Avid Polymath with a passion for business development, macroeconomics and scalable innovation.
Karim is the Director of Strategy and Ventures at Digi-Group, a Venture-Builder focused on Fintech and Core Banking Technology. He joined the firm in February of 2019 and has since set up and managed new ventures in Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands.
His career in finance stared in 2013 as a broker in London with JN Financial, providing access to equity markets and OTC Derivatives to German and French speaking Europe and North Africa. His academic background in finance and language skills pushed for quick progression in relationship management; he was made a senior broker in 2014, managing a small team.
In 2015 Karim was recruited for a similar role in Singapore and was quickly introduced to the blossoming startup ecosystem surrounding fintech in SEA. He started working for Tethys (now acquired by Blue Fire AI) as the Director of Operations; a nascent data analytics company set on correlating exiting equity portfolios with alternative data points in real time.
Karim branched out into independent consulting in 2017. Under the umbrella of the previously established Winky-Solutions, offering consulting services to startups and SMEs looking to raise capital, or expand from Asia to Europe and vice-versa. He successfully assisted in the raise of USD750k for one of his clients, aided the expansion from Europe into SEA of another, all while strengthening his foothold in the Fintech and Startup environment in Singapore. In 2018, Digi-Group approached Karim to consult in the launch of its’ Fintech Co-Innovation Lab and Venture Builder in the Philippines; this quickly lead to the full-time role in which he now manages projects ranging from treasury systems in tier 3 banks to grant management systems to be implemented in the Australian National Disability and Insurance Scheme. He designed the Venture Builder’s methodology and the capital structure from the ground up, managed key stakeholders, introduced partnerships and is currently raising $10M for one venture’s pre-A.
