Speaker Directory 2026
Voices Shaping
the Future of
Fintech
Meet the brilliant minds championing Black inclusion and innovation across the global financial technology landscape.
Joe Kinvi
Founder · Borderless
Joe Kinvi is a systems-focused entrepreneur building connective infrastructure for diaspora capital and innovation across Africa. Founder of Borderless — a digital infrastructure platform powering investment remittances and collective investing for the African diaspora. Previously Head of Finance at Touchtech Payments (acquired by Stripe), Growth Lead at Stripe, and Partnerships Lead at Paystack. Board member of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN).
Perpetua Gitungo
Compliance Director, LATAM & MEA · Wise
Perpetua Gitungo (Pesh) is the MLRO and Compliance Director at Wise, joining in 2017 with deep fincrime experience across payments, banking, CFD/FX, and gambling industries — in both small and listed companies. A strong champion for diversity and inclusion in fintech, she mentors through the Girls Network and her local community.
Anthony David King
Founder · ADK / Fintech Investor
Anthony is the founder of ADK and a venture partner building venture programmes for corporations, banks, and governments across 20+ countries. He is an investor in consumer fintech platforms including Moneybox, Chip, Plum, Yonder, Eversend, and Zero, and a mentor for Barclays Eagle Labs — supporting fintech founders globally.
Misky Sharif
Account Executive · Revolut Business
Misky Sharif is a London-based sales leader and fintech specialist at Revolut Business. Passionate about mentorship and community building, she has spoken at Women in Sales panels and Money20/20 events, contributing insights on professional growth, diversity, and overcoming imposter syndrome.
Nkechi Anyanwu
Founding Engineer · Vouchsafe
Nkechi Anyanwu is a full-stack product engineer and multidisciplinary technologist with a unique blend of engineering expertise and business acumen from investment banking and strategy consulting. Currently a founding engineer at Vouchsafe, building the future of KYC and digital identity infrastructure, she began her career at Bank of America before pivoting into software engineering.
Fumbi Banjoko
Senior Director, Global Sales Development · Visa Direct
Fumbi Banjoko is a global sales leader with a proven track record of building high-performing, diverse teams that exceed multi-million-pound revenue goals. At Visa Direct, she drives commercial growth while fostering inclusive workplaces. Since pivoting into fintech, she has launched ERG initiatives and mentored emerging leaders through Money20/20's Amplify and Rise Up programmes.
Iana Vidal
Head of UK Public Policy · Block
Iana Vidal leads UK government and regulator engagement at Block, shaping policy that supports innovation and economic empowerment in financial services. She brings extensive experience across trade bodies, professional associations, and the not-for-profit sector, working at the intersection of fintech innovation and regulation.
Jessica Anglin-Humphrey
Senior Product Manager · Sage
Jessica Anglin-Humphrey builds scalable platform and partner products at Sage, supporting complex financial and operational workflows across multiple regions. Her work sits at the intersection of product strategy, payments, and execution. Prior to fintech, she built digital products at The LEGO Group and The Walt Disney Company.
Samuel Afolabi
Sales Manager · OpenPayd
Samuel Afolabi is a fintech sales leader with experience spanning cross-border and stablecoin payments. At OpenPayd, he works with growing businesses to build scalable financial infrastructure supporting long-term growth, helping companies leverage modern payment rails and digital asset solutions to unlock global expansion.
Afiya Titus
Founder · Fineo AI
Afiya Titus is a chartered accountant, entrepreneur, and founder of Fineo AI, an AI-powered platform helping accountancy firms deliver smarter, more proactive client services. Known as the "Financial Fairy Godmother," she has built her career helping founders and micro-business owners understand and take control of their finances. Before launching Fineo AI, Afiya trained at Deloitte and later founded Coco Financial, supporting early-stage entrepreneurs with financial strategy and confidence. She is passionate about making finance accessible, practical, and even enjoyable for business owners.
