FinTech Women You Need To Know | Wednesday, March 8th

Hi there,

Happy March 8th, a.k.a.?International Women’s Day. I’d be remiss to not use this week’s newsletter to highlight the incredible women in FinTech who will be speaking at the 2023 Empire FinTech Conference.?

But first, a few stats before we dive in:

• In 2023, there are?more women in the C-suite and sitting on executive boards. It has?inched up to 12%?for both.
• In 2010, less than 6% of?FinTech?founding teams?included women—in 2019, that number jumped to 20% and?jumped again to 30%?in 2020.

Even so...

• In 2022, companies founded solely by women?garnered just 2%?of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US.
• Only about?12% of decision makers?at VC firms are women, and 65% of firms still?do not have a single female partner?according to a?study?from 2021

FinTech promises to bring financial access to the masses. However,?only 30% of FinTech professionals are women.

I interrupt my regularly-scheduled weekly banter to bring?awareness and amplification?to the women featured below:

Alexandra Steinberg Barrage,?Davis Wright Tremaine

Alexandra Barrage leverages her years of legal and policymaking experience with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as well as over a decade advising clients in the private sector on corporate bankruptcy matters. She is actively involved with several industry organizations in responding to bank regulatory, central bank digital currency, and crypto developments, and has provided technical assistance to congressional staff on developing digital asset legislation.

Ana Mahoney,?Addition Wealth

Ana Mahony is the Founder and CEO of Addition Wealth, a company dedicated to making personalized financial expertise inclusive and accessible for all employees. Ana built her career in consumer finance, working in the private sector as well as at the CFPB, before joining Uber in 2014. She’s passionate about consumer finance, technology and building diverse teams.

Asia Martin,?Business Insider

Asia?Martin is a finance reporter at Business Insider. Before joining Business Insider, she was a?former personal finance writer for the Money and Markets team at Forbes. Her previous works also includes reporting for Financial Advisor magazine and writing for The Cranford Chronicle, NJ.Com and ThePopBreak.com.?

Billie Simmons,?Daylight

Billie Simmons (she/her) is the co-founder and COO of Daylight, the first and only digital banking platform designed for and by the LGBT+ community. Previously, she founded a startup to help trans and non-binary people access safe services. She regularly speaks on LGBT+ initiatives in mental health and technology and has spoken at, amongst others, Google, WeWork and Money 2020.

Christie Horvath,?Wagmo

Christie Horvath is?a dog-obsessed insurance nerd originally from Colorado. After spending over 6 years working with insurance companies at BlackRock, Christie went to Harvard to earn her MBA. While in business school she learned the importance of having pet insurance after her dog at the time, Denver, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After months of costly diagnostic testing and vet visits, Christie realized that pet parents needed more help than the existing options offered. She founded Wagmo with the mission of making it easier and more affordable to be a great pet parent. Christie has a BA in Economics from Northwestern University, a masters in business from Harvard, and a rescue pup named Aspen.

Cynthia Kleinbaum Milner,?MoneyLion

Cynthia Kleinbaum is the Chief Customer Officer at MoneyLion, where she oversees key aspects of the company's marketing efforts.Kleinbaum is an award-winning marketing executive with over 20 years of experience in reimagining how companies engage customers to accelerate growth. Prior to joining MoneyLion, Kleinbaum held numerous leadership roles within Walmart (NYSE: WMT).

Danielle Hill,?Upwardli

Danielle Hill is the Co-Founder and COO of Upwardli, a financial services company making credit fair and accessible to the 50 million Americans, particularly new immigrants and Gen Z, who are shut out of the U.S. credit system. Danielle is a senior leader who has led and scaled teams at multiple start-ups as well as a number of larger corporations, spending the last 17 years focused on operational excellence, change management, organizational design, talent development, and scaling teams while driving results.

Deborah Jordan,?AgeTech Collaborative by AARP

Deborah Jordan (DJ),) manages marketing and design thinking for the ATC ecosystem of startups, investor, enterprises and testbed at the AgeTech Collaborative by AARP. Prior to AARP, Deborah worked in consulting with IBM, B2B Marketing in Science & Technology, and brand management & new product development in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)?industry.

