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August 19, 2025

QED strengthens Asia presence; Welcomes Kshitij Jayakrishnan as principal

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 19, 2025) -- QED Investors, the leading global fintech venture capital firm, today announced the hiring of Kshitij Jayakrishnan as a principal, based in Bangalore.

Bringing more than a decade of experience across venture capital and consulting, Jayakrishnan will work alongside Sandeep Patil, partner and head of Asia, to lead QED’s early and growth-stage fintech investments across India, Southeast Asia and the broader APAC region.

Jayakrishnan joins QED from Elevation Capital, where over a span of seven years he emerged as a key member of their leadership team driving both fintech and gaming investment strategies. At Elevation, he led more than 20 notable investments including Scapia, Dezerv, Mintifi, ZFunds and FamApp and helped the firm significantly shape its approach toward India's rapidly evolving fintech ecosystem.

During his tenure, Jayakrishnan published multiple influential market theses, podcasts and reports and was recognized for his ability to spot emerging trends and back category-defining founders early. He previously worked at Bain & Company, advising private equity, automotive and financial services clients. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kshitij to QED,” said Patil. “QED’s progress in India and APAC comes from backing ambitious founders with deep fintech expertise, long-term capital and guidance through regulatory and market complexities to build enduring, category-defining businesses. Kshitij brings strong regional expertise and is highly respected within the founder community. I am sure he will be an outstanding addition and will help us to accelerate our mission.”

This move further strengthens QED’s commitment to Asia, where it has invested $220 million since 2020 in companies such as Efficient Capital Labs, Jupiter, OneCard, Refyne and Upswing. QED recently announced it expects to deploy an additional $250-$300 million in India and APAC in the coming years.

"I’m excited to join QED at this pivotal moment as Asia’s fintech ecosystem evolves at an extraordinary pace,” said Jayakrishnan. “QED's deep sector expertise, founder-centric culture and track record of supporting transformative companies globally stand out in the industry.

“Today, I believe the most compelling opportunities lie in applying AI to financial services, evolving cross-border payments rails, building sophisticated wealth platforms and in high-growth consumer and enterprise startups embedding fintech. I look forward to applying QED's operator-led approach to partner with ambitious founders building generational companies that will transform financial services across the region."

About QED Investors

QED Investors is a global leading venture capital firm based in Alexandria, Va. Founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007, QED Investors is focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies worldwide. QED Investors is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages its partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include AvidXchange, Betterfly, Bitso, Caribou, ClearScore, Creditas, Credit Karma, Current, Flywire, Kavak, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Mission Lane, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly, SoFi, Wagestream and Wayflyer.

Contact

Ashley Marshall

Director, PR and Communications, QED Investors

(518) 577-9984

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Aug. 19, 2025) -- QED Investors, the leading global fintech venture capital firm, today announced the hiring of Kshitij Jayakrishnan as a principal, based in Bangalore.

Bringing more than a decade of experience across venture capital and consulting, Jayakrishnan will work alongside Sandeep Patil, partner and head of Asia, to lead QED’s early and growth-stage fintech investments across India, Southeast Asia and the broader APAC region.

Jayakrishnan joins QED from Elevation Capital, where over a span of seven years he emerged as a key member of their leadership team driving both fintech and gaming investment strategies. At Elevation, he led more than 20 notable investments including Scapia, Dezerv, Mintifi, ZFunds and FamApp and helped the firm significantly shape its approach toward India's rapidly evolving fintech ecosystem.

During his tenure, Jayakrishnan published multiple influential market theses, podcasts and reports and was recognized for his ability to spot emerging trends and back category-defining founders early. He previously worked at Bain & Company, advising private equity, automotive and financial services clients. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kshitij to QED,” said Patil. “QED’s progress in India and APAC comes from backing ambitious founders with deep fintech expertise, long-term capital and guidance through regulatory and market complexities to build enduring, category-defining businesses. Kshitij brings strong regional expertise and is highly respected within the founder community. I am sure he will be an outstanding addition and will help us to accelerate our mission.”

This move further strengthens QED’s commitment to Asia, where it has invested $220 million since 2020 in companies such as Efficient Capital Labs, Jupiter, OneCard, Refyne and Upswing. QED recently announced it expects to deploy an additional $250-$300 million in India and APAC in the coming years.

"I’m excited to join QED at this pivotal moment as Asia’s fintech ecosystem evolves at an extraordinary pace,” said Jayakrishnan. “QED's deep sector expertise, founder-centric culture and track record of supporting transformative companies globally stand out in the industry.

“Today, I believe the most compelling opportunities lie in applying AI to financial services, evolving cross-border payments rails, building sophisticated wealth platforms and in high-growth consumer and enterprise startups embedding fintech. I look forward to applying QED's operator-led approach to partner with ambitious founders building generational companies that will transform financial services across the region."

About QED Investors

QED Investors is a global leading venture capital firm based in Alexandria, Va. Founded by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman in 2007, QED Investors is focused on investing in disruptive financial services companies worldwide. QED Investors is dedicated to building great businesses and uses a unique, hands-on approach that leverages its partners’ decades of entrepreneurial and operational experience, helping companies achieve breakthrough growth. Notable investments include AvidXchange, Betterfly, Bitso, Caribou, ClearScore, Creditas, Credit Karma, Current, Flywire, Kavak, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Mission Lane, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly, SoFi, Wagestream and Wayflyer.

Contact

Ashley Marshall

Director, PR and Communications, QED Investors

(518) 577-9984

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01

Settlement Collapse

Value transfer moves from days - corresponding banking, T+1 securities - to seconds. Working capital tied up in float is released.

02

Cost Collapse

Marginal transaction cost approaches zero: fractions of a cent, versus 1-6% on card and corresponding rails.

03

Programmability

Money becomes an object that carries logic - escrow, splits, rebates, compliance - executed by code, not back offices.

Pure infrastructure with no revenue accrual

Layer-1 chains and general-purpose middleware — outside our circle of competence and typically outside our stage.

Speculative asset creation

NFT platforms, memecoins, prediction markets styled as products — mapping to none of the five functions; structurally uninvestable for us.

Three structural truths cut across all five functions.

(a)

Regulated-first wins

The 2020/21 cycle proved permissionless purity does not survive contact with real financial regulation. GENIUS, MiCA, CLARITY and the UK/Singapore regimes are producing founders who start from “how do we get licensed” and build backwards — precisely the founder profile QED has always preferred.
(b)

Incumbents upgraded, not disintermediated

JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are jointly building a tokenized-deposit network; Visa launched a stablecoin platform in July 2026; 140+ businesses signed an open stablecoin standard. Banks migrate — and new-generation infrastructure companies own the picks and shovels of that migration.
(c)

Emerging markets feel it first

Every function improves most where the fiat experience is worst: cross-border payments, dollar access, investment product availability, working-capital finance. Those are exactly the geographies where QED has fintech ventures’ deepest footprint. Our geographic distribution is not incidental to the tokenization thesis — it is the thesis.

Trade & working-capital finance

Finkargo( LatAm import finance) and OatFi(B2B working-capital infrastructure) sit directly on flows whose logical settlement layer is stablecoin.

Collateralized digital-asset lending

Tokenized Treasuries, equities and stablecoin holdings as instant, programmable collateral.

On-chain private credt

Maple, Centrifuge and emerging institutional protocols - credit funds migrating to programmable rails.

Why QED is advanced

Credit is QED's craft: distinguishing lending businesses from fintechs pretending to be one, charge-offs earned from charge-offs deferred. On-chain credit is a straight-line extension, not a stretch.