Matthew Addai
Founder · Afrofiliate & Cashblack
Matthew Addai is a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur and the founder of Afrofiliate and Cashblack — platforms designed to economically empower Black-owned businesses. Cashblack rewards consumers with cashback for supporting Black-owned brands, while Afrofiliate connects those businesses with affiliate partners to drive growth and visibility. Inspired by the global anti-racism movement of 2020, Matthew launched these ventures with his brothers to help close the racial wealth gap through conscious consumerism and technology. His work sits at the intersection of fintech, commerce, and community impact.
Princess Akari
Product Manager · Moniepoint
Princess Akari is a product leader with over a decade of experience spanning operations, strategy, project management, and product development. She currently works as a Product Manager at Moniepoint, helping build and scale digital financial products that solve real customer problems across emerging markets. Princess is also the founder of PeopleInProduct (PIP), an award-winning product management community that has supported more than 7,000 product professionals through events, education, and career initiatives. She is passionate about building inclusive tech communities and developing the next generation of product leaders.
Shafie Ali
Product Lead · Wise
Shafie Ali is a product leader at Wise with more than a decade of experience building and scaling financial technology products. His work focuses on creating seamless global financial infrastructure that helps individuals and businesses move and manage money more efficiently across borders. With deep expertise across payments and digital financial services, Shafie is passionate about building products that solve real customer problems at scale. He regularly contributes insights on fintech innovation, product strategy, and the future of global payments.
Warren Handley
Product Manager · NALA
Warren Handley is a product leader passionate about building digital financial solutions that drive inclusion and innovation across emerging markets. At NALA, one of Africa's fastest-growing fintechs redefining cross-border payments, Warren leads on consumer product strategy — helping millions across the diaspora send money home faster and cheaper while advancing Africa's move towards seamless intra-continental payments. Before NALA, Warren was at Ozone API, where he helped define open finance standards for central banks and regulators globally, setting best practices in customer experience and interoperability. Earlier, at Yoyo, he led a global team to design and launch an aggregator app and SMB loyalty platform, expanding into five markets and scaling to 600+ retailers.
Tawanda Mudimbu
VP, Enterprise Partnerships · Verto
Tawanda Mudimbu is an experienced fintech and financial markets executive with a track record of scaling partnerships across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. As VP of Enterprise Partnerships at Verto, a global B2B FX and cross-border payments platform, he drives strategic collaborations that enable businesses to move money efficiently across emerging markets. Tawanda previously led banking and expansion for Africa and the Middle East at Wise, helping the global payments giant deepen its local presence and connectivity. Prior to fintech, he held senior roles at Asoko Insight, where he oversaw commercial strategy and business development, and at Thomson Reuters, managing relationships across corporate treasuries, asset managers, and central banks in Southern Africa.
Nina Mohanty
Founder & CEO · Bloom Money
Nina Mohanty is the founder and CEO of Bloom Money, an app that digitises savings clubs for diaspora communities to build generational wealth. Before leaving to found Bloom Money, Nina worked at Klarna making payments smooth and reimagining a better way to pay. Prior to Klarna, Nina worked at London-based Open Banking start up, Bud. She has been a steadfast believer in delivering technology that can better customer's financial lives and financial literacy since her days at Starling Bank and Mastercard.
Adebusola Adegbuyi Runsewe
Co-Founder & CTO · MeCash
Adebusola is a visionary technology leader with a passion for driving change through innovation. With an MSc in Software Systems Engineering from University College London and an MBA from Oxford University, Adebusola's career spans globally recognized companies like American Express, NHS Digital, and SystemSpecs. At meCash, she leads the technological strategy, utilizing blockchain technology to create secure, efficient, and scalable payment solutions. Her work focuses on empowering small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to access global commerce seamlessly, with a particular emphasis on delivering solutions that are both inclusive and impactful.
Modupe Diyaolu
Co-Founder · MeCash
Modupe is an accomplished business leader with over 17 years of experience in the Technology and Finance sectors. With a background at global giants like PayPal, Barclays Bank, and RBS, Modupe's strategic insights have shaped some of the most significant financial and operational transformations in the industry. As the Senior Programme Manager at PayPal UK, Modupe is a recognized expert in regulatory compliance, market expansion, and stakeholder management. Her leadership has driven successful cross-border initiatives and regulatory alignments across the APAC and EMEA regions.
