Forbes has launched its annual 30 Beneath 30 Asia listing, recognizing the entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and changemakers who’re main transformative initiatives throughout key industries within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) area.
The Forbes 30 Beneath 30 Asia Class of 2024 options 300 notable nominees chosen throughout ten classes: The Arts (Artwork and Model, Meals and Drink); Leisure and Sports activities; Finance and Enterprise Capital; Media, Advertising and Promoting; Retail and E-Commerce; Enterprise Know-how; Business, Manufacturing and Vitality; Healthcare and Science; Social Impression and Client Know-how.
Amongst these 300 people, greater than 20 come from the fintech sector or have intensive expertise within the business. At this time we check out the fintech consultants and leaders that made it into this 12 months’s Forbes 30 Beneath 30 Asia listing.
Enterprise Software program Class (2)
Kunal Aggarwal, 27, Founder, Credflow, India
Kunal Aggarwal is the founding father of Credflow, an organization primarily based in India that develops cashflow administration software program. Established in 2019, Credflow supplies instruments for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to investigate enterprise knowledge and automate cost reminders. The software program additionally presents credit score traces to some customers, decided by their cashflow energy.
Credflow’s mission is to transition MSMEs in India from being cash-strapped to changing into cash-rich. Credflow achieves this by providing a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based answer that integrates straight with enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) methods, offering real-time analytics and deep insights into enterprise operations. This permits enterprise house owners to simply perceive advanced metrics and drive their companies towards progress.
Beneath Aggarwal’s management, Credflow has grown from a modest staff of 4 workers to over 200, and has secured about US$9 million in funding from buyers, together with Stellaris Enterprise Companions and Omidyar Community India.
As a second-time entrepreneur, Aggarwal is devoted to supporting Indian small companies. He holds an engineering diploma from IIT Delhi and comes from a household concerned in small enterprise, giving him firsthand perception into the challenges confronted by this sector.
Kentaro Yamamoto, 29, Founder and CEO, SoVa, Japan
Kentaro Yamamoto is the founder and CEO of SoVa, a digital accounting workplace primarily based in Japan. SoVa supplies a complete service that guides customers by administrative procedures associated to tax, labor, and registration, in addition to dealing with accounting operations. It serves 300 SMEs and has raised JPY 300 million (roughly US$2 million) in funding from buyers, together with CPA Companions, JAFCO, and East Ventures.
Yamamoto’s background consists of a major tutorial {and professional} journey. He graduated from Keio College’s College of Commerce, passing the CPA examination in his third 12 months and changing into a monetary accounting teacher at a significant certification faculty. After graduating in 2016, he joined Aoie Company, an organization based by a classmate, the place he performed a key position in launching the bathhouse enterprise and later turned director and CFO, overseeing back-office and monetary operations.
In addition to his position at SoVa, Yamamoto can be the president of Zenkairen, a group of younger CPAs, additional showcasing his dedication to the accounting career and help for his friends.
Finance and Enterprise Capital Class (24)
Aleena Nadeem, 29, Founder and CEO, EduFi, Pakistan
Aleena Nadeem is the founder and CEO of EduFi, a Pakistani startup that goals to make greater schooling extra accessible to college students. EduFi companions with 27 Pakistani faculties, a quantity that has doubled previously six months, to determine potential college students. After conducting its personal credit-vetting course of, EduFi pays the tutoring charges for accepted college students, who then repay the mortgage on a month-to-month foundation whereas they research.
Nadeem, an MIT graduate, has been concerned in instructional points since highschool. Her skilled background consists of internships at McKinsey and work expertise at Goldman Sachs in London and Ventura Capital, a late-stage tech fund. At Ventura Capital, she led among the largest fintech offers globally, together with investments in Paytm, Improve, and Railsbank. She additionally performed a job within the preliminary public providing (IPO) of Lyft and Auto1.
EduFi, launched in November 2021, goals to supply scholar financing options to the lots, notably specializing in helping middle-class residents in Pakistan to achieve greater schooling. Following a profitable pilot launch in 2021, EduFi started disbursing loans earlier this 12 months. The startup secured US$6.1 million in a pre-seed funding spherical led by Zayn VC in November 2023.
Yeshu Agarwal, 29, Co-Founder and CTO, Transak, India
Yeshu Agarwal is the co-founder and CTO of Transak, a web3 cost gateway that simplifies the shopping for and promoting of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Transak permits customers to buy crypto utilizing varied cost strategies comparable to bank cards or financial institution transfers, and raised US$20 million in a Collection A funding spherical in Could 2023.
