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eXponential Finance

eXponential Finance

By Norbert Gehrke

The eXponential Finance Podcast is produced in co-operation with Tokyo FinTech (https://tokyofintech.com/), covering Finance & FinTech themes in Japan and beyond. Tokyo FinTech looks to inform, inspire and innovate in the financial services sector in Japan. Our community of more than 3,300 individual members attends regular fintech, insurtech, regtech, payments, blockchain & crypto events. We also have an established Medium Publication (https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech) and a number of international community partnerships with like-minded FinTech associations around the globe.
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Currently playing episode

Heikki Vänttinen, API3 - Decentralized APIs for Web 3.0 (S2E32)

eXponential FinanceDec 07, 2020

00:00
24:03
Arthit Sriumporn, Rakkar Digital - Secure, compliant, and seamless digital asset custody (S3E36)

Arthit Sriumporn, Rakkar Digital - Secure, compliant, and seamless digital asset custody (S3E36)

Rakkar Digital is a Singapore-based company that provides digital asset custodian services to institutional clients in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. The company is backed by SCB 10X, the investment arm of Siam Commercial Bank, and powered by Fireblocks. Leveraging cutting-edge multi-party computation (MPC)-CMP custody infrastructure as their underlying technology, Rakkar Digital provides the highest level of security for assets along with bankruptcy remote mechanism of asset segregation. The company supports a wide range of assets and blockchain protocols and offers highly customizable policy engine, giving clients greater control and flexibility over their assets. With fast service-level agreements (SLAs) and round-the-clock support from its team of blockchain experts and security professionals, Rakkar Digital is committed to delivering institutional-grade custody services.

Rakkar Digital has obtained a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) licence in Hong Kong and an organisation controls 2 (SOC 2) Type 1 attestation. Operating offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam, Rakkar Digital is well-positioned to provide custodian services to clients across the region.


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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


You can also find us on....

Home Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tokyofintech.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Medium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Meetup: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Mar 13, 202429:53
Deep Singh, CrediLinq.ai - The Future of Business eCommerce (S3E35)

Deep Singh, CrediLinq.ai - The Future of Business eCommerce (S3E35)

CrediLinq is a technology infrastructure company that is enabling B2B platforms to offer embedded finance to their customers.

B2B PayLater for buyers and GMV Financing for sellers is a huge opportunity to both improve conversion, increase average order volumes and dramatically reduce operational burden. The future of B2B payments and purchasing will very much look like the current consumer level experience – we at CrediLinq.Ai are accelerating that change.

Credilinq is helmed by Deep Singh, a passionate banker-turned-entrepreneur. He is a specialist in corporate and commercial finance with a hunger for innovation. He was previously Chief Capital Officer at a US$1.3 billion private credit firm and left behind his corporate career to start Credilinq. He aims to use his 17 years of rich experience in credit to support the growth of SMEs and help asset allocators achieve superior risk-adjusted returns.


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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: 

⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/⁠⁠⁠⁠


You can also find us on....

Home Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tokyofintech.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech⁠⁠⁠⁠

Medium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech⁠⁠⁠⁠

YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech⁠⁠⁠⁠

Meetup: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Feb 22, 202433:00
Oliver Hall, Copenhagen Capacity - Japanese Capital & FDI into the New Nordics (S3E34)

Oliver Hall, Copenhagen Capacity - Japanese Capital & FDI into the New Nordics (S3E34)

Oliver Hall is the Head of Tech Investments for Europe and Japan at Copenhagen Capacity, and a Co-Founder & Investment Director for Japanese Investments at the Nordic Asian Venture Alliance.


Our discussion covers topics such as sustainability, digitalization, foreign direct investment, Japanese capital, and the new Nordics.

Oliver shares his background and how he ended up in the Nordics. We also talk about the advantages of Copenhagen for foreign direct investments, venture capital, and startups, the collaboration between Japan and the new Nordics, and the focus on smart city urban tech, health tech, and food tech. The conversation also highlights the interest and investment from Japanese venture capital firms into the region. 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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: 

⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/⁠⁠⁠


You can also find us on....