Stone Atwine
Founder & CEO · Eversend
Stone is a fintech entrepreneur building the financial infrastructure for emerging markets. As Founder & CEO of Eversend Tech Ltd (incorporated in London in 2022), he leads the growth of a stablecoin-powered payments and embedded finance platform serving businesses and individuals across 12 countries. Eversend has over 1.2 million users. Backed by Google, Techstars, Visa, Atomico Angels, and supported by the Mayor of London's Grow London Global programme, Eversend provides APIs, global USD/EUR accounts, FX, and instant cross-border settlement. Recognized by the Paris-based Institut Choiseul as one of Africa's top economic leaders under 40.
Ross Strike
SVP Investor Relations · Moniepoint
Ross is a finance professional with over a decade of investment banking and venture capital experience. He is responsible for developing and executing Moniepoint's M&A and fundraising strategy, as they expand into new markets. He previously worked at British International Investment, where he led their investment in Moniepoint. Ross was one of the founding members of BII's venture capital investment team, helping to scale the firm's early-stage activities, which has deployed over $350m across over 40+ investments. He started his career in Citibank's investment banking team and is a Kauffman Fellow.
Ola Oyetayo
Co-Founder & CEO · Verto
Ola Oyetayo is the Co-Founder and CEO at Verto. With a robust background in finance, consulting, and entrepreneurship, Ola's career includes significant roles at American Express, Barclays, and Lloyds Bank. Ola was inspired to found Verto by the challenges he observed some of his friends facing when making international business payments. It became apparent that businesses located in emerging markets often encountered difficulties in executing seamless cross-border transactions. Always drawn to solving large-scale problems, Ola gravitated towards addressing this issue, leading to the establishment of Verto with the vision to facilitate smoother global commerce. Under Ola's leadership, Verto was awarded the Fintech of the Year 2022 at the London Fintech Awards.
Gbite Oduneye
Managing Partner · ODBA VC
ODBA VC is an early-stage VC firm backing bold African founders building category-defining startups. With 20+ years across entrepreneurship, finance, and tech, Gbite brings deep experience and real operator empathy. At ODBA, he's led 30+ investments across sectors like Edtech, Fintech, Healthtech, and Logistics — backing ventures like Kuda, Treepz, Awabah, and Hurone AI. From London boardrooms to African startup trenches, Gbite is passionate about turning improbable ideas into transformational success stories.
Dr. Austin Okpagu
Managing Director · Rova (FCMB Group)
Dr. Austin Okpagu is a distinguished fintech executive and organizational strategist with over a decade of experience driving high-stakes growth across the African financial landscape. He currently serves as the Managing Director at Rova, a fintech subsidiary of FCMB Group, following a highly successful tenure as Country Director for Nigeria at Verto, where he spearheaded the expansion of B2B cross-border payment solutions and navigated multi-jurisdictional FX liquidity. A pivotal figure in scaling the region's most influential fintech ecosystems, Dr. Okpagu previously served as Managing Director for West Africa at JumiaPay. His leadership portfolio also includes key strategic roles at OPay and Paga, where he was instrumental in building the infrastructure for merchant acquisition and transforming digital payment habits. Specializing in the synergy between innovation and regulation, Dr. Okpagu is a vocal advocate for building compliant, resilient financial systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, which informs his unique approach to leadership, human capital optimization, and strategic scaling. Beyond his corporate roles, he is a dedicated mentor to the next generation of African founders through his work with Innovest Afrika and other non-profit organizations.