Emily Man,?Redpoint Ventures

Emily Man is an investor at Redpoint Ventures on the growth team where she focuses on FinTech and B2B software. Prior to Redpoint, Emily was at Point72 Ventures where she helped launch the early-stage fintech venture investing strategy. She started her career investing in the public markets as a long / short equity analyst at Point72.?

Jill Malandrino,?NASDAQ

As host of TradeTalks, Jill Malandrino covers the market stories that matter. In one-on-one conversations with industry experts, Jill explores the ins-and-outs of the ever-evolving investing landscape, delving deep into the markets, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, and trading strategies.

Meg Nakamura,?Apto?Payments

Meg Nakamura is the co-founder of Apto Payments. Prior to Apto, Meg worked for a regulatory and compliance advisory company where she realized that the financial services landscape was in need of a significant upgrade –?the industry was dependent on outdated, making it difficult to build and launch innovative and bespoke card programs specifically designed for their users.??

Nami Baral,?Niural

Nami Baral is the Founder & CEO of Niural, which provides globally compliant payroll and HR management solutions. Prior to Niural, Nami founded Harvest, a fintech company that leveraged AI to reduce debt for American consumers. She’s an active angel investor & mentor to fintech, data and AI founders.??

Natasha Vernier,?Cable

Natasha is the CEO and Co-founder of Cable. Cable's mission is to reduce financial crime. Their product is the first all-in-one effectiveness testing platform that helps banks comply with their financial crime requirements. Before Cable, Natasha was Head of Financial Crime at Monzo Bank.

Nicole Casperson,?Fintech is Femme

Nicole Casperson is a journalist, podcast host, and founder of Fintech Is Femme, a media brand sharing industry news, insights, and analysis from diverse voices in fintech who represent a new vision of what the industry can become: One powered by equitable opportunity & diversity. 60,000+ industry professionals subscribe to her podcast and newsletter. Nicole is a part of the media company Workweek as one of their founding content creators.

Olga Chin,?InterPrice Technologes

Olga Chin is the CEO and founder of InterPrice Technologies, a fintech platform for seamless communication between corporate treasury teams and underwriters. Prior to launching InterPrice, Olga was most recently the head of debt capital markets at Loop Capital Markets, where she executed corporate bond transactions for Fortune 500 companies.?

Omoju Miller,?Fimio

Omoju Miller is the Founder and CEO of Fimio, Inc, a Web3 Trust and Reputation company. In the past, she was Technical Advisor to the CEO at GitHub, spent time co-leading non-profit investment in Computer Science Education for Google, and served as a volunteer advisor to the Obama administration’s White House Presidential Innovation Fellows.?

Patricia Kemp,?Oak?HC/FT

Patricia Kemp has 15 years of experience as a venture capitalist investing in transformative companies and entrepreneurs.In 2014, Patricia, along with Annie Lamont and Andrew Adams, launched Oak HC/FT, a venture capital fund investing in early to growth stage tech-enabled companies shaping the future of healthcare information and financial services. Prior to founding Oak HC/FT, she served as a venture partner at Oak Investment Partners.?

Sarah Lamont,?F-Prime Capital

Sarah Lamont is an Associate at F-Prime Capital, where she focuses on early-stage investments in FinTech. Prior to joining F-Prime, she was a senior consultant at Oliver Wyman where she was a member of the Private Capital practice, advising financial sponsors across the transaction lifecycle – from pre-transaction commercial due diligence to post-transaction portfolio support.

Sophia Goldberg,?Ansa

Sophia Goldberg is the author of best-selling The Field Guide to Global Payments and the CEO/co-founder of a stealth early stage startup in the payments space. Previously, she worked across commercial and product teams at Adyen in San Francisco.

Stephanie Choo,?Portage

Stephanie Choo?is a Partner at Portage – a global FinTech-focused venture capital firm investing in innovative financial technology companies. She is passionate about funding the next generation of financial services entrepreneurs.

Stephanie Khoo,?nyca

Prior to joining Nyca, Stephanie was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division. Stephanie has worked across both Sydney and New York as part of the Financial Institutions Group, with a focus on financial technology. Stephanie received her Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.

Stephany Kirkpatrick,?Orum

Stephany Kirkpatrick is Founder & CEO of Orum. She founded?Orum in 2019 on the belief that consumers should have immediate access to their money. Stephany is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER? who’s spent the last decade building technology to optimize financial outcomes for Americans.?She is a mother of two young girls and actively participates in building a future that empowers women through her mentorship work.