Home Page: ⁠⁠⁠https://tokyofintech.com/⁠⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/⁠⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech⁠⁠⁠

Medium: ⁠⁠⁠https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech⁠⁠⁠

YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech⁠⁠⁠

Meetup: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Feb 04, 202431:30
Curtis Plot Mak, bloXroute Labs - The "Flash Boys" of DeFi (S3E33)

Curtis Plot Mak, bloXroute Labs - The "Flash Boys" of DeFi (S3E33)

bloXroute created the first high-performance blockchain distribution network (BDN) with the fastest relay solution for Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Solana. The bloXroute BDN and DeFi trading tools allow its users to win at crypto trading.

The BDN utilizes a global network of servers optimized for network performance. Nodes access this network through open-source gateways and users can access it through the bloXroute public-API.

The BDN network propagates blockchain transactions and blocks closer to the speed of light. It provides traders with the speed and reliability required for crypto transactions. bloXroute is the leader in mempool services, block streaming and anything Defi performance. The BDN also allows blockchains to scale by speeding the time it takes to communicate the current state. The BDN's fast communication reduces the blocks’ size and frequency limits. This is true for all consensus mechanisms, including Proof of Stake, Proof of Work, and DAGs.

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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: 

⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/⁠⁠


You can also find us on....

Home Page: ⁠⁠https://tokyofintech.com/⁠⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/⁠⁠

Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech⁠⁠

Medium: ⁠⁠https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech⁠⁠

YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech⁠⁠

Meetup: ⁠⁠https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Oct 22, 202329:59
Vy Pham & Tetsuya Hattori, Zurich Insurance - Going out to the Edge with Zurich Insurance (S3E32)

Vy Pham & Tetsuya Hattori, Zurich Insurance - Going out to the Edge with Zurich Insurance (S3E32)

Zurich Insurance has made a significant stride in the insurance industry by introducing its cutting-edge suite of solutions for digitally embedded insurance across all Asian markets, Zurich Edge.

Zurich Edge represents an exciting development in Zurich Insurance’s growth strategy across the Asia Pacific region. The company already boasts a robust portfolio of over 200 partnerships in six markets, collaborating with leading brands in diverse sectors such as retail, travel, banking, fintech, e-commerce, automotive, and telecommunications. Among the prominent partners are Japan Airlines, TikTok, Citibank, and MYAirline.

We had the opportunity to discuss the platform, its rollout in Japan, and if/how the Japanese market is different from other markets in the region with Vy Pham, Regional Product Owner Digital Platforms, and Tetsuya Hattori, Head of Digital Partnerships (Japan).


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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: 

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/⁠


You can also find us on....

Home Page: ⁠https://tokyofintech.com/⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/⁠

Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech⁠

Medium: ⁠https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech⁠

YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech⁠

Meetup: ⁠https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Oct 18, 202331:25
Shwetank Verma, Leo Capital - The future of insurance is data-driven, personalized & contextual (S3E31)
Sep 24, 202325:35
Matthew Van Niekerk, SettleMint - The blockchain platform for the 99% (S3E30)
Aug 17, 202328:36
Yilan Huang, CyberConnect - On-chain friends last forever (S3E29)

Yilan Huang, CyberConnect - On-chain friends last forever (S3E29)

Yilan Huang leads Global Development across different regional markets at CyberConnect. CyberConnect is web3’s earliest and biggest decentralized social network that enables developers to create social applications empowering users to own their digital identity, content, connections, and monetization channels. Prior to CyberConnect, Yilan had experiences in startups, VCs, and NGOs and studied economics, political theory, and continental philosophy at The University of Hong Kong and University of Warwick.

CyberConnect is web3’s earliest and biggest decentralized social network, that enables developers to create social applications empowering users to own their digital identity, content, connections, and monetization channels. Its latest V3 upgrade introduces a set of powerful improvements to the CyberConnect social network to usher web3 social into a new, multi-chain future. V3 is designed to power the next stage of hyper scalability for web3 social dApps and give users a social networking experience that feels familiar to web2. It has three core components: CyberAccount, an ERC-4337-compatible identity infrastructure; CyberGraph, a censorship-resistant database to record users’ content + social connections; and CyberNetwork, a gas-efficient and scalable network to bring CyberConnect to the world.

