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Vikas Raj
Fintech VC
Vikas Raj is a prominent figure in the fields of venture capital, impact investing, and fintech. He currently serves as the Chair of the Investment Committee at Catalyst Fund, a position he has held since 2022.3 Raj is also the co-founder and Managing Partner of ResilienceVC, a venture investment firm he established in 2021 that focuses on early-stage startups in fintech and resilience.46
In addition to his roles at Catalyst Fund and ResilienceVC, Raj holds several academic positions. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia Business School, where he teaches a course on Investing in Social Ventures.4 He also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer in Financial Inclusion at The Johns Hopkins University - Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).2
Raj's career history includes significant experience in the fintech and impact investing sectors. He previously served as the Managing Director at Accion Venture Lab from 2013 to 2021, where he led a global early-stage impact investment fund supporting inclusive financial technology startups.45 During his tenure at Accion Venture Lab, he oversaw a portfolio of over 50 innovative fintech startups across more than 30 developing markets.1
Throughout his career, Raj has been involved with numerous startups, helping them raise over $1 billion in capital and supporting over 20 million low-income consumers and 1 million underserved small businesses.1 He has also held board positions at various firms, including SMEcorner and TiendaPago.2
Raj is a regular contributor to Forbes, focusing on fintech and resilience topics.26 He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.4
Highlights
Our friends at Sorenson Impact recently published this article on the panel discussion I had with Ashley Bittner, Regina "Gina" Kline, and Kristina Rodriguez Maljovec in June. We explored how domain expertise drives our investment strategies and enhances our impact, whether it’s in financial resilience, economic mobility, or closing the disability wealth gap. We strongly believe that focused, thematic investing can create powerful results for both investors and communities. #startups #VentureCapital #Fintech #FinancialResilience
Is the Era of Fairer AI Finally Here? Fintechs like Fairplay are leveraging artificial intelligence to balance the scales in credit underwriting, potentially ushering in a new era of fairer financial services. I dive into this topic with Fairplay's CEO Kareem Saleh in the latest episode of The Pnyx, the world's most interesting podcast (according to Alexandre Lazarow only).
Catch the episode wherever you listen. I share the link below and will add our Forbes article discussing our conclusions in the comments. Bryson Hearne #fintech #ai #vc #resilience #startups #fairness
