Hi, fintech fam! 💜

Happy Women's History Month! This year, UN Women has declared the International Women's Day theme as:

"Invest In Women: Accelerate Progress."

Ensuring that women in fintech are paid and provided with the necessary tools to build wealth is a major theme for Fintech Is Femme.

That's why I am thrilled to work with Arta Finance to amplify women in fintech through valuable content and tools that provide financial wealth and wellness management.

Arta, recently recognized as Nasdaq's Fintech Trailblazer of 2024, is making high-value financial technology accessible to more people, not just the top 1%.

And this month, I wanted to host something truly special for the Fintech Is Femme community.

Join us on March 19th at 1 pm ET for a virtual event where we will debunk outdated myths about women and finance. Iconic female executives who have experienced and overcome these challenges will share their stories.

There will be breakout rooms for networking and a surprise appearance from a prominent financial influencer.

Save your virtual seat here and join us to celebrate the trailblazing women in fintech!

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For our premium members, I send out updates 3x a week through our new column, "On Performance.” These columns will provide tactical advice to improve your entrepreneur and business leader performance.

Plus, premium members support female-led journalism and keep this work going. Because of your support, Fintech Is Femme is more than just a newsletter; it's a media empire and community for women to connect, learn, and support one another.

ICON

Blazing a Trail in Fintech: Samita Malik’s Mission to Innovate Insurance

Women in fintech excel at creating financial products by connecting life experiences to fintech innovations that surpass the status quo, paving the way for a better economic future.

Samita (Sam) Malik, the Chief Insurance Officer at wealth management pioneer Arta Finance, is a perfect example of this. 

She defies the limitations of a binary perspective, embracing the complexity of her multifaceted nature that truly sets her apart.

Before joining Arta, Malik forged her path through various roles, including titles like Head of Business Development and Innovation at Aegon Asia and managing a substantial $4 billion Accident and Health portfolio as the VP of Health for MetLife Asia.  

But that street cred is just one side to her story. 

Her professional and personal career has been dedicated to defying expectations and carving a path that challenges the status quo, reshaping it with every step she takes.

Paving Her Way 

Growing up in India, choosing the path less traveled was hardwired into Malik's DNA. 

Raised by a father in the Army and inspired by her sharpshooting champion mother, she resisted the notion that she needed to choose one path, always dreaming differently.

"[I] always wanted to do what I wanted to do: not what I was told to do," she shared on a recent podcast. 

Tragedy struck at the age of 12 when Malik's father passed away, highlighting the critical role life insurance played in stabilizing her family during a challenging time. 

This traumatic experience significantly influenced her understanding of the importance of insurance in worst-case scenarios, a perspective that guides her in her current role at Arta.

Today, Malik wants to ensure she is helping people create wealth management and insurance solutions so their family is cared for, even after they're gone. 

After losing her father, Malik would encounter various life-altering decisions throughout her journey.

When it came time to graduate high school, Malik was faced with a choice between pursuing a college career playing basketball or focusing on academics. 

Choosing basketball, she left behind a degree at one of India's most prestigious universities and set her sights on Georgia College in the USA. 

"It was brutal in the beginning," she said. "I had forged this identity as an athlete. I made this decision to come [to the United States] and very quickly realized things were not going to turn out the way I thought they would. 

It was a lot of pulling myself up off the floor and saying: life still goes on. What do I want the next chapter of my life to look like?"

Where most people would have run home, Malik defied expectations again. 

She put all of her focus back into her other love: academia. 

Malik graduated Summa cum Laude in 3 years while working to fund her education.

She received a full scholarship to complete her Ph.D. (👸🏽) in Economics at the University of Virginia. 

Then, she pivoted her career again.

Staying true to what excited her, Malik realized her interest in economics extended far beyond what the classroom could provide. 

While she entered the insurance world at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, she realized she wanted to be part of the application of economic theory in businesses and people's personal lives. 

She set out to evolve into a corporate maven, be an active part of the business world, and be a changemaker, strategically leveraging a perspective only she can bring. 🤑

So, like a true powerhouse, Malik pursued an MBA at Wharton. Post-graduation, she started a career at Bain & Co. as a management consultant. Her insurance background became a differentiator, and she became an expert in a broader range of topics under the insurance umbrella.

At Bain & Co., Malik first encountered tax-advantaged investing and integrating insurance solutions into broader wealth management strategies. 

