About

About Me

LinkedIn Twitter or you can email me: contactsowmyarao at gmail dot com

My name is Sowmya. I specialize in building regulated fintech products from concept to launch, and moving them to the growth phase (0-$10m USD revenue). Fintech nerd who knows the nuts and bolts of payments and credit. YC founder (YC W20) w 1x exit💰. Aspiring murder-mystery writer. I like reading SFF. I build JS games for little kids to learn maths and spellings. Parenting 2 👦, 1 🐶 and living in Bangalore, India.

My CV

Head of Product at a leading credit infra startup (Credit Saison Aumnee) in India - handling 4 product lines and a 10 member team building complex securitization, co-lending, AI enabled private fund OS and LOS/LMS.

Previously, fintech/payments GM handling product and P&L. Ex-founder (YCW20), sold payments API startup to a US Series C SaaS company for single-digit $ mn cash + stock in 2022. All early employees and both co-founders received cash + stock payouts.

Over 18 months at my acquirer, I led these workflows:

  • Integrated ACH payments into acquirer’s POS
  • Setup payment-ops for KYC, BaaS-audit, sponsor-bank-audit and STR/other filings
  • Scaled payments revenue from ACH, while enabling ecommerce distribution partnerships
  • Laid groundwork for 2 additional lines of fintech revenue (merchant neo-banking, cash handling) and built operations
  • Strategized addition of multiple payment-types each with differing levels of risk

Skills

  • Technical AI Builder
  • Product Management
  • Payment Operations (KYC, compliance, filings, LOS, LMS)
  • Growth and Partnerships (early-stage)
  • Fintech Strategy (US/India)

Employment History

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). Under my leadership, we have launched a private fund management infra play, scaled the best co-lending and securitization product in India, and made strong MVP bets on LOS/LMS for secured asset classes. I lead a team of 12 - across product management, product design, and implementations/onboarding.

Product Consultancy: Stealth Services 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 of a very successful startup-founder.

Director - 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 re 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 and Project Finance teams.