Agarwal started his entrepreneurial journey on the age of 16, creating his first micro SaaS Android app. He has since amassed over 9 years of expertise in know-how, together with product improvement, programming, and crypto buying and selling.
Previous to founding Transak, Agarwal launched Capitally, a private finance app designed to assist customers handle and lower your expenses. Though Capitally confronted challenges and ultimately closed, it supplied him with useful classes in innovation and management.
Agarwal additionally based Coinally, a crypto buying and selling terminal that was efficiently acquired by LCX, the place he then served as CTO.
Aalesh Avlani, 29, Co-Founder and Govt Director, Credit score Smart Capital, India
Aalesh Avlani is the co-founder and government director of Credit score Smart Capital (CWC), a financing firm specializing in bike loans. Based in 2019, CWC makes use of know-how comparable to a WhatsApp bot for credit score scoring to attenuate the applying course of and make it simpler for individuals with out credit score histories to get loans.
Avlani is a fintech entrepreneur and angel investor primarily based in Mumbai, India. Previous to CWC, he was the founder and managing companion of a fintech-focused micro VC known as Samyakth Capital. By means of Samyakth Capital, the staff invested in over 65 firms on the seed stage. As an angel investor, Avlani has backed greater than 20 firms, amongst which BharatPe, Liquiloans and Dukaan.
CWC is now reportedly increasing into private loans and healthcare insurance coverage after raised a US$6 million seed funding spherical in 2023.
Sarkhail Bawany, 27, Head of Product, Abhi, Pakistan
Sarkhail Bawany is the top of product at Abhi, a Pakistan-based monetary wellness platform that companions with firms to supply the service as a profit to workers. Abhi, which operates in Pakistan, the Center East and Bangladesh, supplies a collection of options together with earned wage entry, payroll options, and SME financing. The startup claims it has established partnerships with over 450 firms.
Bawany is an skilled product government with a demonstrated historical past of working within the fintech business. He began off with working as a product supervisor within the innovation and digital banking staff at United Financial institution Restricted (UBL) earlier than becoming a member of Abhi as a product supervisor. He shortly grew to develop into head of product and arrange a brand new cross-functional staff construction, articulating the product technique and establishing strategic relationships with fintech companions to take Abhi’s product to new heights.
Bawany can be the CEO of Abhi’s cost providers subsidiary, Abhipay.
Kushagra Manglik and Srinivas Sarkar, 26 and 28, Co-Founders, Coupl, India
Kushagra Manglik and Srinivas Sarkar are the co-founders of Coupl, a pioneering monetary platform tailor-made for every type of {couples}. Established in early 2022, Coupl breaks limitations by providing joint accounts and linked ATM playing cards to {couples}, regardless of marital standing or sexual orientation. In contrast to conventional banks, which regularly deny such providers to single or LGBTQ {couples} and impose excessive minimal steadiness necessities, Coupl supplies an inclusive answer.
Coupl has been downloaded over 20,000 instances, and is backed by Y Combinator and Entrepreneur First World Fund.
Shahidul Islam, Abdul Gaffar Sadi, MD Tushar, 26, 27 and 27, Co-Founders, Drutoloan, Bangladesh
Abdul Gaffar Sadi, MD Tushar and Shahidul Islam are the co-founders of Drutoloan, a Dhaka-based fintech startup that helps MSMEs get lending from banks and financing firms. Established in 2019, Drutoloan presents interest-free digital enterprise loans to MSMEs utilizing knowledge as collateral. The corporate collaborates with banks, non-banking monetary establishments (NBFIs) and different monetary firm to serve unserved MSME entrepreneurs.
Since beginning the corporate, the co-founders claims Drutoloan has disbursed over US$2 million in loans. In November, it secured US$125,000 in pre-seed funding.
Yasmin Gao, 29, Companion, Capital 49, Hong Kong
Yasmin Gao is a companion at Capital 49, a VC fund established by the founders of fintech unicorn Airwallex that focuses on early-stage startups throughout SaaS, fintech, e-commerce, and enterprise providers.
Based mostly in Hong Kong, Gao joined Capital 49 in 2022, a 12 months after it was based, and has already led 4 investments, together with a US$15 million Collection A funding in Singapore-based human sources startup Skuad and a US$9 million Collection A funding in German expense administration SaaS startup Finway.
Earlier than becoming a member of Capital 49, Gao was an funding banking affiliate at Deutsche Financial institution, the place she labored on Coupang’s US$4.6 billion IPO in 2021 and the 2019 merger of Naver’s Line and SoftBank’s Yahoo Japan.