Founded by Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneurial team in 2021, there are already over 50 projects that are using CyberConnect to build social features for real-world use cases, such as  community-owned social networks, marketplaces, content curation, discovery tools, and more. As of July 2023, CyberConnect protocol has 1.2M user profiles and 400k monthly active wallets who have conducted more than 15.2M transactions in total. Over 2,400 verified organizations created their CyberProfiles to build web3 native audiences. CyberConnect’s flagship social app, Link3 has 940k monthly active users.


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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/


You can also find us on....
Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Aug 13, 202327:47
Hugo Phillion, Flare Network - The network is its own oracle (S3E28)
Aug 10, 202334:04
Aaron McDonald, Futureverse - Open, scalable, and interoperable apps, games and experiences (S3E27)
Aug 04, 202324:52
Masako Shiba, ONBD - Art in space & on the blockchain, and edible NFTs (S3E26)
Aug 01, 202320:02
Phillip Lord, Oobit - Pay for (almost) anything with crypto (S3E25)
Aug 01, 202322:35
Yoann Turpin, Wintermute - The path to 25% market share as a digital asset liquidity provider (S3E24)
Jul 30, 202327:44
Anjali Young, Collab.Land - Communities with skin in the game (S3E23)
Jul 28, 202337:59
Anton Golub, Crypto Serial Entrepreneur - The insider's survival guide to crypto winter (S3E22)
Jul 27, 202335:42
Dean McClelland, Tontine Trust - If you are dead, you do not need the money (S3E21)
Jul 14, 202325:34
Vishal Dalal, Pismo - The universal processing machine acquired by Visa (S3E20)

Vishal Dalal, Pismo - The universal processing machine acquired by Visa (S3E20)

Jul 04, 202324:42
Cyrille Pastour & Louis Bertucci, Swaap - Non-custodial RFQ market-making infrastructure (S3E19)

Cyrille Pastour & Louis Bertucci, Swaap - Non-custodial RFQ market-making infrastructure (S3E19)

Jul 02, 202335:25
Masa Kikuchi, Secured Finance - Interbank-grade Decentralized Finance (S3E18)
Jun 25, 202336:49
Lisa Nestor, Airtm - Building a web3 P2P payments ecosystem with a retail wallet and an expanded enterprise payment platform (S3E17)

Lisa Nestor, Airtm - Building a web3 P2P payments ecosystem with a retail wallet and an expanded enterprise payment platform (S3E17)

Lisa Nestor is the Chief Strategy Officer at Air TM. Lisa has spent her professional career researching, and then building solutions that economically empower individuals by improving their ability to access and participate in financial markets. At Airtm, Lisa is leveraging her background in digital assets, payments and ecosystem development to continue the expansion of Airtm’s digital dollar account - a first of its kind and category-defining product - and support the company in serving its next ten million users.

Airtm is an e-wallet connected to over 300 bank and e-money systems via a peer-to-peer network and direct bank connections. Users hold their money as dollars or cryptocurrency, and can send and receive funds domestically and internationally. Airtm also offers enterprises facilities to make bulk payments to digital workers in the global economy, paying "taskers" instantly and in a fully compliant way.


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


We also publish a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/


You can also find us on....
Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Jun 15, 202334:58
Benjamin Quinlan, Quinlan & Associates - The APAC digital banking landscape: Where to from here? (S3E16)
May 30, 202337:29
Sam Ahmed, Smartpay - You can't be a startup in Japan, you can't make a mistake and say sorry later, it has to be 100 percent (S3E15)
May 25, 202328:42
Sherry Jiang, Bluejay Finance - Opening up real-world financing opportunities on DeFi with local currency stablecoins (S3E14)

Sherry Jiang, Bluejay Finance - Opening up real-world financing opportunities on DeFi with local currency stablecoins (S3E14)

Sherry Jiang is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bluejay Finance. Previously, Sherry led growth and incentives marketing for Google Pay in India, where the product grew from 13m to more than 120m monthly active users. She started up Bluejay in 2021 to push the envelope even more when it comes to financial inclusion, outside of existing banking rails.

Bluejay helps investors get access to diversified and consistent returns through a decentralised fixed income protocol. It is a stablecoin based platform that allows people to invest in fixed income assets that are backed by real world financing opportunities like private credit.


