Frontier Fintech Podcast

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:

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.

“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.

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:

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:

"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:

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

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

“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:

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.

“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: