Tessa Wijaya is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Xendit. She graduated from The University of Sydney, has vast experience in the field of private equity from large companies such as Principia and Mizuho and grew up in Indonesia. Tessa describes herself as “a unicorn among unicorns among unicorns.” There are a lot of people in her family who are entrepreneurs who ran small canteens and hawker stalls. 

Tessa started a few side businesses before Xendit. she started a restaurant, which failed, and a batik brand with one of her closest friends, but they discontinued it to focus on their full-time jobs. she started a jewellery business as well with some friends, whom she is a silent partner right now. 

As an Indonesian woman running a $1 billion financial technology start-up in Southeast Asia, she is a rather rare breed. Women leaders in tech are uncommon. This is especially true in fintech, where they hold 7% of leadership positions.

Xendit is an Indonesian fintech platform that processes digital payments for businesses in Southeast Asia, like Grab, Wise and Traveloka. Xendit was founded by Moses Lo, Tessa Wijaya, Juan Gonzalez and Bo Chen. Since launching in 2015, Xendit has grown rapidly. in 2021, it processes more than 65 million transactions worth $6.5 billion annually. It reached the $1 billion “unicorn” status in September 2021.

Xendit currently has more than 3,000 customers. Xendit said its annualized transactions tripled from 65 million to 200 million over the last year. The total value of the transactions also jumped from $6.5 billion to $15 billion. Some of its clients are Traveloka, Transferwise, and Grab.

As a woman who strives in the technology field, Tessa Wijaya is very aware of gender issues in Indonesia. She asserted that Indonesia needs more platforms where women could take a part in the technology field and also could inspire other women. 

Tessa:https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessa-w-41043020/

Xendit:https://www.xendit.co/en/

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