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 traditional world. More and more assets will be uploaded to the blockchain. More DeFi tools will be made available for the traditional world. We will see the two worlds converge.”

What is decentralized asset management? What are the benefits versus the Blackrocks or Vanguards of the world? How do crypto and decentralized autonomous organizations change how financial products are provided? How will DeFi combine with traditional financial systems?

We covered all about decentralized asset management at #AsianFintechPodcast.

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 about Open Finance, why it’s needed, and why it matters at #AsianFintechPodcast. 

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.