Serano Tannason, 23, Co-Founder and CTO, Bang Jamin, Indonesia
Serano Tannason is the co-founder and CTO of Bang Jamin, an insurance coverage brokerage startup in Indonesia. The corporate collaborates with insurance coverage suppliers to supply a variety of car insurance coverage merchandise, together with revolutionary choices like reasonably priced automotive insurance coverage for senior residents and a pay-per-kilometer mannequin.
With Indonesia’s insurance coverage penetration charge at lower than 5%, Tannason acknowledged the chance and co-founded Bang Jamin in 2022. A software program engineer, Tannason brings his experience from earlier roles at firms like Microsoft and RoboTutor. He holds a bachelor’s diploma in pc science and robotics from Carnegie Mellon College.
Regina Ho, 29, Senior Affiliate, Rakuten Ventures, Singapore
Regina Ho is a senior affiliate at Rakuten Ventures, the company enterprise capital (CVC) arm of the Rakuten Group. On this position, she supplies analytical and enterprise improvement help to portfolio firms and contributes to the sourcing and due diligence processes of recent funding alternatives.
Ho joined Rakuten Ventures in 2017, recent out of school, as an analyst in Singapore. Her contributions have been instrumental in deploying over US$60 million in investments throughout greater than 20 firms. Notably, she performed a key position in backing {the marketplace} unicorn Carousell and was a part of the VC’s first magnificence portfolio funding in Base, the place she turned the youngest board member. Ho additionally contributed to profitable exits in portfolios like Coda Fee and GoTo, and has facilitated the enlargement of some startups to Japan by Rakuten’s various enterprise community.
Yash Vardhan Kanoi, 28, Companion, South and Southeast Asia, Alter World, India
Yash Vardhan Kanoi is the top of investments at Alter World, a VC agency aiming to be a bridge between Silicon Valley and early-stage startups in rising markets.
Since 2019, Kanoi has been instrumental in main investments throughout Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America, together with Ula, BukuKas, and CoLearn.
Earlier than becoming a member of Alter World, Kanoi was chief of workers at Jakarta-based fintech firm Investree and helped the corporate elevate its Collection C funding spherical. Kanoi additionally labored as an funding affiliate at edtech-focused affect investing agency Grey Issues Capital, and was a senior specialist at Deloitte in Mumbai and London the place he targeted on merger and acquisition (M&A) and restructuring offers.
Kanoi graduated with a level in economics from St. Xavier’s School, Kolkata.
Manish Maryada, 29, Founder and CEO, Fello, India
Manish Maryada is the founder and CEO of Fello, an India-based platform that provides rewards to customers to make investing extra enjoyable. Fello is a rewarding financial savings software that claims greater than 1 million customers, and which has secured over US$5 million in funding.
Maryada has been related to the fintech ecosystem for over six years and helped in scaling early stage startups like Koinex and Flobiz throughout product, technique and operations. At Koinex, he was one of many first staff members and labored together with the founders in scaling the corporate to an alternate doing a buying and selling quantity of US$265 million per day. Put up Koinex and Flobiz, he was one of many Founders in Residence of EF-Bangalore’s 4th Cohort the place he began to construct Fello again in 2021.
Priyesh Srivastava and Anuj Srivastava, 24 and 27, Co-Founders, OnFinance AI, India
Priyesh Srivastava and Anuj Srivastava are the co-founders of OnFinance AI, an Indian startup that has developed a ChatGPT-like service for the finance business. Referred to as NeoGPT, the corporate’s foundational giant language mannequin (LLM) powers synthetic intelligence (AI) co-pilots for varied inner groups, enhancing productiveness and simplifying data-driven processes.
Anuj Srivastava, who serves as CEO, is a visionary entrepreneur, and BITS Pilani Goa alum of 2020. With a ardour for fintech, startups, generative AI, entrepreneurship, and AI, he has devoted his profession to revolutionizing monetary providers by technological innovation.
His skilled journey is marked by vital achievements and contributions to a number of main companies together with Barclays, Credit score Suisse, HSBC, Worldquant, Anthem, Accern, IIFL, and AT&T. His work has spanned throughout quantitative finance, funding banking, and AI, demonstrating his versatility and deep experience in each finance and know-how.
Priyesh Srivastava, who serves as CTO, is a software program engineer with expertise working at JioSaavn, a number one Indian audio streaming service, and Nutanix, a world chief in cloud software program.
Udita Pal, 27, Co-Founder, Salt, India
Udita Pal is the co-founder of Salt, a Bangalore-based fintech firm that provides remittance providers and which helps startups with their pre-funding compliance processes and documentation. The corporate supplies a banking, documentation administration, and workflow automation platform for exporters throughout India, aiming to scale back complexities within the operational and banking expertise.