If you would like to join Bluejay's private credit investor group to get the latest updates on the world of private credit investing and get connected with other like-minded investors, you can apply through the following TypeForm: https://lnkd.in/g7QfAejN



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

We also produce a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/


You can also find us on....
Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

May 20, 202338:43
HomeDAO - 20 people who are aligned together can really change the world (S3E13)
May 05, 202336:31
Ben Gleisner, Cogo - Measure, understand and reduce your impact on the climate (S3E12)

Ben Gleisner, Cogo - Measure, understand and reduce your impact on the climate (S3E12)

Ben Gleisner is the Founder and Global CEO at CoGo. Previously in a government role, Ben led the team that created Treasury's Living Standards Framework, and represented Treasury on New Zealand Government's International Climate Change negotiating team. Earlier this year, Ben was recognized as the Most Impactful Entrepreneur at the Pacific Basin Economic Council.

Cogo is a carbon footprint management product that helps individuals and businesses to measure, understand and reduce their impact on the climate. Cogo does this through partnerships with some of the world's largest banks to integrate leading carbon-tracking functionality into their banking apps.

Cogo uses best-in-class models to provide accurate ways to measure carbon emissions specific to local markets and cutting edge behavioural science techniques to nudge customers to make more sustainable choices.


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

We also produce a weekly LinkedIn newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", which we invite you to subscribe to: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7048203270833524736/


You can also find us on....
Home Page: https://tokyofintech.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Apr 28, 202326:38
Padmini Gupta, Xare - Bank your tribe by xaring your cards (S3E11)

Padmini Gupta, Xare - Bank your tribe by xaring your cards (S3E11)

Padmini Gupta is an award-winning banker and a World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow, who is now re-imagining financial services for 250 million migrant workers worldwide, and the billion people who depend on them through Rise, and now Xare. 

At the heart of finance is a big secret, that all financial products were built for income earners, but only 1/3rd of the world works and they support the 2/3rds with financial products.

Xare began in Jan 2021 to bridge that gap and enable the 2/3rds to better access the finance. Xare was built with the purpose to ‘reclaim the soul of banking for everyone’, and the mission to empower the one-third of the population that has an income, to share their financial resources with the two-third of the population that does not and establishing a fair financial system. We are on a mission to provide people with equal access to financial products.

On the Xare platform anyone can create financial instruments to share access to their money with their loved ones, anyone, anytime and anywhere. The process is seamless, safe and instant.


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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Mar 03, 202329:07
Dr. Köksal Sahin, KPMG Law - The Japanese insurance law & industry: historical perspective and current state (S3E10)
Feb 17, 202333:26
Uzair Javaid, Betterdata - Applying Generative AI to create privacy-preserving synthetic data (S3E9)
Feb 13, 202327:44
Charles d'Haussy, dydx Foundation - DAOs as an organization form at scale for humans in the algorithm age (S3E8)

Charles d'Haussy, dydx Foundation - DAOs as an organization form at scale for humans in the algorithm age (S3E8)

Charles d’Haussy is the CEO of the dydx Foundation, an independent not-for-profit foundation created to promote dYdX, the most powerful decentralized cryptocurrency exchange protocol.Previously, Charles was Global Head of Business Development at ConsenSys, a leading blockchain engineering company and the Head of Fintech with the Hong Kong government.

In our conversation, naturally, we cover the state of the dydx development from Version 3 to Version 4, the implications of moving from a Layer 2 implementation with Starkware to its own blockchain based on the Cosmos SDK, and why Charles has chosen dydx when he made a career change last year. We quickly move on towards forms of centralized and decentralized finance, and a hybrid form that Charles sees emerging. He is also optimistic with regards to Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which he sees as the right human organization form at scale for the algorithm and digital age. Our host is a little skeptical given current fragmentation trends in globalization, but in the end it is the optimists who innovate and change the world, right?


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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Feb 01, 202330:08
Jonas Thürig, Tenity - FinTech acceleration in ASEAN through powerful collaborations and trusted partners (S3E7)
Jan 19, 202331:25
Nick Wilde, Thought Machine - Banking as an afterthought (S3E6)

Nick Wilde, Thought Machine - Banking as an afterthought (S3E6)

Nicholas Wilde is the Managing Director APAC at Thought Machine. In his role, Nick works with banks and fintech firms to help them implement a built-for-purpose modern core – Vault - at the heart of their business. Vault, built by former Google engineers, helps organizations to solve some of the hardest problems in banking, discard the shackles of their legacy systems and reimagine their business for tomorrow.

