Fintech in 2021 – Disrupting the Financial Services Industry

MAY 19 | 530 PM 

Please join TiE NJ for an exciting panel discussion on How Fintech companies are disrupting incumbents across the Financial Services industry?  The program will be moderated by Charter Member Sri Geedipalli, Managing Director, Simanor, LLC. The key focus of the discussion will be around the following topics:

• What is the current landscape of the Fintech Industry?
• How has Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of these technologies?
• What are the emerging opportunities for entrepreneurs interested in launching a Fintech Company?
• Which Fintech companies are attracting investor interest and getting funded?

Speakers:

Jennifer Lee - Principal, Edison Partners
Bhaskar Krishnan - Head of Product, Rakuten

Moderator:

Sri Geedipalli, Managing Director, Simanor, LLC

JENNIFER LEE

Principal, Edison Partners 

Jennifer joined Edison in 2016 and leads Fintech investments for the firm. Over the last five years with Edison, she has executed 25 complete transactions. She’s led investments in Fund That Flip and Bipsync and co-led investments in gohenry, YieldStreet, MoneyLion, Bento for Business, Clearpool Group (acquired by BMO), and ComplySci among others. She serves as a Board Director or Observer on these companies and provides strategic support on an ongoing basis. She was recognized by VCJ’s Rising Stars in 2021, NJBIZ 40 Under 40 in 2020, The Business Insider as 2019’s Rising Stars of Wall Street, NY Fintech Women’s Inspiring FinTech Females of 2019, a finalist for Finovate’s Fintech Woman of the Year for 2019, and was named to WSJ’s Women to Watch in Private Equity in 2018. 

Jennifer started her career at ForgeRock, a global leader in identity and access management with a unique history stemming from Sun Microsystems. As the first sales executive of the company, she closed deals across all geographies and industry verticals, while guiding and building the company in its rapid expansion. She also hired and managed team members and saw the company through successful Series A through C, totaling $52M in funding. Throughout her tenure, the company revenue grew in excess of 100% YoY, including 200% sales growth during the last year of her term. 

During her MBA, she evaluated venture capital investment prospects and strategic business development opportunities for the Associated Press. Prior to joining Edison, she conducted comprehensive financial analysis on select European equities and wrote proprietary value-oriented fundamental long/short investment theses for hedge fund clients of Commerzbank. In her spare time, Jennifer serves on the UNICEF New York chapter and volunteers with both Exeter and Columbia alumni associations.

 Jennifer has a BA, Economics, from Johns Hopkins University and a MBA from Columbia Business School

BHASKAR KRISHNAN

Head of Product, Rakuten

Bhaskar is a Growth-focused Product Leader with 20+ years of success building disruptive Products across FinTech and E-Commerce Marketplaces. He has built Products that democratize access to financial products leveraging the Open Banking trend and India Stack. He has also built products using Blockchain & Crypto to solve cross-country & cross-border transactions. 

Bhaskar currently manages Product  & Engineering for Rakuten’s Neobank, Payments & Credit Card divisions. He built R-Pay to the second-largest Payments App in Japan and is building global Data & Payments platforms. Prior to this, he built API & Consumer Credit Scoring products at Yodlee for a global B2B clientele. Earlier, he built Flipkart’s Data Platform, enabling real-time personalization for 100mm users, and built their Ads business to India’s 3rd largest digital Ads business.

 Bhaskar is an active angel investor across Consumer, E-Commerce, FinTech & B2b SAAS firms across India & the US. Bhaskar started his career in Capital Markets and built Investment Products for 15-years across Barclays, Standard & Poors, and Credit Suisse. 

Bhaskar has a B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

SRI GEEDIPALLI

Managing Director, Simanor,  LLC. 

Srinath ("Sri") Geedipalli has 20 years of professional experience in Operational, Business Development, and Finance roles in multiple industries. Sri is a Managing Director and Co-Founder at Simanor, an Advisory firm focused on mid-market companies in the US and India providing M&A, Strategic, and Capital Raising Advisory services.

At Simanor, he leads the Company’s initiatives within the Technology, Healthcare, and Business Services industries. Sri has successfully originated and advised on multiple M&A transactions involving the US and International companies in the IT, BPO, Healthcare, and Engineering industries. Sri has recently closed deals in the Software, Healthcare & Services industries also actively focused on SaaS and Emerging Technologies. 

Sri is a Board Member at the NYC chapter of the Alliance of M&A Advisors and TiE New Jersey. He was also presented with M&A Advisor’s Top 40 under 40 award. 

Sri has an MBA with Honors from NYU Stern School of Business.