Terry Angelos, Visa’s global head of fintech and crypto, is set to take over as chief executive officer of start-up DriveWealth next week as reported by CNBC.
Terry Angelos joined Visa seven years ago as part of its acquisition of TrialPay, which he founded and led as CEO.
DriveWealth lets consumer finance apps like Block’s Cash App, Hisa App and Revolut offer stock trading by providing necessary behind-the-scenes infrastructure. The Jersey City-based broker-dealer was one of the first to allow fractional investing or buying stocks in smaller dollar amounts vs. whole shares.
While retail trading boomed during the pandemic, Angelos said the long-term opportunity is in taking U.S. equities international. He estimated roughly a billion people across the world, outside of China, access financial services from a digital wallet or a fintech app and are looking for exposure to blue-chip stocks.
“If you were to think about the single, most reliable long-term asset that people around the world want to own, it’s equity in U.S. companies. Traditionally, people outside the U.S. don’t have the ability to open up a brokerage account. That’s something that we think we can help solve.” Terry Angelos.
DriveWealth was last valued at $2.8 billion and is backed by Softbank, Fidelity’s venture capital arm and Citi Ventures among others. The company operates as a licensed broker-dealer, providing clearing and settlement on behalf of its fintech customers, which handle the consumer experience and apps.
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