Tessa Wijaya on being a woman in tech, building a unicorn
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Tessa Wijaya describes herself as “a unicorn amongst unicorns amongst unicorns.”
As an Indonesian lady operating a $1 billion monetary expertise start-up in Southeast Asia, she is a somewhat uncommon breed.
Girls leaders in tech are unusual. That is very true in fintech, the place they maintain 7% of leadership positions. However Wijaya mentioned she is hoping that can change by exhibiting extra ladies and women they will observe the trail much less traveled.
“I actually do wish to encourage extra ladies to be in tech,” the millennial entrepreneur advised CNBC Make It.
A $1 billion feminine founder
Wijaya is the co-founder and chief operations officer of Xendit, an Indonesian fintech platform that processes digital funds for companies in Southeast Asia, like Seize, Sensible and Traveloka.
Since launching in 2015, Xendit has grown quickly. At present, it processes greater than 65 million transactions price $6.5 billion yearly. It reached the $1 billion “unicorn” status in September.
It was an enormous problem… how do I sustain with these individuals?
Tessa Wijaya
co-founder and COO, Xendit
To Wijaya, nevertheless, success nonetheless feels international.
“The unlikelihood of somebody like me — a girl born and raised in a small city in Indonesia — turning into a co-founder in a tech firm invested in by billion greenback funds, doesn’t escape me,” she mentioned.
Discovering her toes in finance
As a younger woman rising up in Indonesia, Wijaya mentioned she was “unusual,” preferring to play with G.I. Joe motion figures somewhat than dolls.
However she was bold too, impressed by the grandmother who raised her and her cousins, whereas operating a small meals enterprise.
In her early 20s, Wijaya interviewed for an analyst job at a brand new non-public fairness fund in Jakarta. Although she had no conventional finance expertise, her vital pondering and willpower impressed the corporate, and she or he secured the job. She studied the trade exterior of labor hours to construct her information.
As an Indonesian lady main a $1 billion monetary expertise start-up, Tessa Wijaya describes herself as a “unicorn amongst unicorns amongst unicorns.”
Xendit
Nonetheless, the journey wasn’t straightforward.
As considered one of just a few ladies on the staff, Wijaya struggled to be heard. She did not have a level from Harvard or MIT, like lots of her colleagues. The final supervisor of one of many fund’s firms would merely ignore her when she spoke, she mentioned.
“For me, it was an enormous problem… how do I sustain with these individuals? I had no Ivy League diploma,” mentioned Wijaya. “I seemed actually younger, too. To be taken severely if you look younger and you are a ladies is admittedly onerous.”
Figuring out a rising development
But, she was undeterred. Wijaya was desirous to play a task in Southeast Asia’s evolving enterprise scene.
Working intently with rising start-ups within the non-public fairness area, she noticed the area’s fast rise of expertise within the early 2010s. However she additionally seen a lacking hyperlink.
“You’ve journey hailing, you might have e-commerce,” mentioned Wijaya. “They’re nothing with out the funds.”
I have been given the nice alternative to alter how the office behaves, so extra ladies can transfer up.
Tessa Wijaya
co-founder and COO, Xendit
In a stroke of luck, Wijaya was launched to a gaggle of scholars from the College of California, Berkeley who have been engaged on the same undertaking by means of start-up accelerator Y Combinator.
“It was work love at first sight,” mentioned Wijaya.
The staff instantly started engaged on a brand new funds platform, that may later change into Xendit.
Encouraging extra ladies in fintech
Six years on, the founders and their staff of 600 course of on-line funds, run marketplaces and handle funds for companies in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and past.
Of Xendit’s workers, some 40% are ladies, based on Wijaya. She mentioned she views serving to ladies progress of their careers as a private duty.
“I have been given the nice alternative to alter how the office behaves, so extra ladies can transfer up the ranks and be the subsequent technology of leaders,” she mentioned.
Xendit does that by operating “Girls In Tech” mentorship schemes for younger ladies and women, providing return to work schemes for brand new mothers, and offering meal deliveries for working dad and mom in the course of the pandemic.
Wijaya mentioned she hopes that further assist will make the distinction in encouraging the subsequent technology of feminine fintech professionals to imagine they are often leaders too.
“Generally I take into consideration the place my grandmother could be if she had the alternatives given to me,” she mentioned. “I would prefer to suppose she would even be proper right here. A COO and co-founder… a unicorn amongst unicorns amongst unicorns.”
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