Meet ‘finfluencers’: fintech influencers to follow now

But investment and progress to date has been focused on the consumer financial experience and not the underlying fintech and payments infrastructure, argues Louisa Murray, UK and EU COO at Railsr, a London-headquartered fintech company driving the next stage of the industry’s growth : Fintech 2.0.

“We are focused on the next fintech evolution – beyond open banking, open finance, BaaS and embedded finance,” says Murray. “Seamless built-in financial experiences – banking, wallets, cards, credit, rewards – are going to be the norm.”

Want to read more about the next developments in this fast-moving world? We have gathered some of fintech’s most important influencers.

Susanne Chishti

Susanne Chishti is CEO of Fintech Circle in London. She also holds roles as non-executive director of FTSE 250 CMC Markets, as well as Crown Agents Bank, and is chairman of Lenderwize. Chishti has co-edited no less than seven books on fintech and her social following is equally impressive, with 35,000 followers on LinkedIn and 19,000 followers on Twitter via @SusanneChishti.

Theodora Lau

Theodora Lau is the founder of Unconventional Ventures, based in Washington DC, where she focuses on developing and growing financial institutions, companies, startups, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, with a special focus on women and underrepresented founders. Author of Beyond Good: How Technology is Leading a Purpose-driven Business Revolution, Lau regularly mentors and advises startups and individuals in both the financial services and health/care spaces and frequently tweets to his 59,000 followers via @psb_dc.

Anne Boden

Anne Boden is CEO of Starling Bank based in London. She founded Starling back in 2014 after a 30-year career in banking to “offer people a fairer, smarter and more human alternative to the banks of the past”. She also sits on the board of UK Finance and is an adviser to the Board of Trade. In 2018, Boden was awarded an MBE for services to fintech and she now has 32,000 followers on Twitter via @AnneBoden.

Charlotte Croswell

Charlotte Crosswell is chair of Open Banking, based in London. She was previously CEO of fintech industry body Innovate Finance, and has held a number of high-profile market infrastructure roles, with previous leadership positions at Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange. She also sits on the board of UK Finance and advises other government-led groups. Crosswell regularly shares his thoughts and views on fintech, innovation and capital markets on Twitter via @ccrosswell.

Spiros Margaris

Spiros Margaris is a venture capitalist and founder of Margaris Ventures, for which he currently advises as a board member. Margaris has been recognized numerous times for his influence in fintech, and was most recently named the Top Global Neobanking Influencer of 2021 by Commetric and ranked as the number one Global Finance Influencer by Refinitv (Thomson Reuters). His Twitter follows via @SpirosMargaris is also impressive, with over 123,000 followers.

April Rudin

April Rudin is founder and CEO of The Rudin Group in New York. In 2019, she was named the number one online influencer in wealth management by Onalytica and is an annual contributor to the Capgemini World Wealth Report. Rudin is deeply passionate about tech and fintech, and regularly posts about the industry to his more than 40,000 combined followers on LinkedIn and Twitter via @TheRudinGroup.

Paolo Sironi

Paolo Sironi is the global research leader for financial markets at IBM based in Frankfurt. He is also an author, and his latest title Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies explores how platform theory is radically changing the way companies do business. He has over 34,000 followers on LinkedIn and also regularly shares to Twitter via @thepsironi.

Lead Glyptis

Dr Leda Glyptis is chief client officer at 10X Banking in London and non-executive director of Flagstone. A former banker and founder of 11:FS Foundry, Glyptis was also formerly head of innovation at Qatar National Bank. She blogs weekly on Fintech Futures trends and posts regularly on social media, with 11,600 LinkedIn followers and 9,200 on Twitter via @LedaGlyptis.

Sabine VanderLinden

Sabine VanderLinden is the managing director of Alchemy Crew in London. Through over 25 years of experience with growth hacking, she has supported a number of start-ups and managed a portfolio of over 100 young companies. VanderLindenhe is the co-author of the best-selling title Insurtech Book, board member of the Women to Watch Foundation, Tech Ambassador for Invest Tokyo and Visiting Scholar at Bayes Business School. She regularly shares her thoughts on developments in the industry to her more than 43,000 combined followers on LinkedIn and Twitter via @SabineVdL.

Dr Efi Pylarinou

Dr. Efi Pylarinou is CEO of fintech and blockchain specialist Efi Pylarinou Advisory. She has been recognized for her influence in the industry multiple times, having been named the number one female global financial influencer by Refinitiv twice and included in the Onalytica Top 100 fintech and wealth management influencer rankings multiple times, among other notable power lists. She is the co-founder and writer of Daily Fintech, which supplies the industry with fintech, crypto and Insurtech trends and analysis, and boasts a whopping 192,000 followers on LinkedIn and another 9,000 on Twitter via @efipm.

Sam Edge

Sam Edge is Head of Fintech EMEA at Amazon Web Services, where he leads fintech strategy for startups and venture capital funds. An active speaker at industry events on new trends such as Open and Embedded Finance, he also holds mentor positions at, among others, Startup BootCamp Fintech, Plug & Play Fintech.