Pal has been within the startup business for nearly a decade now, and has labored with a number of main startups, comparable to Opentalk, Tapchief, and Manch, performing roles various from model administration, progress administration, product advertising and marketing administration. She has additionally served as a marketing consultant to over 35 startups worldwide, serving to them scale from zero to 1.
Along with her robust expertise within the startup world, Pal is now a driving pressure behind Salt and has performed a significant position in constructing the corporate’s model and increasing its attain inside India and internationally to obtain international funds.
Seethalakshmy Narayanan, 29, Vice President of Development Investments, Premji Make investments, India
Seethalakshmy Narayanan is the vp of progress investments at Premji Make investments, a multi-family workplace specializing in personal fairness and VC investments throughout monetary providers, know-how, shopper, healthcare, industrials and buyouts.
Narayanan joined Premji Make investments as an affiliate in 2021 and has performed a pivotal position in seven vital investments, totaling over US$300 million. These investments span various sectors, together with shopper know-how, healthcare, monetary providers, and fintech. Notable offers Narayanan led embody growth-stage investments in Mintifi, a financing startup, and FirstCry, an e-commerce website, in addition to rising Premji Make investments’s stake in fintech firm KreditBee.
Earlier than becoming a member of Premji Make investments, Narayanan gained useful expertise at True North Personal Fairness Fund, a US$3 billion home buy-out fund, and Investec within the company finance staff.
Fahad Ahmed, 25, Principal in Residence, Workforce Ignite Ventures, Singapore
Fahad Ahmed is the principal in residence of VC agency Workforce Ignite Ventures. Ahmed’s funding focus covers seed-stage firms, with a selected curiosity in business-to-business (B2B), AI, SaaS and fintech. Notable investments embody North, Piction Well being, Dost, and Textla.com.
Previous to becoming a member of Workforce Ignite Ventures, Ahmed co-founded Wind.App, a cross-border remittance platform that makes use of blockchain know-how and stablecoins to supply quicker and cheaper transactions. Based in 2022, the startup secured US$3.8 million in pre-seed funding led by World Founders Capital and Spartan Group in November.
Earlier than Wind.App, Ahmed was a part of the founding staff and head of product at Pathao, the place he launched providers comparable to meals supply, funds, and ride-hailing in Bangladesh and Nepal.
A self-taught coder, Ahmed earned a bachelor’s diploma in finance and economics from the College of Dhaka.
Sagar Sheth, 28, Vice President of Investments, Eight Roads Ventures, India
Sagar Sheth serves because the vp of investments at Eight Roads Ventures, a VC agency backed by Constancy. He’s a part of the tech investing staff and focuses on investments in fintech, enterprise tech and shopper tech.
At Eight Roads Ventures, Sheth holds the excellence of being the youngest vp throughout the agency. He joined the agency again in 2018 as an analyst, the place he honed his experience for 2 years. Throughout this time, he co-founded goDutch, a fintech startup that secured US$1.7 million in seed funding led by Matrix Companions India. In 2021, Sheth returned to Eight Roads Ventures and made his first funding in Whatfix, a software program firm. Since then, Whatfix’s valuation has skyrocketed from US$40 million to over US$600 million. Sheth has additionally been concerned in different strategic investments, together with Uni Playing cards, Wint Wealth, and Financial institution Bazaar.
Jai Sumer Singh, 29, Co-Founder, Riverwalk Holdings, India
Jai Sumer Singh is the co-founder of Riverwalk Holdings, an India-focused and sector-agnostic early-stage VC fund established in 2021. The fund is anchored by the Thakral Group and has additionally raised capital from outstanding Asian household places of work. It makes a speciality of investing throughout seed to Collection A phases within the SaaS, fintech and shopper sectors.
Singh performed a pivotal position in co-founding Riverwalk Holdings, the place he leads the Investments staff and has backed firms comparable to The Ayurveda Expertise, Spotdraft and Venwiz.
Earlier than beginning Riverwalk Holdings, Singh led investments for the Thakral Group by their funding car, SGAN. From SGAN, he invested in and managed a portfolio of fifty+ firms on the seed stage. Notable exits embody Karza Applied sciences, Loginext, FabAlley, and Dropsuite (ASX:DSE).
Singh is a CFA charterholder and was additionally a part of the valuations staff at EY the place he led the execution of valuation engagements for startups elevating progress stage rounds and publicly listed firms doing M&As.
Sherman Tanuwidjaja, 29, Co-Founder and CEO, Gajiku, Indonesia
Sherman Tanuwidjaja is the co-founder and CEO of Gajiku, an Indonesia-based startup that enables blue-collar staff to entry their wage prematurely.
