Alex Marquez launched Experian Ventures in 2016 and is currently the Global Managing Director and a member of Experian’s Investment Committee. As a leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world, we invest in data/analytics, information security, healthcare, automotive and the broader financial services ecosystem. We have invested more than $225m across the globe since inception. Alex was Managing Director with USAA’s Corporate Development Group and a member of USAA’s Executive Management team where he built USAA Ventures into one of the most active FinTech CVC after his first year. Alex created USAA’s Blockchain Working Group and investment thesis in blockchain [according to CBInsights, USAA was recognized as the first bank/insurance company to invest in blockchain technologies] and was responsible for the group investment in Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), Saffron (acq by Intel), and CafeX, ExpectLabs (acq by Cisco), while establishing USAA’s venture brand in Silicon Valley. Alex was a Director with Intel Capital, the world’s largest corporate venture group having invested over $14B globally. In addition, Alex was co-founder and CEO of AppScotch, which brought transparency to paid mobile advertising. AppScotch was acquired by AppAnnie in 2016. Alex received his BS Electrical Engineering with emphasis in Semi-Conductor Physics from UNLV and received his MBA from Purdue University.
Interviews
Kaarel Kotkas, CEO Veriff
Kaarel is the strategic thinker and visionary behind Veriff. Kaarel keeps Veriff’s team one step ahead of fraud and competition in the dynamic world of online identification. Under Kaarel’s leadership, Veriff has become a leader in the IDV market, currently the only service provider offering near-real-time verification (improving from 70 seconds to 6 seconds in 2020), with sophisticated fraud control delivering close to 99% decision accuracy. Kaarel’s emphasis on global impact has led Veriff’s AI-powered decision engine to analyze more than 9,550 variations of government-issued IDs from over 190 countries in 39 different languages.
Jon Soberg, Managing Partner MS&AD Ventures
Jon Soberg is Managing Partner at MS&AD Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on the future of finance, risk assessment, and building a sustainable society. Jon has made over 120 investments across 5 continents and has held more than 40 board positions. Prior to becoming an investor, Jon was a serial entrepreneur and operator, with an IPO exit at Adforce. Jon has a Master’s degree in Engineering, a CFA, and is an MBA and Palmer Scholar at Wharton. Jon is ranked #13 on Business Insider’s Seed 100 list of top seed investors.
Akshay Krishnaiah, Founder/CEO Line
Akshay Krishnaiah Founder & CEO of fast growing subscription-based Cash Now Pay Later startup Line (useline.com) Akshay is a millennial, immigrant, uber driver (36,000 miles SF Bay Area) turned Techstars fintech startup founder & CEO at Line (useline.com) that came out of stealth this July and has taken the world by storm by delivering over $500,000 in Lines at $30 a line in just the last 90 days, to people who earn as low as $600 a month helping them make ends meet while proving to the world that you can do social good and run a profitable business by posting an impressive 11X jump in monthly recurring revenue. He was previously Global Product Head at PayPal’s research labs where he earned over 75 patent publications covering hardware, payments, embedded fintech and consumer fintech and prior to that he headed the highly coveted PayPal-eBay Retail Labs where he and his team invented Wallet Tokenization the foundational technology behind most of PayPal and Venmo’s recent breakthroughs along with Handsfree shopping using bluetooth a predecessor to the computer vision based Amazon Go. His tour of academic duties include Stanford, MIT and University of Texas and was also once offered Adjunct Professor role at Cornell which he had to decline to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. But, he is most proud of his role as a dad, husband, brother and son of parents who came from extreme poverty, worked hard to give great education, tolerant values and culture.