Ren Yi Hooi

Founder and CEO pf Lightning Social Ventures Ltd

Ren Yi Hooi, Founder and CEO at Lightning Social Ventures, has global expertise in financial inclusion and technology at startups in various stages. As Director of Financial Inclusion at Railsbank, a leading open finance startup, Ren co-founded and launched LightningAid (a digital solution for safe and super fast financial aid distribution) from idea to app store within 8 days in response to the COVID-19 crisis. While serving as Product Director, she led Railsbank's Product team through its hyper growth phase following the series A fundraise.

Prior to this, Ren was Country Manager (Malaysia) for BIMA, a global InsurTech company with over 30 million customers in emerging markets, where she launched the Malaysia market within six weeks. She started her career as a management consultant at Bain & Company. Passionate about social impact, Ren has worked with multiple nonprofit organisations and social enterprises across the world, including The Rockefeller Foundation in New York and Zola Electric in Tanzania.

Outside of work, Ren has served on the Board of a local hospital in Philadelphia and a mentor for entrepreneurs under the Mentor for Hope and Ashoka’s Catapult Incubator programmes. She helped to start the Young Women's Leadership Connection in Singapore. Over the last few years, she has been invited to speak at major events including Product Tank London, the Asia Pacific Financial Inclusion Summit and IFC DigiLab Africa.

Ren graduated with a B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the Joseph Wharton Fellowship. As a Singaporean currently based in London, she holds the UK government's Exceptional Talent Visa in the field of digital technology.

Takes part in

Sep, 4 11:00 PM CEST

Stage 2

Panel Discussion

How to Make the COVID-boosted Financial Inclusion Work for Those Who Need It the Most?

What corporations and banks can do to improve the level of financial inclusion in their markets
What the fintech industry can offer to help corporations and governments achieve their financial inclusion goals
How to make new financial tools reach the most vulnerable and underrepresented groups

Speakers