She would spend the next decade building digital-led insurance businesses in the U.S. and Asia at MetLife, Aviva, and Aegon – all while building her own family and becoming a mother of three.  

Through partnerships with tech giants like Alibaba, WeChat, Groupon, Grab, Flipkart, and PayTM (which were not easy to orchestrate in an age-old industry like insurance and one so male-dominated), she began to recognize the massive missed opportunity that lies in using data to provide people personalized, unbiased and simple-to-understand advice about insurance, and working actively to close the gap. 

After some time in the corporate world and Board advisory roles at start-ups, Malik once again shunned the conventional wisdom to keep climbing the corporate ladder, and her entrepreneurial journey began. 

In 2020, Malik and her family moved from Hong Kong to Bangalore, where she and her husband launched a sustainable home decor D2C brand -- a creative and intellectual pursuit with the opportunity to learn something from scratch once again and exercise those entrepreneurial muscles that she had started to develop.

In 2022, her family returned to the U.S. after a decade in Asia, where Malik had the opportunity to extend her insurance expertise and her ability to build from 0 to 1 by joining Arta Finance and the world of wealth management.

Malik knew she was in her element, and the learnings and challenges of all those life pivots paid off. 

Innovating Insurance

Now, as she sits in her role as Chief Insurance Officer at Arta, Malik is using her decades of insurance experience -- both personal and professional -- to help families build wealth like no generation has been able to do before. 

Her mission? To make Arta's insurance solutions simple, frictionless, and accessible while educating people about how insurance can protect and build their wealth. 

Most insurance products and services on the market today need to be more transparent about what their customers get, especially regarding permanent life insurance. 

It's one of the ultra-wealthy's favorite under-the-radar tools to build generational wealth and reduce their tax burden – and Arta is spilling the secrets. 

Insurance is just one underserved area where Arta is bridging the wealth gap. 

Users can find support from Arta in alternative investments like real estate and private equity (with no large minimums), optimizing their high-yield savings plans, and intelligently investing in public markets. 

Arta raised over $90 million in 2022, led by groups like Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital), Coatue, and Ribbit. More than 140 tech and finance entrepreneurs (including the legendary Betsy Cohen, Founder and former CEO of The Bancorp) also invested.

Malik is also pioneering a new insurance model for Arta that better aligns interests with clients, a rarity in the insurance industry.

This includes no commission-based individual compensation and no special partnerships or volume-based deals with individual insurers. 

The result is a lower barrier to entry for those who are less savvy about the range of ways insurance plays a critical role in shaping financial futures. 

Malik's story serves as a reminder that you have the power to shape your life as you see fit, no matter how many changes in direction you may have taken. 

Today, a new generation of women are making wealth more accessible to all. 

Companies like Arta are leading the way, leveraging the collective power of female executive leadership, advanced technology, and a people-centric approach to make real change happen. 

Love Sam’s story? Be sure to join us on March 19th at 1 pm ET for a virtual event to hear her speak!

_{WTF ELSE?}

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• Despite a desire for generative AI, less than 1 in 10 banks have established a viable roadmap

• Plaid has no IPO plans for 2024

• New report looks at gap and gains made to kick off Women’s History Month

• Stop trying to fix female founders – fix the funding system, says Anne Boden

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 📚 Today’s Read: I absolutely love this article on Sallie Krawcheck from Inc. Reading Sallie’s responses and seeing her get vulnerable about the experience of being a female entrepreneur working from home truly increased my connection with her. Thank you for showing us that vulnerability is a superpower and that women can be complex individuals and leaders, Sallie!

• 👀 Today’s Watch: I didn’t get a chance to watch a movie during my flight from New York to Vegas, but I casually glanced at my neighbor’s screen while I typed away on my iPad. She was watching Frida, and it reminded me of what a wild, fun, and beautiful story that movie tells.

• 🍣 Today’s Eats: I'm in Las Vegas for Fintech MeetUp, and the food is always a significant part of the experience. I mean that quite literally - the portion sizes are enormous. I had a fantastic dinner with some fintech friends at Mott 33, and the Spicy Szechuan chicken was incredible.

_FINTUNES

🎵 Dua Lipa - Training Season

I'm really enjoying this new song from Dua Lipa — I believe many of us can relate to feeling overwhelmed by the individuals in our lives who require some "training" to treat us properly. Recently, I've chosen to invest my time and energy in individuals who value and reciprocate my time.

That’s all for now! Stay safe, everyone. Hug your loved ones. See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole

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