Raghu is the Co-founder and CEO of FalconX, one of the largest and fastest growing digital asset brokerages. He’s an engineer by background and passionate about building products that create value – leading him to become a serial entrepreneur, product leader, active investor, and board advisor to several Silicon Valley startups. Prior to FalconX, Raghu held product leadership roles in Google. He was on Sundar Pichai’s Chrome OS team and led efforts to scale Chromebooks to over $3 billion revenue for Google and its partners. He started his career at Motorola as an engineer in a team that pioneered high definition video transmission over IPstack, laying the technical foundation for many popular video streaming services such as Netflix and Youtube. Raghu holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, M.S. from University of Texas at Dallas specializing in Signal Processing & Machine Learning, and B.Tech. from Vellore Institute of Technology.
Silicon Valley
Ken Kruszka, Founder/CEO Snapcheck
Ken is a FinTech and Payments pioneer, who holds the distinction of being the first person to send $1 around the world by mobile transfer. In his career, Ken has launched: the first mobile remittances service in the US, the first global mobile bank account, the first neobank for immigrants in the US, and the first decoupled business payments smart switch. Currently, Ken leads SnapCheck in revolutionizing business-to-business payments: eliminating $50 Billion in costs, removing $20 Billion in fraud. Previously, as co-founder and CEO of m-Via, Ken grew the company into an industry-recognized leader in mobile financial services and brought the company to cash-flow positive before leading m-Via through an acquisition by Boom Financial. Ken is a Founding Member of the Faster Payments Council, as well as a member of the Federal Reserve’s Business Payments Coalition and the FedNow Community. Ken has been named a Top Innovator to Watch by Bank Innovation, a Top FinTech Innovator by Aspioneer, a Top 25 FinTech CEO by Technology Innovators, and a Leading Corporate Digital Transformation Innovator by Databird.
Alexandre Lazarow, Global Venture Investor Cathay Innovation
Alexandre Lazarow is a global venture capitalist and the author of Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs – from Delhi to Detroit – Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley (Harvard Business Review Press). He has invested in startups including Chime, Kin, Neon, Sidecar Health, Facily, FinAccel, ZenBusiness, Kueski, Guiabolso, Zola, Rensource, Terminal, among others. He is a Partner with Cathay Innovation, a Paris-based firm that invests across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Alex is also an adjunct professor specializing in social impact investment and entrepreneurship at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Amir Kabir, Partner AV8 Ventures
Amir leads Fintech and Insurtech investing at AV8 Ventures and has been one of the earliest investors in the Insurtech space. Amir has been an entrepreneur, operator and investor with over 15 years of experience, working with early and mid-stage companies on financing, partnerships and strategic growth initiatives. Prior to AV8, Amir was an investment director and founding team member at Munich Re Ventures where he lead and managed investment efforts for two of the funds and made early bets in Insurtech, Mobility and Digital Health in companies like Next Insurance, Inshur, HDVI, Spruce, Ridecell, Babylon Health etc.. Earlier Amir worked for several venture funds, including Route 66 Ventures, focusing on Fintech and Insurtech, and investing in companies such as Simplesurance and DriveWealth. He began his career in Germany as a network engineer and subsequently at Legodo AG (acquired by Open Text, OTEX (NASDAQ)), an enterprise software startup, where he held several roles in sales, business development and product management until acquisition. In 2019, Amir was ranked 11 out of 100 on Global Corporate Venture’s Rising Stars list and was named a “VC Champions Select” by All Raise. Amir lives in San Francisco and holds an MBA from Georgetown McDonough School of Business, a BS in Business Informatics from RFH Cologne in Germany and is currently finishing an MS in Law from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.