Singapore Fintech Association's Web3 Subcommittee. Through this work, Sharon realized that despite the rise of on-chain businesses like stablecoins, DeFi, and GameFi, Web3 businesses still rely heavily on traditional banking and payments for daily operations. Sharon founded HQ.xyz in 2022 to help Web3 businesses manage their finances seamlessly across tokens and fiat. As compliance becomes crucial for Web3, HQ.xyz also streamlines treasury reporting of digital assets. In 2022, HQ.xyz raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding led by MassMutual Ventures, Forge Ventures, and Crypto.com Capital. You can learn more about them by visiting HQ.xyz. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Hussain Elius, Founder and CEO of Wind, a fintech that is enabling instant cross-border payments built on blockchain rails. Elius has been a career entrepreneur, starting with building an event management business in university. Once he graduated, Elius took an experimental approach to developing the business model that would eventually become the well known Bangladeshi SuperApp, Pathao. After 6 years building Pathao, Elius changed gears and launched a web3 fintech that enables instant and low-cost global payments. Wind has developed self-custodial crypto wallets that completely eliminate gas fees and are accessible anywhere in the world. They have done this by building both the payment infrastructure and interoperability with mainstream on- and off-ramps. Wind is headquartered in Singapore and has payment licenses in both Europe and the UAE. They raised $3.8M at the end of 2023. You can learn more about them by visiting wind.app. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Nuraizah Shamsul Baharin, Founder and Managing Director of MADCash, a fintech that drives financial inclusion through Shariah compliant microfinance and data analytics in Malaysia. Nuraizah, who goes by Aizah, started her career as an engineer, working for companies like Nokia and Motorola in the 1990s and 2000s. Aizah founded MADCash in 2020 with a goal to improve financial access for women MSMEs in Malaysia. MADCash, which stands for Multiply Assist Donate Cash, works with women entrepreneurs by providing capital and financial education to grow their micro-businesses. MADCash raised a pre-series A round of $1M in 2023 led by impact investors and is using those funds to build their team, AI toolkit, and expansion into new markets like Tajikistan. You can learn more about them by visiting getmadcash.com. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Rachel Freeman, Chief Growth Officer of Tyme, a neobank that began operations in South Africa and has recently been making waves in the Philippines as GoTyme. Rachel has lived in every corner of the world and has been a pioneer of inclusive financial services. She speaks fluent Russian and spent her early career in Russia building a microleasing business. She then spent 17 years at the IFC, which took her to Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Hong Kong. When she decided to join the startup world, she was impressed by the Tyme team and has been instrumental in their market and product expansion in Southeast Asia. Tyme provides a suite of digital banking solutions, including consumer savings accounts and SME loans. Across markets, the neobank is known for meeting customers where they are, through their innovative card creation kiosks in local grocery stores. Tyme also reported profitability for the first time in December and is soon expanding to Vietnam. You can learn more about them by visiting tyme.com. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Maria Hoyos, co-founder and CEO of GoNSave, a fintech focused on income smoothing for gig workers in Southeast Asia. Maria started her career in microfinance in Latin America. She brought her experience to Asia when she pursued her Master’ of Science in Innovation at Singapore Management University. We talked about the unique needs of gig workers when it comes to income visibility, how gig work should be regulated, and inclusive finance learnings that span Latin America and Southeast Asia. GoNSave, or Zaver as its app is known to its customers, allows gig workers to track their flexible earnings and provides personal recommendations to increase those earnings up to 35%. GoNSave was founded in 2021 and recently launched in the Philippines. They are raising their first round of capital - reach out if you would like to get involved. You can learn more about them by visiting gonsave.co. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Ritwik Ghosh, co-founder of Seedflex, a brand new embedded SME lending fintech. Ritwik started his career in banking but quickly moved into consulting at Oliver Wyman, where he focused on retail and SME financial services across South and Southeast Asia. For the last 5 years, Ritwik served as the Regional Head of Lending at Grab, where he drove the growth of embedded credit products for drivers, merchants, and consumers in the Grab ecosystem. Ritwik also happens to be my former boss from when I led the regional driver lending business at Grab, and I am thrilled that he is sharing his newest venture on the Green Room. Seedflex is bringing lending to SMEs with a pay-as-you-sell approach and modular technology. Seedflex was founded in September of 2023 and is launching operations across Southeast Asia, starting with Malaysia. You can learn more about Seedflex by visiting seedflex.com. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

Happy new year everyone, and welcome back to the Green Room! In this podcast, we go behind the scenes with fintech entrepreneurs and thought leaders in Asia about their careers, impact, and industry insights. I'm your host, Amrita Vir. This is now season 5 of the Green Room. This season we’re covering some fintech basics - income smoothing, SME lending, and digital banking. We’ll also dabble in crypto and ESG and talk about some cross-border and cross-regional learnings. As always, we’re going to have some fun with our guests and really dig into the change they want to make in the world. Thanks for listening the Green Room Podcast. If you know anyone who would be a great guest or have any feedback, reach out to us at [email protected]. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy season 5. Happy listening! Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.

In this episode, I speak with Malini Kannan, CEO Office of Thunes, a global B2B cross-border payments infrastructure company. Malini grew up in India and started her career in Singapore, working in research and strategy across a diverse set of sectors. After her MBA from INSEAD, Malini focused more directly on the fintech space, working across the industry and landing at TransferTo, which incubated the business that eventually become Thunes. At Thunes, Malini has covered every aspect of the business - starting as a Strategy & Operations Manager, moving up to COO, and now she leads the CEO Office. Thunes was originally founded in 2016 under TransferTo, which focused on cross-border airtime top-ups and other value-added services. TransferTo rebranded as DT One, where Thunes was incubated. Since then, Thunes has grown into one of the largest and most well-known B2B payments companies in Singapore. They now serve customers in more than 130 countries, have offices in 20 cities, and have closed their $72M USD Series C funding round in July 2023. You can learn more about Thunes by visiting thunes.com. Learn more about podcast host Amrita Vir at amritavir.com.