At the Singapore FinTech Festival 2022, Nick was recognized as one of the Top Ten FinTech Leaders in Singapore. In this conversation, he shares with us his perspective on banking across the region, how incumbents vs challengers are positioned, and what drives the adoption of modern, cloud-based banking stacks, whether from a technical or business perspective. One path to implementation for incumbents is the roll up of "orphan cores" into a platform like Vault, consolidating various product-specific legacy systems that become hard to maintain onto a single core. With Standard Chartered as one of his clients, Nick also shares examples how Mox in Hong Kong has launched incrementally.


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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Jan 06, 202338:39
Rob Leslie, Sedicii & Nillion - Bringing to life fast, permissionless, decentralized computation (S3E5)

Rob Leslie, Sedicii & Nillion - Bringing to life fast, permissionless, decentralized computation (S3E5)

Rob Leslie is one of Ireland’s most well-known technology entrepreneurs. He is the Founder and CEO at Sedicii, and a Co-Founder and President of Nillion. Rob started working on zero knowledge proofs in 2011, and founded Sedicii in 2013, with the aim of creating the world's first distributed, public utility to facilitate the storage and processing of all kinds of data without the need to expose or share it, thereby protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the data. A true pioneer.

Nillion allows nodes in a decentralized network to work in a unique, non-blockchain, way. While Nillion represents a revolutionary leap from a predecessor technology known as Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC), unlike SMPC, network nodes do not have to communicate with one another. Unlike blockchain, nodes do not run immutable ledgers designed to store transaction data. Instead, new Nillion technology, called Nil Message Compute (NMC), is purpose built for decentralized secure storage and computation and thus opens up new use cases (on the Nillion native network), while also enhancing existing blockchains.


Produced in collaboration with Tokyo FinTech, this is an edited recording of the second Tokyo FinTech LinkedIn Audio event. 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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Dec 08, 202231:20
Jan Denecke, twelve x twelve - Enabling artists & fans to shape the future of music (S3E4)

Jan Denecke, twelve x twelve - Enabling artists & fans to shape the future of music (S3E4)

Nov 19, 202238:25
Batu Sat, Mall IQ - Empowering the consumer through location intelligence in payments & loyalty (S3E3)
Nov 13, 202235:21
Nachi Das & Zach Taub - Singapore FinTech Festival Debrief (S3E2)
Nov 10, 202238:60
David Shin, Klaytn Foundation - The huge untapped commercialization opportunity in content IP distribution (S3E1)
Oct 30, 202223:25
Kevin Shimota, WeChat - The First Super App: The secrets of Tencent's platform strategy (S2E50)
Oct 04, 202247:21
Adrien Barthel, Sleek - The startups' plumber: going from an idea to an operating company in hours (S2E49)

Adrien 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 investors White Star Capital, Jungle Ventures, and EDBI. 

Adrien Barthel is a co-founder of Sleek, and the Chief Growth Officer. In addition to covering the company from its origins in Singapore through the expansion in different markets, and the building of a FinTech stack by obtaining the MPI license, we also talk to Adrien about the business intelligence generated on its platform, in comparing the Singapore and Hong Kong ecosystems, and some on-the-ground intelligence how the HK has reacted in the face of security laws and the pandemic (spoiler alert: Cathay Pacific's layoffs during the pandemic led to a spike in new entity formation).


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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Sep 13, 202226:18
Franz Waldenberger, DIJ - Monetary policy under Kuroda & the future of financial systems (S2E48)

Franz 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, focusing on Japanese industrial organization, the employment system, and the financial system. Since 1997, as a professor for the Japanese economy at Munich University, Franz has extended his area of research to include corporate governance, Japan’s international economic relations, and most recently, fiscal and monetary policy. In 2014, he returned to Japan to head the DIJ as its Director.