Mariam Ogunbambi
Director, Client Success - Engine · Starling Bank
Mariam Ogunbambi is Chief Client Officer of Engine, Starling Bank's Software-as-a-Service arm. Engine provides financial institutions around the world with access to Starling's market leading cloud native banking platform. She leads the management of Engine's existing clients; responsible for onboarding, implementation through to relationship and success management. Her aim is to proactively work in partnership with clients by anticipating their challenges and providing solutions that enable them to succeed and grow using the Engine platform. Drawing on her consultancy background in Financial Services and experience in programme management and operations at Starling Bank, she seeks to work collaboratively with clients and help them reach and exceed their desired outcomes. Before working on Engine, Mariam was Head of Card Payments at Starling. Prior to this, she joined in 2016 and delivered integrations between Starling's own systems and the wider banking, payments and finance landscape. She is the winner of two FinTech Awards; TechWomen50 and Future Stars of Tech - Fintech Category.
Perkins Ogedengbe
VP of Sales · Payaza
Perkins is a commercially driven business development, partnerships, and sales professional with over 7 years of experience across financial services, fintech, SaaS, and technology. She currently leads global sales and partnerships at Payaza, driving strategic market expansion and enabling cross-border payment solutions across Africa, North America, and Europe. She has worked across key industries supporting complex growth strategies and navigating operational challenges in highly regulated sectors.
Avion Gray
Co-Founder & CEO · Belong
Avion Gray is the co-founder & CEO of Belong, a fintech startup on a mission to give everyone a revolutionary and captivating path to long-term wealth. Prior to Belong, Avion led the scale up Clover's point-of-sale platform from a start up to a multinational market leader. In this role, she led Clover's U.S. launch and international expansion of Clover into five European countries. She began her career in investment banking and leveraged finance, specialising in FinTech and B2B SaaS. Avion holds a Bachelor's degree in International Business & Finance from Howard University and a MBA from Stanford University.
Elizabeth Ajala
Director of Disputes and Complaints · Monzo
Elizabeth is a Senior Financial Services Leader, with 12 years experience in Complaints Management and Quality Assurance at firms such as Royal Bank of Scotland and The Financial Ombudsman Service. Elizabeth has a passion for putting the customer at the heart of everything and delivering excellence in customer services. She currently works for Monzo Bank as The Head of Quality Assurance, focused on improving customer journeys and providing fair customer outcomes through data insight and process improvements.
Rukayyat Kolawole
CEO & Founder · PaceUP Invest
Rukayyat Kolawole, CFA, EMBA, is the founder and CEO of PACEUP Invest in Germany, France, and Nigeria — a fintech startup whose mission is to empower women and underrepresented communities financially and help with wealth-building irrespective of their income towards attaining a responsible and sustainable future. She has over 15 years of experience in the financial industry spanning Investment Banking, Investment Management, and Capital Markets at Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, Reuters, and BMCE International London. She was the former VP Capital Markets and Treasury at BMCE Bank International London covering EMEA, Americas, and APAC. A transcultural communicator and leader, Rukayyat currently serves on the board of Kassavex, a social impact agricultural company in Nigeria, is a founding committee board member of 100 Women in Finance Germany, and Chair of Mid-Career Bridge 100 Women in Finance Germany. She was recognised by Black Women in Asset Management (BWAM) as one of the 40 under 40 Black Women in Asset Management who have demonstrated leadership and strong achievements in their professional careers.
Amanda Estiverne-Colas
Director of Payments Practice · Perficient
Amanda Estiverne-Colas is a dynamic leader in Banking and FinTech with over 20 years of expertise in driving innovation, strategic growth, and financial inclusion. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Financial Literacy and Inclusion (NAFLI), championing initiatives that advance financial education in underserved communities. A sought-after Payment Strategist and global speaker, Amanda has a proven track record of delivering transformative solutions in emerging payment technologies and financial inclusion. Dedicated to empowering communities, she focuses on advancing blockchain, open banking, and digital identity to foster economic growth and inclusion for small businesses and individuals.
Megan Bingham-Walker
Co-Founder & CEO · Anansi Technology
Megan is the Co-founder and CEO of Anansi Technology which is building automated goods in transit insurance for global businesses. She has 14 years of experience in fintech, high growth SMEs, machine learning and data science, including 6 years in venture capital at WHEB Partners, investing in telematics, home energy management systems and many of the technologies being used in insurtech.
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