

EP 180 - William Li - CEO of Akulaku - They're Punished Because They're Poor
Feb 19, 2022
32:31
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:
- It's Really a Giant Leap
- Go Deep Also Means Go Big
- People Who Believe In Data and Machine Learning Finally Win