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Zach Marks

Co-Founder & CEO at Jia 🌍 Building a fairer financial world 🌏

Zach Marks is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jia, a company that provides blockchain-based financing to small businesses in emerging markets.12 He started Jia in January 2022 with the goal of empowering entrepreneurs worldwide to control their financial future.6

Prior to founding Jia, Marks had extensive experience in fintech and microfinance:

  1. He worked at Tala, a financial technology company, where he held several positions including:

    • Director of Business Development
    • General Manager in India
    • Director of New Markets16
  2. Before Tala, Marks co-founded and served as COO of Oystir, an online jobs marketplace that was later acquired by DOC.1

  3. In 2013, he co-founded Chai Wallahs of India, a photojournalism project documenting India's roadside tea vendors.1

Marks began his career in South Sudan, providing financing to farmers to help grow their businesses.4 He is a graduate of Yale University.3 His experiences in microfinance and fintech led him to create Jia, which aims to democratize access to capital and create a fairer financial system for small businesses in emerging markets.45

Highlights

Feb 21 · linkedin

LA friends!

Join me tomorrow, Thurs Feb 22, for an evening with my friend Lorem Aminathia and hear his inspiring story. After losing his parents to the South Sudanese civil war, Lorem began a remarkable journey from a refugee camp in Kenya to Yale University, where we crossed paths and he was selected for the first cohort of Schwarzman Scholars in China.

Returning home to South Sudan, Lorem found a new nation essentially without an education system and dedicated himself to building one, beginning with Kinyeti Academy, an ambitious new school.

Come meet Lorem, learn about Kinyeti and how you might get involved. Please pass on the invite to friends with an interest in education and social entrepreneurship and in regions torn by histories of conflict and insecurity!

RSVP here:

May 17 · linkedin

Today I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Jia, a fintech platform designed to provide accessible, affordable, and rewarding financing to small businesses in emerging markets using blockchain technology. 🚀

We are creating a fairer financial system with a new approach to help entrepreneurs build wealth and prosperity. With Jia, borrowers are not merely customers at the end of a one-way transaction -- they are members of a global community in which they have ownership. 🌍

We are grateful to start this community with seed funding from a team of incredible mission-aligned investors led by TCG. 💞

I had the pleasure to speak about Jia's mission with Annie Njanja for TechCrunch, and share the news that we've launched our on-chain pool with Huma Finance connecting investors with small businesses around the globe. Check out the story here: https://lnkd.in/gfaWcpgc

If you’re interested in participating in our pool providing competitive returns powered by emerging markets businesses, partnering to provide financial access to a community of entrepreneurs, or coming to build with us, please shoot me a message! 💫

#community #technology #finance #fintech #blockchain #defi #startup #emergingmarkets

Related Questions

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Zach Marks
Zach Marks, photo 1
Zach Marks, photo 2
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Location

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area