Event Speakers
Joachim Samuelsson
CEO/ Crunchfish AB
Joachim Samuelsson
CEO
Crunchfish AB
Joachim Samuelsson is the CEO and main owner of NASDAQ First North listed Crunchfish from Malmö. Joachim is a deep tech pioneer and a serial entrepreneur. Crunchfish pursues the global business opportunity making payments and other digital applications robust, trusted, and secure by a patent-pending Trusted Application Protocol enabling survivability in the face of temporary failures on links and nodes.
Crunchfish Digital Cash will future-proof payment ecosystems with a more robust payments that work regardless if the payer is online or not and even when backend servers are down. In India, Crunchfish Digital Cash offline is piloted by HDFC Bank and IDFC First Bank in the Regulatory Sandbox of RBI. There are also integrations for offline payments using Digital Cash telecom for the eRupee and PPI on UPI.
Joachim has been in a leadership position in seven successful business exits of which four involved his automatic frequency planning innovation for mobile telecom networks. Joachim holds more than 20 patents in digital payments and communications and has been awarded many times for his entrepreneurship.
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Nalin Bansal
Chief of Fintech, Corporates and New Initiative / NPCI
Nalin Bansal
Chief of Fintech, Corporates and New Initiative
National Payments Corporation of India
Nalin is a Product & Business Strategy Professional with
a rich experience of 20+ years on global assignments
covering Technology, Telecom & Payments domain.
He has spearheaded the launch of many initiatives in the
telecom and payments business and incubated new age
payment solutions with organizations like Airtel,
MasterCard and NPCI. He has also been an advisor to
multiple start-ups for their go-to-market strategy.
He started his career with Bharti Airtel in 2001 and was
a part of the India’s telecom revolution. He had been
responsible for spearheading some key projects for
Airtel which included Strategic outsourcing, Telecom
roll outs, Tower cost optimization and GIS based Market
planning. Later as part of the principal team at Bharti
group he evaluated and executed projects in new areas
like DTH, Mobile wallets and International acquisitions. At MasterCard he led the product launch
for and their Bill Payments platform in India.
Presently he is serving as Chief of Corporate Business and Key Initiatives at National Payments
Corporation of India (NPCI). Under his leadership, NPCI was able to swiftly launch the prestigious
Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) platform for Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Common
Mobility Card (NCMC) for Transit operators and Smart Cities and rolled out solutions in the area
of Contactless Payments, Secure Online Commerce and Tokenization.
At NPCI, he has been contributed extensively in building the ecosystem of payments enabling
Governments, Corporates, Merchants, MSMEs and driving consumption for consumers in all
segments. In his current role he is tasked to set up partnerships to drive new use cases for Fintech,
Startups & Merchants not just in payments but also in areas of loyalty, analytics and identification.
Nalin is a Communications engineer from University of Pune and holds a Master’s degree in
Diploma (Strategy) in Business Management from FORE, Delhi.
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Shanthi Kartheeswaran
President - Risk / Tutelar Fintech Private Limited
Shanthi Kartheeswaran
President - Risk
Tutelar Fintech Private Limited
Ms. Shanthi Kartheeswaran : is an enthusiastic risk engine architect with over 15 years of proficiency in combating a broad spectrum of online fraud. She has extensive experience in analyzing e-commerce fraud patterns, developing mitigation techniques, and creating data-driven strategies. Her expertise in designing and building real-time risk solutions has benefitted businesses in lowering fraud rates.
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Santhosh Reddy
Co-Founder & VP-Technology / ShakePe
Santhosh Reddy
Co-Founder & VP-Technology
ShakePe
Santhosh Reddy is the Co-founder and CTO at ShakeDeal, one of the fastest-growing B2B procurement solutions providing and distributing platforms in India. He is the man behind designing and developing end-to-end technological solutions at the company.
After pursuing Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science) from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Santhosh went ahead to work for Mindtree in various capacities and developed expertise in developing applications for different business processes. He bagged a plethora of experience mentoring project teams on numerous topics, including responsive web design, design thinking and bootstrap. As a consultant, he has helped many start-ups build their end-to-end products in the field of Finance, Video streaming, IoT, Entertainment & Ecommerce sectors. Before onboarding ShakeDeal, Santhosh’s experience as a Development Architecture in developing reporting solutions for the Zoom platform and building a PDS management system empowered him to take over further challenges and ace them with his know-how and hands-on industry expertise.
