This content is from: Portfolio
The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Michael Schlein, Accion International
No. 21


Equally at home in corporate and public service roles, Michael Schlein is currently straddling those worlds while pursuing an emerging-markets fintech strategy. A former senior Citigroup executive and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chief of staff, Schlein since 2009 has been president and CEO of Cambridge, Massachusetts–based Accion International, a nonprofit founded in 1961 that has been instrumental in building 64 microfinance institutions in 32 countries. On a financial-inclusion track parallel to that of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (see Rodger Voorhies, No. 20), Accion has established two vehicles that are channeling capital toward technology in the developing world: Frontier Investments Group, targeting early- and growth-stage companies since 2009, and Venture Lab, which has invested in about 20 seed-stage start-ups since 2012. “Between the two we have an extraordinary pipeline of disruptive companies that are trying to change the way we meet the financial needs of the poor,” says Schlein, 54. For example, Frontier owns an interest in Tiaxa, a Chilean company that operates primarily in Southeast Asia, applying sophisticated analytics to cell phone usage to make instant assessments of customers’ creditworthiness, even for minuscule “nano-loans.” Explains Schlein, “Transaction sizes are no longer too small.” Another portfolio company, U.K.-based Azimo, brings down the cost of the cross-border remittances that many immigrant populations depend on. Schlein, who in 2014 was appointed by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to be chairman of the city’s Economic Development Corp., contends that “all the charity in the world” won’t bring more than 2 billion people worldwide out of poverty. “You need to harness the financial markets.”
![]() 2. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners ![]() 3. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures ![]() 4. Steven McLaughlin Financial Technology Partners ![]() 5. Jonathan Korngold General Atlantic |
![]() 6. Richard Garman & Brad Bernstein FTV Capital ![]() 7. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park Anthemis Group ![]() 8. Thomas Jessop Goldman Sachs Group ![]() 9. Meyer (Micky) Malka Ribbit Capital ![]() 10. Hans Morris Nyca Partners |
![]() 11. Maria Gotsch Partnership Fund for New York City ![]() 12. Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz ![]() 13. Barry Silbert Digital Currency Group ![]() 14. Jay Reinemann Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria ![]() 15. Mariano Belinky Santander InnoVentures |
![]() 16. François Robinet AXA Strategic Ventures ![]() 17. Vanessa Colella Citi Ventures ![]() 18. Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi Credit Suisse NEXT Fund ![]() 19. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena SenaHill Partners ![]() 20. Rodger Voorhies Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation |
![]() 21. Michael Schlein Accion International ![]() 22. Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates ![]() 23. Rumi Morales CME Ventures ![]() 24. Mark Beeston Illuminate Financial Management ![]() 25. Vladislav Solodkiy Life.SREDA |
![]() 26. Fabian Vandenreydt Innotribe SWIFT ![]() 27. Derek White Barclays ![]() 28. Alex Batlin UBS ![]() 29. Jeffrey Greenberg & Vincenzo La Ruffa Aquiline Capital Partners ![]() 30. P. Howard Edelstein REDI Holdings |
![]() 31. Nektarios Liolios Startupbootcamp FinTech ![]() 32. Roy Bahat Bloomberg Beta ![]() 33. Andrew McCormack Valar Ventures ![]() 34. Lawrence Wintermeyer Innovate Finance ![]() 35. Janos Barberis FinTech Hong Kong |