Tanuwidjaja has years of expertise growing enterprise know-how with a give attention to human sources (HR) options for main shoppers together with Temasek. Earlier than co-founding Gajiku, he co-founded Vara, an worker administration software, and Ocurise Consultancy, a 20-person improvement store.
Gajiku is an on-demand payroll and folks administration answer supplier based in 2021. The platform permits workers to entry wage on-demand by an employer-centric method. Working intently with employers, Gajiku presents a full suite of worker administration processes for attendance, payroll disbursal, and KPI monitoring, serving to employers digitize their human useful resource and accounting operations. It claims it has partnered with 70 firms with over 100,000 workers.
Aashish Vanigota, 28, Principal, Investments, IvyCap Ventures, India
Aashish Vanigota is a principal at Mumbai-based IvyCap Ventures, which manages US$550 million in property.
Vanigota has over seven years of expertise in early-stage investing and funding banking. Earlier than becoming a member of ivyCap, he was a part of the funding staff at Fosun RZ Capital, a number one world VC fund with property below administration (AUM) of US$1.3 billion, the place he invested in India and Southeast Asia markets. At Fosun, he was instrumental in managing six firms and efficiently exiting two firms producing stellar returns equal to the fund and complete deployment in startups in India.
Earlier than Fosun, Vanigota spent greater than 4 years at Carpediem Capital, a home early-to-mid market personal fairness fund, targeted on early-stage investing throughout consumer-tech and B2B managed providers. He was one of many early workers of the fund and was instrumental in managing three firms. He targeted on sourcing, investing, managing, and exiting the investments.
Earlier than Carpediem, Vanigota hung out at Sure Securities within the funding banking division, with a give attention to executing transactions within the media and know-how sector, and BDO India within the transaction advisory division specializing in valuations for startups and M&A transactions.
Heinrich Vincent, 29, Founder and CEO, Bizhare, Indonesia
Heinrich Vincent is the founder and CEO of Bizhare, a Jakarta-based digital funding platform for SMEs. Bizhare helps SMEs increase their enterprise by sharing the possession of their enterprise to public buyers. Traders, alternatively, get to spend money on worthwhile companies or franchise companies collectively and earn passive revenue streams by dividend and revenue sharing scheme.
In addition to his position at Bizhare, Vincent can be a founding member and the vice chairman of ALUDI, the Indonesia Crowdfunding Affiliation.
Notable as a SWA Indonesia Younger Enterprise Chief in 2021, Vincent participated within the Y Combinator Startup College Advisory Monitor in 2018 and obtained the Alibaba E-Founders Fellowship in 2019.
Aryaman Vir, 28, Founder and CEO, WiseX, India
Aryaman Vir is the founder and CEO of WiseX, previously often known as Myre Capital. WiseX is a fractional funding platform in actual property that enables retail buyers to take part in institutional grade funding alternatives.
Beneath Vir’s steerage, WiseX has achieved exceptional success, managing investments value over INR 2.75 billion (US$33 million) in lower than three years of existence.
With a robust instructional basis in networked and social methods engineering (Undergraduate) and methods engineering (Masters) from the College of Pennsylvania, Vir combines his engineering background with a ardour for algorithms and large knowledge analytics. This distinctive mix empowers him to develop a sturdy mannequin that caters to various audiences searching for safe and worthwhile actual property investments. Vir’s experience lies in using superior fashions and knowledge evaluation strategies to determine business traits and anomalies in the actual property sector.
Mumtahina Anika and Sultan Moni, 25 and 28, Co-Founders, Zatiq, Bangladesh
Mumtahina Anika and Sultan Moni are the co-founders of Zatiq, a fintech startup primarily based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Zatiq’s mission is to help small firms in enhancing their accounting practices by user-friendly software program and {hardware} options.
Moni, who serves as CEO, boasts a decade-long entrepreneurial journey marked by the institution and progress of assorted ventures. His notable ventures embody Ongrocery, a grocery supply app headquartered in Peterborough, Ontario, which quickly expanded to fifteen+ cities inside its first 12 months earlier than being acquired. He additionally co-founded Expresscart, a logistics and meals distribution firm, supplying meals merchandise from over 100 worldwide and native manufacturers to supermarkets and eating places throughout the Better Toronto Space.
Anika, who serves as COO, has a five-year background in enhancing profitability, decreasing prices, and elevating customer support requirements by lateral pondering and strategic planning. At Zatiq, she oversees monetary, personnel, and operational facets. Her entrepreneurial journey started at age 15, culminating within the institution of a profitable four-district chain enterprise producing US$50,000 in day by day income and empowering roughly 50 ladies with out exterior funding.
