At Markets Media’s inaugural Women in Finance Awards, Blythe Masters won the award for Excellence in FinTech 2015 when she was chief executive of Digital Asset, the enterprise blockchain fintech. Before joining Digital Asset, Masters spent 27 years at J.P. Morgan where she became known as the creator of the credit default swap.
Blythe Masters, Motive Partners
Masters joined Motive Partners in 2019 and is chair of Motive Ventures, the venture capital firm’s early-stage investment capability. In August 2024 she became group chief executive of portfolio company FNZ, a wealth technology platform and global fintech.
Markets Media’s 10th-annual Women in Finance Awards program will be held on Thursday, November 21, at the Hard Rock Hotel.
How did you feel about receiving the award 10 years ago?
It was a privilege to be recognized for my work in FinTech, but more importantly to serve as an example to the young women in this industry. In some ways, I felt like I was receiving the award for “taking the plunge” more than for anything I had yet achieved. It came at a time when I had ended a 27-year career with JP Morgan and started at a ground zero startup in the enterprise blockchain space.
We were pre-pitch, pre-product, pre-revenue, pre-funding and pre-client – quite the change from the behemoth that was my former firm. It can be intimidating to move into a new space, but I had a deep conviction in the importance of applying technological innovation to financial services after years of inward focus following the existential threats of the great financial crisis and the re-regulation that followed. The potential for FinTech disruption was somewhere on the spectrum between scary and exciting depending on where you sat, and definitely under-appreciated by the industry that I knew so well.
What are you most proud of in the decade since you won your award?
Start-up life was incredible learning, but I’m most proud of the impact of my role as a Founding Partner with Motive Partners, where I have spent the last 5 years and have had the opportunity to help grow the firm into an innovative, stage-agnostic specialist investment firm focused exclusively on groundbreaking financial technology. We have deployed approaching $6bn of our investors’ and partners’ capital that has provided substantial real-world value to financial institutions and driven some extraordinary innovation.
The ability to operate at Motive in a novel way in this industry was central to my decision to become involved. My work here has enabled me to grow professionally, engaging in new roles by building a venture capital business, leading investments in firms such as CAIS, Splitit and Forge, forging a strategic partnership with Apollo, and most recently becoming Group CEO of the global wealth tech platform operator, FNZ.
I am truly passionate about our focus on transforming the wealth management industry to bring benefit to a wider audience including younger generations, entrepreneurs, and women. FNZ, with $2 trillion contracted assets under administration, has partnered with over 500 leading financial institutions to reduce their operating cost and complexity and help them do what they do best: improving the futures of 24 million end investors globally.
How do you think finance has progressed in adopting new technology in the last 10 years?
Technology has, and will continue to, fundamentally alter the landscape of the financial services industry. In the last ten years, we have witnessed the simultaneous coming of age of multiple disruptive technologies, each individually impactful, but collectively amounting to a tsunami of change.
Broadband, mobile, cloud, cryptography, DLT, data, analytics and AI have enabled digital engagement, ultra personalization, straight through multi-party processing, service-driven technologies, and platform businesses that we now take for granted, expanding access and affordability of financial services for millions globally.
What are your hopes for the next decade?
The next decade holds the promise of a vast acceleration in these trends. Fintech is poised to see significant growth driven by advancements in AI, DLT, digital payments and embedded finance. AI will power personalized financial services, risk management, and fraud detection. Blockchain technology will likely enable decentralized finance (DeFi), facilitating cross-border transactions, asset tokenization, and smart contracts.
The rise of digital currencies, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), could help reshape global payment systems. Additionally, open banking and embedded finance will offer consumers seamless financial services integrated into everyday platforms, while regulatory frameworks will evolve to address emerging technologies and data privacy concerns. Fintech adoption in emerging markets, especially in regions like MENA and Africa, will also surge as digital infrastructure expands.
In our work at FNZ, we are using technology to quite literally open up wealth for the masses by radically reducing the cost for financial institutions to provide advice and access, increasing the availability of new products and capabilities for use by a larger population. Despite this, there remain risks in technological innovation of people being left behind as gender, socioeconomic, and geopolitical gaps remain. As just one example, the continued existence of the under-banked cash-based economy in the U.S. is demonstrative of this problem as groups remain underserved by the financial sector. Technology will continue to transform finance, but we must pay attention to and mitigate the potential risk of those neglected by innovation.
What advice would you give to the next generation of women in finance?
This industry blends the fascinating twin disciplines of financial services and technology. Yet, neither of those two spaces are known for the advancement of women, and the combined space is no better. So women in this field frequently operate in a leadership minority. This can be discouraging and create challenges for advancement as a result of micro-inequities, lack of role models and insufficient opportunities for mentors and sponsorship.
Young women in the sector need to double down on their advantages: work ethic, ability to multi-task and to blend relationship and technical skills. Seek out firms that are visibly focused on the development of diverse and inclusive cultures and where innovation is seen as both a means to an end and an end in itself. As a woman leader myself and the mother of an ambitious young woman, I am optimistic for the future, but still deeply frustrated by the lack of progress. I see women continue to rise, trailblazing and shaping the future, and, importantly, increasing opportunities for other women.
The next generation should focus on connecting with these leaders, who can provide support and empowerment in overcoming roadblocks. Despite the potential role of technology as a great leveler, this continues to be a remarkably relationship-driven industry, and women should use that to their advantage, seeking out role models and sponsors, male and female, who can offer unique and valuable insights to expand their career development. As this industry grows, the network of skills and experiences available to young women needs to grow alongside it.
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