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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Sep 02, 202232:26
Tiffine Wang, MS&AD Ventures - The Silicon Valley mindset gives you the freedom to build bigger things (S2E47)
Aug 26, 202232:03
Mariana Franza, Uala - If you are not in the traditional banking system, you cannot have Netflix (S2E46)
Aug 03, 202228:57
Oi-Yee Choo, ADDX - Using cutting-edge technologies to reformat traditional institutional capital for retail (S2E45)
Jul 12, 202228:47
Javier Tamashiro, Ospree - Compliance for Crypto: Onboarding, Analytics & the Travel Rule (S2E44)
Jul 05, 202228:04
Binur Zhalenov, Payments & FinTech Center of the National Bank of Kazakhstan - Striving to set the standard for central bank innovation (S2E43)
Jun 23, 202226:14
Bruno Diniz, Spiralem - Pioneering is hard but it pays off: A deep dive into Brazil FinTech (S2E42)

Bruno 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, to a pilot of a central bank digital currency to commence soon.

Bruno Diniz is a partner at Spiralem Innovation Consulting, and Director of the Financial Data & Technology Association (FDATA) for Latin America. Bruno is also a columnist for magazines such as Exame magazine, FEBRABAN's Noomis portal and Cointelegraph, in addition to being a professor of innovation focused on the financial market at the USP/ESALQ MBA, speaker and author of the books "O Fenômeno Fintech" and " The New Financial Logic".

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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Jan 18, 202236:42
Paul Claudius, DIA - Trustable data for DeFi applications: taking Oracles beyond the "last mile" (S2E41)
Dec 08, 202125:56
Hans Greimel & William Sposato - "Collision Course" - The Carlos Ghosn saga and what was left in its wake (S2E40)

Hans 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 new model for a global business, but the alliance's shiny image fronted an unsteady, tense operation. Culture clashes, infighting among executives and engineers, dueling corporate traditions, and government maneuvering constantly threatened the venture.

Journalists Hans Greimel and William Sposato have followed the story up close, with access to key players, including Ghosn himself. Veteran Tokyo-based reporters, they have witnessed the end of Japan's bubble economy and attempts at opening Japan Inc. to the world. They've seen the fraying of keiretsu, Japan's traditional skein of business relationships, and covered numerous corporate scandals, of which the Ghosn Shock and Ghosn's subsequent escape stand above all.

Expertly reported, Collision Course explores the complex suspicions around what and who was really responsible for Ghosn's ouster and why one of the top executives in the world would risk everything to escape the country. It explains how economics, history, national interests, cultural politics, and hubris collided, crumpling the legacy of arguably the most important foreign businessman ever to set foot in Japan.


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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Nov 22, 202132:22
Yan Fan & Mio Maeshima, Code Chrysalis - Reengineer yourself in a samurai culture with a Silicon Valley mindset (S2E39)
Oct 06, 202139:09
Romain Zanolo, IDEMIA - The switch to lifestyle banking drives innovation in payments (S2E38)

Romain 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 leader in Augmented Identity. IDEMIA provides a trusted environment enabling citizens and consumers alike to perform their daily critical activities in the physical as well as digital space.

On top of his expertise in the payment industry, Romain has a strong experience in corporate financial advisory, including valuation, financial modeling, transaction support advisory and strategic consulting. He is also a FinTech start-up mentor at Plug and Play Tech Center in Singapore.

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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

Jun 23, 202128:33
Chea Srun, XQuant - Seoul FinTech Lab: Building a global FinTech business from Korea (S2E37)

Chea 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 strong supporter of Tunisia, where most of his data science team is located - he explains why the country is a good source for talent, and offers helps for anyone who wishes to be connected there. 

The Seoul Fintech Lab was established in 2019 and since then, has been funded by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. To date, close to 100 FinTech startups, including 26 foreign companies, have been supported through the incubation program. The Seoul Fintech Lab aims to help accelerate FinTech companies’ growth with its global network of over 300 partners and mentors, which include highly experienced investors, entrepreneurs and regulators. In that regard, the Seoul program possibly differs from similar regional programs — from the outset, it has been designed to allow for pan-Asian and even global expansion while promoting the growth of the domestic ecosystem.

The applications for the 2021 batch are open until June 4th, and the selection process will be completed by June 18th — so you will not have to wait long for a decision. You can find all the detail for registration here: https://seoulfintechlab.kr/news/4485/?prev=news-notice

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.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tokyofintech/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TokyoFinTech
Medium: https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/tokyofintech
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/tokyofintech/

May 31, 202126:05