Sankaet Pathak, Founder & CEO Synapse completed a Master’s in electrical engineering at the University of Memphis, where he previously majored in computer engineering, physics and mathematics. A scientist at heart, much of Pathak’s academic work was focused on physics and research related to the solar corona. As a student at the University of Memphis and a recent immigrant to the USA, Sankaet Pathak needed to open a bank account. He was surprised to learn that wasn’t an easy task. Sankaet knew he had to develop a better option not only for himself but for the over 20% of adults in the USA with poor or limited credit history. Sankaet founded Synapse with an eye toward offering a viable alternative to legacy banking systems, while providing operational simplicity, efficiency & ease of integration to perform virtually any banking interaction. Sankaet is launching an AI startup soon called Foundation.
Interviews
Yash Patel, General Partner Telstra Ventures
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 Faldin, CEO/Founder Silverbird
Max Faldin, CEO/Founder Silverbird, 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Middle East, and Asian regions and beyond were exposed to high fees, unfair rejections, unnecessary paperwork, and outdated regulations.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 CoinsPaid
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.
