Houston Ross joins SJ Mobile Labs as a non-executive technical advisor
The advisory board currently includes former Lawson Bank President Masashi Yamashita, former Nomura Holdings CFO Shigesuke Kashiwagi, and former Global Managing Partner at EY Financial Services, Bob Stein
Singapore Japan Mobile Labs (SJ Mobile Labs Pte Ltd.) has appointed a new advisory board member in Houston Ross who is currently the CTO of Paidy.
Samantha Ghiotti, CEO of SJ Mobile Labs said: “We're extremely privileged to have a CTO of Houston's caliber join our advisory board. There are few fintech companies in Japan like Paidy which have gone from early stage startup through to exit and to ultimately becoming a fintech leaders. Houston's technical leadership has been instrumental in Paidy's success and his insights on how to architect our own platform will guide our technical team”.
Originally from the United States, Houston has been the Paidy CTO for over three and a half years and has worked in Japan for over 15 years, holding senior technical roles with NN Life and AXA Life. Paypal announced its acquisition of Paidy in September 2021. Houston remains the CTO of the buy now, pay later platform.
Houston Ross: “I'm really excited to help the next generation of fintech in Japan succeed and continue to build innovative, useful tech for consumers. Sam and Liam are experienced fintech entrepreneurs who bring great ideas to the market”.
SJ Mobile Labs was founded by Samantha Ghiotti and Liam McCance who were both previously on the Single management team prior to its S$3.2billion merger with Aviva Singapore. “We're on a mission to empower Japanese savers to put their money better to work. We do this through simple products, clever technology, and bringing trust back to financial advice”. Liam McCance
SJ Mobile Labs is a new venture whose seed round in late 2021 came from investors Saison Capital, the venture arm of Credit Saison, Apis Insurtech Fund I (managed by Apis Partners LLP), and Anthemis Group.
Saison Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund (pre-seed to Series B) with a focus on emerging markets. We back ambitious founders solving big problems, focused on embedded finance - non-fintech companies expanding into fintech. Each individual in our team comes from an operating background, and we are unafraid to roll up our sleeves to support our founders. We are backed by Credit Saison, a Tokyo-listed $30b AUM consumer finance company with extensive financial services across Asia.
For more information visit: https://saisoncapital.com/
Apis Group (“Apis”) is an ESGI-native global private equity and venture capital asset manager that supports growth stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses by providing them with catalytic growth equity capital. Apis manages or advises on total committed capital from investors (including drawn and invested capital) of U$1.2B. Apis is highly conscious of the developmental impact that the provision of growth capital for financial services and financial infrastructure businesses in growth markets can achieve, and as such, financial inclusion is a core tenet of their approach and investment mandate.
For more information visit:
Anthemis Group is a global platform that cultivates change in the financial system by investing in, growing, and sustaining businesses committed to resiliency, transparency, access, and equity. Founded in 2010, our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology, and values inspire everything we do. By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of startups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics, and visionaries to converge, we believe we can solve the financial systems' most pressing challenges faster, better, and for the benefit of all.
For media-related inquiries please contact Liam McCance at press@sj-ml.com