Trisha Kothari,?Unit21

Trisha Kothari is the co-founder and CEO of Unit21, a platform for risk and compliance operations teams in fintechs to fight fraud and money laundering. Trisha previously worked at Affirm, where she led product for the risk and identity teams.

Check out our full list of announced speakers?here?and make sure to snag your ticket before our next price jump.

Cheers, Jon

SPOTLIGHT: NY FINTECH WEEK POKER NIGHT

Empire Startups is excited to host the first-annual?NY FinTech Week Poker Night on Thursday, April 27th at RISE by Barclays.

?? Attendees will spend the evening alongside professional Atlantic City dealers, bridging connections (and friendly competition!) among founders, companies, and investors in the FinTech space.?

?? Winner receives not only bragging rights as the?FIRST?NY FinTech Week Poker Night Champion, but also a special grand prize.

?? Interested in?securing your own branded?NY FinTech Week Poker Night table? Reach out for more information.

?? FEATURED FINTECH NEWS

Reads

?? 7?investors reveal what’s hot in fintech in Q1 2023?|?TechCrunch

Even though VCs are proceeding more cautiously than before and taking their time with due diligence, they are still investing.

?? From The SEC To Fintech Finance Leader: How This CFO Leverages Her Insights And Expertise |?Forbes

With a current boom in new SEC proposals and rulemaking, it’s worth asking how companies can better predict the next regulatory moves and how best to work within them.?

?? The Dirty Little Secret of Credit Card Rewards Programs?|?The New York Times

To offset the cost of paying lavish rewards to these consumers, banks have sought to maximize other usage-based revenues.

??? Amazon and Better.com’s unlikely pairing?|?TechCrunch

Why would Amazon want to be associated with a company that appears to be far from growing and has a less than stellar reputation?

?? The few crypto firms that have registered with the SEC?|?Axios

We now have an idea about crypto companies that have registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which lets us look at their subsequent success rate.

Listens

?? Generative AI In Banking | FinTech Futures:?What the FinTech?

We're joined by patented inventor and AI/AR specialist Miguel Navarro to chat about how the recent explosion in popularity of generative AI services such as ChatGPT could impact the financial services sector.

?? Why Amex Launched a B2B Payments System | Tearsheet

Today’s guest on the show is Mohammed Badi, head of American Express’s global network business.?I invited him back on our podcast to talk about two new recent launches Amex made that I wanted you to hear more about.

The first is Amex Business Link, a B2B payments ecosystem that includes Amex’s commercial bank partners, for their customers and their suppliers. B2B payments continue to be an important theme, as different players come at this from their unique angles. The second launch is a co brand card Amex recently launched with Simon malls that rewards in-person shopping.?

?? State of FinTech 2023 | Wharton FinTech Podcast

Josh Benadiva and Kailee Costello sit down with David Jegen and Abdul Abdirahman from F-Prime Capital to discuss the State of Fintech 2023 Report.

?? FEATURED FINTECH EVENTS

BOSTON

NEW YORK

OTHER CITIES

SF & SILICON VALLEY

TORONTO

VIRTUAL

Looking for more? Find all FinTech events?here.

???FEATURED?FINTECH FUNDING ROUNDS

March 02 - March 07, 2023

SEED

Green Impact Exchange, $750K (Capital Markets, New Jersey)

Spade, $5M (Core Technology, Vancouver)

SERIES A

Vouched, $6.3M (Cyber/Fraud, Georgia)

Growfin, $7.5M (Accounting/Finance, Marietta)

Archway, $15M (Core Technology, Washington)

SERIES B

EvolutionIQ, $7M (InsurTech, New York)

?? FEATURED FINTECH JOBS

New York

• Head of Affiliate Marketing, Cadre
• Product Marketing Manager, R3
• Director, Financial Planning and Analysis, Payoneer
• ATV Relationship Manager, Gabi, a part of Experian

Remote

• Product Manager - Tokenization, Paxos
• Senior Customer Success Manager, VGS
• Senior Product Marketing Manager - Consumer, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange
• Sales Manager, MANTL

San Francisco

• Senior Director of Product Marketing - Invest, SoFi
• Revenue Operations Associate, Lively, Inc.
• Software Engineering Manager, Full Stack, Tango
• Senior IT Support Specialist, Newfront

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