Aneesh Varma is a British-American

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and known as a serial

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

. He is best known as the founder of Aire - a

fintech Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...

company that pioneered the safe usage of

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

in credit scoring and

underwriting Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liability ...

. He previously co-founded FabriQate, which went on to be an

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

Startup Star 2008 & 2009, LDA KC Award 2009,

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

YCE in 2009 and CF500 in 2010. He was featured on the Business Insider 35 under 35 Fintech list in 2018 Varma has been a vocal campaigner for

financial inclusion Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to processes by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services—which ...

. He was educated at

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...

, USA studying Engineering and Quantitative Finance. He was recognised by the European Commission as one of 12 Entrepreneur of the Year nominees in 2014 and by the British Council as a Young Entrepreneur 2009 in the technology sector. In 2020 he was named the Technology Innovator of the Year in the Credit Sector

Life

Varma is considered a mathematical prodigy, at age 15 having achieved a perfect score on the

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

course for Advanced Mathematics. He continued his mathematical focus at university, completing the entire PhD coursework during his bachelor's degree. Varma is a Lehigh University Martindale Scholar from 2005, publishing his research on Europe's transition to a market-based Financial System.Varma, Aneesh, "Hungary's Transition to a Capital-Market-Based Financial System: Problems and Solutions" (2006). Volume 24 - Transformation in Post-Communist Hungary (2006). https://preserve.lehigh.edu/perspectives-v24/10/

Career

Varma started his first business at 16 and was involved with startups in his university days. At age 21 he was hired into

JPMorgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...

in New York working on transactions for Financial Technology industry including Visa, Synovus and other consumer finance lenders. He has since built 3 technology companies in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

that have scaled overseas including accolades for their work in improving

Varma also serves on the Lehigh University Alumni Association (LUAA) board amongst other non-profit commitments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varma, Aneesh 1984 births Living people British businesspeople Angel investors American venture capitalists British venture capitalists JPMorgan Chase employees Lehigh University alumni