Fazz Financial Group Deputy CEO and Xfers CEO and co-founder Tianwei Liu, an engineer by training, founder by experience, and angel on the side, goes on call to share how gifting Kindles and a LinkedIn search led him to return to Southeast Asia to pioneer fintech infrastructure through Xfers, how a Slack message from fellow Y Combinator alum Hendra Kwik led to the formation of regional fintech group Fazz Financial, and how being early adopters of crypto led Xfers to building Singapore's first stablecoin.

Transcript

Timestamps

(00:12) Paulo recaps the Fazz Financial Group evolution through the podcast;

(02:53) Paulo introduces Tianwei;

(03:57) What excites Tianwei about Southeast Asia;

(05:46) How Tianwei decided to return from Silicon Valley to start Xfers in 2015, 2016;

(10:05) Driving the evolution of fintech in Southeast Asia through payment infrastructure;

(13:49) Three reasons why Xfers joined forces with Payfazz to form Fazz Financial Group;

(18:13) How the evolution into Fazz Financial has shaped Tianwei as a leader;

(20:08) How Xfers works to support Payfazz agents and users;

(21:35) Why Xfers ventured into developing Singapore’s first stablecoin through StraitsX;

(24:45) The value of localized ventures in crypto;

(27:13) What the future of crypto and payments infrastructure is in Southeast Asia;

(29:20) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Tianwei Liu is the CEO and Co-founder of Xfers, and Deputy CEO of Fazz Financial Group. Along with the management of Xfers in Singapore, he is currently driving Xfers’ expansion into Indonesia and engages closely with Xfers‘ banking and merchant partners to accelerate the growth of fintech and digital businesses in the region. After his receiving his Bachelors in Computer Engineering in 2011 from the National University of Singapore, Tianwei returned to Silicon Valley (having studied at Stanford University under the NUS Overseas College (NOC) Programme) as a Software Engineer working on developer tools at WIMM Labs, a start-up that built the world’s first Android-based smartwatches. His team at WIMM Labs laid the foundation for Google’s WearOs™ that powers its smartwatches (WIMM Labs was acquired by Google in late 2012). After WIMM Labs’ acquisition, Tianwei worked at Amazon Lab126 from May 2012 to June 2015, when he and his team built the big data ingestion infrastructure that allows for real-time processing and analytics of the health status of all Kindles devices used daily by Amazon’s customers.

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The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

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What happens when an Indonesian pediatrician having her first kid in the midst of a pandemic and her Tokopedia alum, seasoned product and growth leader husband join forces to build a startup? Find out on our call with Tentang Anak founders Dr. Mesty Ariotedjo and Garri Juanda.

Transcript

Timestamps

(01:11) Why should you know Mesty Ariotedjo and Garri Juanda?

(01:57) How did Mesty and Garri meet Insignia?

(03:20) How did they start Tentang Anak?

(06:08) Why did they start Tentang Anak?

(08:58) How has Mesty’s background as a doctor influenced her approach to Tentang Anak?

(10:17) Why pediatricians and child care experts are attracted to Tentang Anak’s platform?

(13:27) What's in the Tentang Anak app?

(14:56) How is Tentang Anak flipping the script on scaling commerce platforms?

(17:02) How has Garri’s background as a tech leader influenced his approach to Tentang Anak?

(19:05) What attracts talent to join Tentang Anak?

(20:33) How does raising a family together impact their synergy as co-founders and vice-versa?

(22:57) What drives Tentang Anak’s product roadmap?

(25:21) Tentang Anak’s focus in the next five years;

(27:23) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Tentang Anak, which translates to “About Children”, was founded in 2020 by pediatrician Dr. Mesty Ariotedjo and Tokopedia alum Garri Juanda. Mesty is currently a graduate student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the recipient of Harvard T.H. Chan Fellowship Award. She was also included in Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 and a member of the World Economic Forum. While Mesty brings her medical expertise and network to Tentang Anak and Garri brings his 11 years of tech experience in product, growth, and M&A to the table. He previously oversaw Tokopedia’s marketplace, adtech, and logistics business verticals; and was one of Rakuten Japan’s first non-Japanese product managers. Garri earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology, finance, fintech

The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Call with Insignia is back with a new season of conversations with founders, investors, and operators leading the development of Southeast Asia's innovation landscape and digital economy, or as we like to call, ASEANnovation.

What better way to kick off our season four than with Brankas, Southeast Asia's leading and pioneering open finance tech company. We've just welcomed them to the Insignia family officially at the start of 2022 with the announcement of a 20 million series B round which we had the privilege of leading.

To talk about, not just Brankas, but also this whole wave of demand for more robust and scalable fintech infrastructure, we have really an open finance pioneer and an expert here to talk about all of that, none other than the CEO and co-founder of Brankas, Todd Schweitzer.

Join Brankas's remote-first team by checking out open roles on the company’s career page and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Timestamps

(00:28) Paulo introduces Brankas and Todd;

(02:24) Todd talks about how he connected with Insignia;

(03:04) Going from management consulting in the US to starting Brankas in Southeast Asia;

(08:33) Why open finance is compelling and exciting for emerging markets;

(12:25) How Brankas’s API menu approach stands out;

(15:22) Working with regulators and institutions in Southeast Asia;

(19:42) Four use cases for open finance;

(24:18) Approach to regional expansion;

(25:37) How building out a remote-first team has led to finding great engineering talent;

(28:09) Open Finance for DeFi;

(31:09) Rapid Fire Round;

About our guest

Todd Schweitzer is co-founder and CEO at Brankas, the leading Open Banking technology provider in Southeast Asia. Todd has held senior roles in private equity and management consulting, spanning technology, the public sector, and financial services. Todd and co-founder Kenneth Shaw launched Brankas in 2016 to address the technology gaps that hindered fintech-bank partnerships. Launching first in Indonesia, Brankas provides Open Banking technology to banks, insurers, mobile wallets, alternative lenders, and other suppliers and users of financial services APIs. He holds dual Bachelor's degrees with honors in Economics and International Studies from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with a focus on economic development policy.

Music: Energetic and Upbeat Rock Background Music For Videos and Workouts

Tags: startup, Southeast Asia, founder, entrepreneurship, business, technology, finance, fintech

The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, tax, or business advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any Insignia Ventures fund.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.