FinTech Silicon Valley

Yash Patel is General Partner at Telstra Ventures, a San Francisco-based VC firm that differentiates by generating revenue for its portfolio with strategic channel partners and customer relationships as well as by using data science to drive its investment process. Yash's focus is on the consumer side of fintech, Web3, crypto, esports, gaming, SaaS apps, ecommerce, and marketplace. Some of his standout fintech investments while at Telstra Ventures are companies like Super.com (Super Apps) and Playbook (next-gen wealthtech). Previously, Yash was the Director of Corporate Development & Strategy at Adknowledge and was part of the technology investment banking team at Jefferies & Company prior.

Max has decades of experience building global IT & fintech businesses. After getting his MBA at Stanford, he co-founded Russia's largest eCommerce company, Wikimart (dubbed "the Amazon of Russia" by Silicon Valley VCs) and raised $50M+ from Tiger Global. He then switched over to work with e-commerce companies in Asia, focusing mainly on payments as a CEO, investor, and advisor to numerous startups. He started Silverbird amidst the pandemic in London, in 2020, after noticing a major banking gap in international trade: millions of underserved SMEs around Africa, Middle East, and Asian regions and beyond were exposed to high fees, unfair rejections, unnecessary paperwork, and outdated regulations. The key pain point was high-value cross-border transactions - something international trade is all about. Silverbird makes cross-border banking business-friendly and international payments borderless, limitless, frictionless and affordable. It can onboard companies traditional banks can't through the use of AI and data-driven KYC which analyzes publicly open customs and supply chain data to assess the risk-profile of a particular SME.

Max Krupyshev, CoFounder/CEO of the crypto payment ecosystem CoinsPaid. He is a serial entrepreneur with long-standing experience in developing fintech and crypto projects. Having entered the world of crypto in 2013, he stood at the origins of this market in Ukraine, launching a Bitcoin Foundation to promote crypto adoption in the country. Before joining CoinsPaid, he was the product owner for CEX.IO, a global cryptocurrency ecosystem and market leader. As the CEO of CoinsPaid, he sets the goal for the company to become the connecting link between crypto and traditional businesses.

Jeff Booth is a visionary leader, technology entrepreneur and best-selling author of The Price of Tomorrow – Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future. With his expertise in technology, system thinking and design, he is at the forefront of a transition from an economic system built for the past, and one built for the future. Jeff has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, Inc.com, The Globe and Mail, BNN, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2015, he was named BC Technology Industry Association’s (BCTIA) Person of the Year, and in 2016 Goldman Sachs named him among its 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. He is a Founding Partner of ego death capital, Co-Founder of addy and NocNoc. He has been a Young Presidents Organization member since 2004 and contributes time as a Founding Fellow at the Creative Destruction Lab. Jeff currently sits on the boards of Scoop Solar, Terramera, Fedi and Breez.

Andy has been a prominent figure in the financial services industry for more than 25 years, during which he has served as President and owner of Miles Franklin, Precious Metals, Ltd.  Prior to starting Miles Franklin, Ltd. in 1989, Andrew became a Licensed Financial Planner, specializing in Swiss Franc Investments and alternative investments.  At Miles Franklin Ltd., a company that has recently eclipsed $5 billion in sales, Andrew has developed an operation that maintains trust, collaboration, ethical behavior, superior customer service and satisfaction to better serve their clients.  He is responsible for overseeing the firm's operations and business functions, including strategic planning, account management, finance, and new business. Andrew has distinguished himself as a successful entrepreneur, a foremost expert on the precious metals industry and a reputable speaker on economics, global investing, and foreign currencies.

Stacy has been working in the blockchain sphere since 2016. She has worked as a marketing consultant for businesses who wanted to integrate blockchain. She has worked with trading platforms, DeFi projects and has worked in Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa & South Korea. The Calypso Group are mainly focused on Calypso Pay. Calypso Pay is a crypto payment processor. They released several financial products for different business segments. Their global aim is to help business seamlessly adopt crypto (dive into Web3)

Eric Shoykhet is the Founder of Atom Finance and Link Financial Technologies link.money ,venture-backed software companies that collectively have raised $100mm. Previously, he was an investor at Governors Lane, an event-driven hedge fund. At Governors Lane, Eric worked on investments across a variety of sectors including industrials, financials, technology, and consumer staples. Prior to this, he worked in the Restructuring and Reorganization group at Blackstone. Eric graduated from the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business at the University of Pennsylvania with degrees from both the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Michael Fanfant is a Palo Alto-based General Partner at Runa Capital. He looks for early stage startups with solutions across B2B SaaS and regulated industries like fintech, edutech and digital health. Michael joined Runa in 2017 after co-founding Octane Lending, where he was also COO. He serves on the board of Octane Lending, which was valued at more than $900 million during its Series D round in 2021.

Vladimir is a entrepreneur with long-standing experience in establishing and developing fintech projects. The total capitalization of Vladimir’s projects exceeded $1 billion at the beginning of 2022. As a professional businessman, Vladimir is interested in developing new, never-before seen solutions that would benefit society and improve the quality of everyday life. As the CEO of Choise.com, Mr. Gorbunov is responsible for managing the company's development, building operational processes, and achieving short-term and long-term goals in accordance with the established mission.

Hugo is an entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the marketing communication space. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Minima - the world’s first completely decentralized, and mobile native blockchain protocol. Prior to launching Minima, Hugo ran and founded internationally awarded advertising agencies, creating global campaigns for companies including Vodafone, Toshiba and Sony Electronics.  He was previously General Manager of marcomms at Sony Europe for its computer and audio divisions.