With over 15 years of technical experience working for various Fortune 500 clients, Santhosh has mastered defining technological roadmaps that lead to operational efficiency. He is committed to developing high-end, technologically-backed solutions to resolve multiple pain points in the B2B industry. His tech-savvy outlook and zeal for designing and implementing sustainable solutions have helped him achieve notable milestones in his entrepreneurship journey.
As a CTO at ShakeDeal, Santhosh is responsible for building technology solutions to improve business processes, increase productivity and efficiency and reduce cost for ShakeDeal’s customers, vendors and internal employees. Santhosh also oversees the skill development of all internal employees by designing appropriate upskill programmes.
In his leisure time, Santhosh loves to sketch, read screenplays, and watch theater. He also likes to mentor technology enthusiasts and learn about other businesses and their business models.
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Prasanna Lohar
Chief Executive Officer / Block Stack
Prasanna Lohar
Chief Executive Officer
Block Stack
Prasanna Lohar : I have Over 22+ Years of Industry Experience in Engineering and Development, Product Development, Organization Strategy & Governance, Risk Audit Compliance Management, Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture, Mobile Apps, Digital Transformation, Fintech, E-Commerce, Payments, Platform & Product Innovation, Data Science, Automation, AR & VR , Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Open Stack, Cloud Computing, Analytics, Big Data, IOT, Blockchain, UI-UX & Business Development.
As part of Professional career into worked Globally for Bank, Fintech, Micro-Finance, Engineering, Multi-National companies for Digital & Architecture Transformation, I am closely associated with New & latest technology Strategy, Assimilation, Experimentation, Innovative Customer Servicing & Engagement, Robust Architecture Implementation, Fintech & Startup Alignment, Open Innovation practices, Collaboration with other Banks on various initiatives.
I have done 100+ Digital Deliveries on Digital Front for My DCB bank into Innovation, Digital Channels e.g. ATM, Internet banking, Mobile banking, SMS Banking, Social Command Center, Enterprise Innovation for Operational excellence, ATMChain, Smartstart an Blockchain Initiatives, Zippi – Straight thru A/c Open with API Banking, DCB Remit, Video KYC.
I am Part of various deliveries like India’s first Aadhaar & Biometric enabled ATM, Paperless A/c Opening India’s first Omni-Channel Framework for Bank, KYC, Blockchain, Mobile banking & Mobile Apps, Virtual Reality based App, Open Banking & Internet Banking Initiative, Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment, API Management, Blockchain, Switch & Cards relevant initiatives
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Abhishek Mody
Digital Banking & Transformation Expert
Abhishek Mody
Digital Banking & Transformation Expert
Abhishek Experienced professional in Retail & Business Payments, MSME & Consumer Lending & Digital Banking as Product/Strategy SME. Worked with Banks, Payment aggregators, Technology & Entities in Product & Solution Roles. MBA from US, incubated career with likes of Washington Mutual & Wells Fargo (for their Retail & Mortgage divisions) as Business Systems Analyst.
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Prithwish Sinha
Associate Director / PwC India
Prithwish Sinha
Associate Director
PwC India
Prithwish Sinha: MBA from MDI Gurgaon with 14+ years of experience in Payments and Banking Domain
- Leading Business Development and Engagements for Large Accounts (Mega Banks and Conglomerates)
- Have advised Clients across payment form factors ranging from Strategy to Implementation
- Leading the Ecosystem and Cards Strategy for the practice
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Sunil Kulkarni
CEO / BCFI
Sunil Kulkarni
CEO
Business Correspondents Federation of India (BCFI)
Sunil is the CEO of Business Correspondents Federation of India (BCFI), a member institution
with over 60 Corporate BCs servicing 20 Lakh BC Agents pan India. He is also Strategic Advisor
– Payments & Digital Banking to select banks. As a Fintech Professional, he provides strategic
advisory services in Fintech & Payments space to select initial & growth stage start-ups, Sunil
has over 35 years of cross-industry experience in technology-led businesses. In his last
assignment (Dec 2019), he was the Joint Managing Director for Oxigen Services, a company
he helped build over 15 years.
