About

My name is Sowmya.

tldr: Head of Product • Credit Infrastructure & Lending Platforms • Payments • Ex-YC Founder • Google • Uber • Mom to 2 kids / 1 dog

I am a product leader. I build regulated credit infrastructure to support institutional lending, capital deployment, and portfolio monitoring for global financial partners.

Over the past decade, I have led the design and commercialization of fintech platforms spanning global financial companies, and venture-backed startups. My work usually sits at the intersection of product strategy, compliance and ops, business growth, and (of late) applied AI. Due to my background in securities law and regulation, I specialise in translating the requirements of regulators into scalable technology products.

I currently serve as VP & Head of Product at Credit Saison’s (a top-five Japanese financial institution) tech unit , where I lead the development of credit infrastructure for wholesale lending, and private credit. My team builds systems enabling, among others, the largest secured lender in India, to originate, distribute, monitor, and manage wholesale loan portfolios.

Under my leadership, we have launched:

  1. a global private-credit operating system,

  2. India’s most advanced co-lending and securitization platforms, and

  3. Scalable SaaS-credit infrastructure used by leading lenders and institutional partners.

Prior to this, I founded Swifter ACH Payments (YC W20), where I built ACH payment APIs and reconciliation infrastructure from first principles. The company was acquired in 2023 following commercial deployment with enterprise customers.

I have also held senior product and policy leadership roles at:

  1. Treez, where I owned ACH payments strategy, revenue, and unit economics,
  2. Uber, leading regulatory pricing and government partnerships across South India and Sri Lanka, and
  3. Google, advising on financial products and Android ecosystem policy in emerging markets.

Earlier in my career, I worked on securitization and debt products at Clifford Chance (London & Singapore) and with India’s Ministry of Finance, contributing to financial-sector reform initiatives alongside RBI and SEBI stakeholders.

In my personal life, I am a parent to 2 young boys, and a middle-aged labrador. I live in Bangalore, India, and when I’m not parenting, or reading, I can be found trying to learn the guitar, and practice my watercolour skills. I’m an optimist, and a strong believer in kindness, equity and having fun while trying to build big things.

Leadership Achievements

  1. 2025: I built a gold-loan LOS and LMS from scratch and deployed it in prod w a new client.

  2. 2025: I helped strategise and support the onboarding and migration of loan portfolios of one of India’s largest lenders.

  3. 2024: I launched merchant B2B payments at Treez utilising BaaS infra.

  4. 2023: I launched and scaled B2C payments on cannabis to over 2 million dollars in a beta.

  5. 2021-22: When Covid made my startup unviable, I defered our Series A raise and pivoted. I found a niche business opportunity and was able to grow a team again.

  6. 2017: I was instrumental in handling strike and shutdown negotiations for Uber across 3 key markets in India. Our business continued as usual.

  7. 2015: My hometown Chennai faced unprecedented flooding. During this disaster I co-ordinated a 2000+ relief effort with a bunch of friends. I was recognised as one of Twitter’s Personalities of the Year that year in India.

Current interest: I am particularly interested in how AI reshapes capital allocation, underwriting, and financial operations over the next decade. I am working on a hypothesis with respect to real-time underwriting, or always-on underwriting as the future of underwriting.

Employment History

VP & Head of Product: Credit Saison Aumnee

Jan 2025 – current

  • I lead the product team at Credit Saison Aumnee - a tech startup founded by the Japanese financial giant - Credit Saison. I strategise and lead the building of 4 distinct product lines of credit infrastructure (wholesale and retail) with a 10 member team.

Under my leadership, we have launched a global private-fund OS, and scaled the best co-lending and securitization product in India by working w India’s largest secured lender.

Product Consultancy: Stealth Venture Studio

August 2024 – November 24

  • Lead product consultancy and AI-services investment thesis in regtech for a venture studio funded by a wealthy family office.

Director of ACH Payments: Treez Inc.

September 2022 – August 24

  • Lead product and commercial growth of ACH payments, manage vendor-led payments.
  • Own revenue goal and unit economics of ACH.
  • Y1 KPIs: Integrated ACH into Treez POS, found and negotiated two core vendors, set up payment operations.
  • Y2 KPIs: Reduced onboarding complexity, decreased ACH return and fraud risks, enhanced payment-type integrations.

CEO & Founder: Swifter ACH Payments (YC W20)

July 2019 – August 2022

  • Built ACH APIs, merchant dashboard, and reconciliation system from scratch.
  • Sold to first 10 customers, set up early sales/marketing operations.
  • Achieved >$500k GMV with a small team within the first few months of beta.
  • Acquired by an early client, a SaaS company wanting to offer fintech services to their merchants.

Head of Policy & Pricing, South India/SL: Uber India

Sep 2017 – March 2019

  • Handled regulatory pricing workflows in South India/Sri Lanka.
  • Worked on price cap and floor schemes in Bangalore, Karnataka.
  • Advised TN and TS authorities on regulatory changes.
  • Built multiple government partnerships in a complex regulatory space.

Policy Counsel: Google India

May 2014 – Sep 2017

  • Built strategy on Android-related disputes.
  • Worked on Google’s financial products and India’s 112 emergency number for Android.

Consultant: Finance Ministry - India, New Delhi

August 2012 – August 2013

  • Part of the Secretariat to the Justice Sri Krishna led Commission.
  • Worked with RBI, SEBI officers, and private bankers to draft financial sector reforms.
  • Made key inputs into systemic risk oversight, leading to the creation of the FSDC.

Solicitor: Clifford Chance, London, Singapore

August 2009 – August 2012

  • Worked on the securitizations, ISDA and Project Finance teams.