Valeria Vahorovska
CEO and Founder at Fondy
Please introduce yourself and your background. What has brought you into fintech?
I’m the CEO and founder of Fondy, a one-stop B2B payment solution for cross-border commerce, marketplaces, and platforms.
I started my career in corporate banking, spending a total of 9 years in that field. In 2014, I opened my first business and grew the team to 120 people. Fast forward to 2019, I launched my second startup company, Fondy. As you can see, I love entrepreneurial challenges and disruption in the financial industry.
Fascinating! Could you tell us more about your experience as a female entrepreneur and a woman in fintech? Any challenges to share?
As a female entrepreneur, you should be very passionate about what you do and love the challenge. As a fintech female entrepreneur, you can multiply all that by 5. The market has historically been predominantly male. Since the early 2000s, the industry has improved, but we still don’t see many women here. It takes more time for women to get the same level of trust and respect from VCs and partners in the industry than for males. And that’s the key challenge.
What kind of initiatives need to take place to support diversity and change within fintech?
“No room for mistake” is a losing strategy to attract female talent, in my opinion. We should allow women to make mistakes. For example, the percentage of men in fintech internships is higher, and their mistakes are largely covered by the same level of success. However, when a few women in the team make mistakes, the visibility of their failure is so much higher. We need to allow women to take risks, fail, and succeed as much as men do. That’s the only way to learn and grow.
Moreover, we need to support and believe in ambitious women entrepreneurs. If the market is open to more women joining, this will definitely inspire women to start their fintech business.
Why do you think diversity in management matters so much?
It matters when it’s done not because it’s a “must” but when there’s an understanding of clear benefits for the business. Diverse teams and leaders bring diverse expertise to the table. It’s a super effective management style that helps improve your products for a broader audience and achieve market growth.
I believe that women can offer a unique perspective and bring something truly valuable to financial services and fintech—an appreciation for simplicity that works. Intuitive and effective financial services are the most difficult products to create but the most successful. Not every mobile banking user may understand how their transactions work, but they want them to be seamless. Something simple means something very advanced and innovative. With more women involved in fintech, we're likely to see more inclusive and user-friendly products hitting the market.