Sunil is referred to as the techno-savvy brain behind developing a successful business model,
using technology, for varied services & products, including the Oxigen Mobile Wallet, an
innovative payment mechanism and prepaid wallet, accessible online/on-mobile. He
successfully led the company's Business Development and was also the architect for the
technology solutions in the initial phase. He, alongside the Oxigen core team, converted
Oxigen from a Recharges/BillPay company, to an integrated Branchless Banking & Payment
Solutions company with state of art Oxigen SuperPoS MicroATM. He was responsible for
taking the company in 2010-15 period to its next greenfield opportunity in Domestic &
International Remittances, Merchant Payments, Aadhaar enabled payments, Loyalty &
Corporate Expense Management Solution using Mobile Wallets/cards.
Before taking the role of CEO-BCFI, he was the founding member & Director on board of the
BCFI and also co-chaired Prepaid Payments Instruments (PPI) committee in Payments Council
of India (PCI). He has contributed through PCI, enabling environment for PPI industry with his
interactions with government (Ministry of Finance) and regulator (Reserve Bank of India). He
actively participated in Mobile Payments Forum of India (MPFI) in 2007-10 for facilitating RBI’s
first prepaid payments instruments (PPI) guidelines in 2009. He also co-chaired the Prepaid
Payments Instruments (Mobile Wallets) Committee in the Payments Council of India (PCI) and
through his interactions with government and regulator during and post demonetisation,
made an immense contribution to creating an enabling environment for the Digital
Payments/Wallet industry.
Prior to joining Oxigen, Sunil served as General Manager - Marketing & Business Development
in Motorola India Wireless Infrastructure business. He started his professional journey with
Siemens Ltd., where he last served as the Head of Semi-Conductor Division. Sunil is an
Engineering Graduate in Electronics & Communication with Gold medal in 1986 from Jodhpur
and completed his Management Education from Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad in 1992-93.
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Abhishek Kothari
CEO / Pepper Money India
Abhishek Kothari
CEO
Pepper Money India
Abhishek is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and ISB Hyderabad. He is an accomplished serial entrepreneur and most notably the founder of one of the largest SME lending Fintechs in India – FlexiLoans. After he exited his last venture, he is now ambitiously building Pepper Money - one of India’s most loved financial services brands.
Apart from being an active angel investor, he is one of the top speakers and content contributors in Indian Fintech ecosystems and has spoken at events like TiE Mumbai, IAMAI, Digital Money 2017, DLAI (Digital Lenders Association of India), Payments Summit by Economic Times, India Fintech Awards and many more.
Prior to FlexiLoans.com, Abhishek was the Europe head of financial services for one of the recent unicorns - Fractal Analytics. In 2016, he permanently moved back to India to be a part of the emerging FinTech landscape and founded FlexiLoans.com.
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Sandeep Sharma
Founder CEO / HiSAVE
Sandeep Sharma
Founder CEO
HiSAVE
Sandeep Sharma : Hands on management professional with tenacity to handle large and complex business environment. Track record in top notch banks and financial institutions, to grow top line with enhanced focus on bottom line. Proven leadership in handling large branches network/ distribution , with expertise in driving complex roles in area of operation , sales across all client segments including microfinance , fintech, retail, MSME & digital initiatives. Have scripted successful roll out of platform based digital banking, International and proprietary cards, agent banking – mobile wallet strategy, and full services on NeoBanking , leading to enhanced innovations in all market segments, with special focus on the bottom of the pyramid.
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Harsh Vardhan Masta
Head of Digital Payments /Policybazaar
Harsh Vardhan Masta
Head of Digital Payments
Policybazaar
Harsh Vardhan Masta is Head of Digital Payments at Policybazaar where he is leading the digital payments initiatives. With more than 14 years of experience in product development, management, tech, and new initiatives, he has been passionately involved in the Fintech space. Prior to Policybazaar, Harsh led the digital payment initiatives at IndiaMART and also served as the Director for their payment gateway, Pay with IndiaMART. He is credited with the ideation and launch of this product and more such initiatives at the organization.
