How Japan’s Startup Ecosystem Can Break Free from Small IPOs and Think Bigger

From Medical Robotics to Banking: The Playbook for Corporate Innovation That Works

In this episode, Mayoran Rajendra, Head of Asia Innovation Centre for SMBC, shares why success of a bank’s innovation lab depends on transforming core businesses rather than chasing side projects. He explains how his team delivers free analytics tools to CFOs as a bridge to financial products, why SMBC built the Asia Rising Fund to co-invest with startups, and how they’re already deploying generative AI for CFO “agents” that run financial reviews. With insights on sponsorship, governance, and customer readiness, this is a rare look at how one of the world’s largest banks is making innovation practical, profitable, and scalable.

This Founder's Goal to Be the Private-Sector World Bank for 100 Million Households

Born stateless in Japan, Taejun Shin’s journey from refugee travel documents to private equity and then founding Gojo is anything but ordinary. In this episode, he explains how his personal story shaped a mission to deliver financial services to low-income households across 13 countries, from India to Africa. He shares why governance and regulation remain his biggest hurdles, why face-to-face interactions still outperform AI in credit scoring, and how he structured Gojo’s cap table to balance profit with social impact. With ambitions to reach 100 million households in 50 countries, Taejun reveals what it takes to scale microfinance responsibly while staying true to its mission.

Why This Investor is Betting on Boring to Catalyse Fintech

Venture capital often chases hype, but Logan Allen, founder of Fin Capital, has built a firm around what he calls “boring FinTech”—the B2B infrastructure that powers banks, insurers, and asset managers. In this episode, Logan explains why core banking systems are the biggest systemic risk in finance, why middleware and dual-core strategies are only stopgaps, and how generative AI is pushing banks to finally partner with external software providers. Get a rare insider’s view into how VC can add real value, beyond just writing checks.

Regulators’ Struggle with Fintech, and How Data Can Bridge the Gap

What happens when regulators can’t keep up with fintech’s pace of change? In this episode, Professor Bob Wardrop, co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and RegGenome, explains why regulators hesitance in the face of new technologies, how computational regulation can make compliance machine-readable, and why resource constraints create systemic blind spots. He shares the challenges of aligning global standards across fragmented jurisdictions, the role of innovation hubs, and why regulators must accept that technology is no longer neutral in financial markets.

How Japan’s Startup Ecosystem Can Break Free from Small IPOs and Think Bigger

Home to world-class talent and the world’s third-largest economy, Japan is ripe with potential to produce the next unicorns and decacorns. In this episode, Jordan Fisher, venture partner at Antler Japan and Founder of Zehitomo Inc, unpacks the structural challenges holding back Japan’s startup scene. He shares why Antler is betting on cross-cultural founder teams, how global capital and secondaries can shift incentives, and why Japan’s government has finally made innovation a national priority.