EP 180 - William Li - CEO of Akulaku - They're Punished Because They're Poor

The Asia Tech Podcast hosted William Li, the CEO of Akulaku, which recently announced a $100MM investment from Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank.  Akulaku is a digital finance platform that includes credit and e-commerce, wealth management, and digital banking (via Bank Neo Commerce).

Some of the topics that William covered:

• The founding of Akulaku as an outgrowth of a remittance business in Hong Kong
• Built the remittance business for the overseas workers of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh
• Training as a lawyer
• Getting a Master's Degree at Washington and Lee
• Getting exposure to many businesses as part of the investment team at Ping An
• Entrepreneurship was not a natural path
• The vision of Akulaku and how it evolved
• The realization that affordable and accessible financial services can help a lot of people
• Pivoting from a remittance business to a lending business when they had very little cash left
• Acquiring a bank in Indonesia and completely restructuring it
• Lebron James or Steph Curry as a model for business

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. It's Really a Giant Leap
2. Go Deep Also Means Go Big
3. People Who Believe In Data and Machine Learning Finally Win