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Vishesh Sharma
Chief Marketing Officer /Bajaj Financial Securities
Vishesh Sharma
Chief Marketing Officer
Bajaj Financial Securities
Vishesh Sharma has been recognized for his remarkable professional accomplishments. In 2020, he was named Content Marketer 40u40 by Exchange for Media and the Marketing Leader of the Year in the BFSI segment by Nasscom. A year later, he was honored as the Rising Media Star by Best Media Info, Corporate Communications Person of the Year by AdGully, and 40u40 PR Professional by Reputation Today. He won Gold at Inkspell awards under the category of Content Marketing Professional 2021. Vishesh was also bestowed with Excellence in PR award by Adgully under their Leader 2.0 awards in 2022 and was also felicitated by World Marketing Congress as one of India’s Top 50 Influential Marketing Leaders.
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Vaibhav Joshi
Co-founder, CBO & Global Head BFSI / Ayekart Fintech
Vaibhav Joshi
Co-founder, CBO & Global Head BFSI
Ayekart Fintech
Vaibhav Joshi : A proven strategist, planner & able business leader with strong experience in creating and implementing predictable revenue & sustainable business models. Proficient in Business & Product functions with key domain expertise across Digital Banking. Has recognised proficiency in spearheading a product or business with an aim to accomplish corporate goals successfully, having successfully led small to mid-size teams from diverse backgrounds across different geographies.
An enthusiast for Innovations with a result oriented approach, achieving product innovations within regulatory compliances. A result oriented leader with a strong focus on new technology innovations and changing market realities.
An avid learner/ student of life with a flare for all things digital. A BFSI Industry expert who participates across various industry forums as a panelist/ speaker for sharing his knowledge.
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Abhishant Pant
founder / The Fintech Meetup
Abhishant Pant
founder
The Fintech Meetup
Abhishant Pant is founder of “The Fintech Meetup” India’s largest Fintech ecosystem. TFM works closely with 50+ large Financial institutions, 1500+ Fintech startups and 500+ Venture Investors. Key focus are acting as Innovation bridge between large FI and Fintech startups, Financial Inclusion : Focussing on Digital txn literacy. Before starting TFM Abhishant was heading new banks, financial Inclusion and Fintech for Visa India and SA.
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Ishan
Lead - Research and M&A / The Fintech Meetup
Ishan
Lead - Research and M&A
The Fintech Meetup
Ishan is currently heading research and M&A at The Fintech Meetup, India's largest Fintech ecosystem and YAN Angel Fund (India's only fintech focused angel fund). Prior to this, has been associated with The Economic Times and Moneycontrol as Financial Journalist, covering Banking, NBFC, Insurance & Fintech segments.
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Sahil Shah
Domestic Payment and Receivables Head
Citi India
Sahil Shah
Domestic Payment and Receivables Head
Citi India
Sahil Shah : is the India Head for Domestic Payments & Receivables, covering the full suite of domestic transactional payments and receivables needs of corporate, commercial, financial institution and public sector clients in India. Sahil’s responsibilities include product development & management and driving innovation in payments space by leveraging new technologies as well as building external partnerships. Sahil has 11+ years of experience in Trade Operations & Cash Management businesses in India. He holds the MBA degree from Asian Institute of Management, Manila – Philippines.
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Sameer Gupta
Head – Business Development – Payments, Financial Services / Amazon Web Services
Sameer Gupta
Head – Business Development – Payments, Financial Services
Amazon Web Services
Sameer is the Head of Payments, Go-To-Market for India in the Amazon Web Services Worldwide Financial Services Go-To-Market (GTM) Specialist team. He has 19+ years of experience in the financial services industry. Sameer was most recently the Director of Product Innovation & FinTech Partnerships (South Asia) in Transaction Banking (Treasury & Trade Solutions) business at Cit India. In his 15 years career at Citi, Sameer has been responsible for roles across Product Management, B2B sales, Operation & Technology, Innovation & Partnerships and Implementation. Sameer also had a product management stint at Infosys Finacle (now EdgeVerve).
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Abhijit Dey
Vice President - API Banking Product Head,DBAT / Axis Bank
Abhijit Dey
Vice President - API Banking Product Head,DBAT
Axis Bank
Abhijit Dey is currently the Vice President – Product Head API Banking at Axis Bank. He is an experienced Product Head with a demonstrated history of working in the BFSI sector. Abhijit is skilled in API management and API monetization and has created Open API framework for banks.
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Event Host
Shanmathy Karthik
Founder and CVO / Witty Wise