< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

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.”

 
The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

1. James Robinson III & James Robinson IV RRE Ventures 2. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners 3. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures Private Markets Investment Outlook Q2 2025: Opportunities Amid Uncertainty Sponsored by Schroders Capital May 1, 2025 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