AGENDA

Panel Discussion + Q&A (1 Hour)

• What is the worst kept secret of the fintech industry?
• Why do you feel that Fintech is so hot? Do you think valuations are overheating
• What was the most difficult hire for you and why
• What is the secret to working with Incumbents?
• What extreme measures do you see on the competition side to win over customers
• Do you feel that market participants collaborate at all?
• How much time should a fintech founder invest in building relationships with regulators?

SPEAKER BIOS

Shachar Bialick - Founder and CEO at Curve.com

Shachar is the founder and CEO of Curve, the banking platform that brings your credit and debit cards into one smart app. Curve’s partners include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Mastercard and Checkout.Com. Curve has 2.2m customers, employs more than 300 people and is in the process of hiring another 300 in 2021. Curve recently raised its Series C funding round and topped it up with a very successful crowdfunding campaign, bringing the total raised in investment so far to $182.5m. Curve is live in 31 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Portugal, Norway and Sweden.

Prior to launching Curve, Shachar built and led several companies, including those in healthcare, finance, e-commerce and mobile telecommunications. He’s an MBA of INSEAD. Shachar founded his first start-up at the age of 21, just after leaving the Israeli military.

Aneesh Varma - Founder & CEO at Aire.io

Aneesh is a London-based serial entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known as the founder of Aire - a fintech company building a new process to a simplify credit decisions for consumers. He also previously co-founded FabriQate, an international mobile technology company which went on to be an HSBC Startup Star 2008 & 2009, LDA KC Award 2009, British Council's Young Entrepreneur in 2009 and CF500 in 2010. He was featured on the Business Insider 35 under 35 Fintech list in 2018.

Varma has been a vocal campaigner for financial inclusion. He was educated at Lehigh University, USA studying Engineering and a second degree in Quantitative Finance. He was recognised as CCT's Technology Innovator of the Year 2020, and European Commission's Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 nominee.

MODERATOR

Farid Haque

Farid is a Venture Builder at Accenture and Chairman at Erly Stage Studios. Erly Stage Studios is a gaming and innovation studio distributed based between Europe and Asia.

Farid is also a mentor at Antler, Techstars and Venture Network.