Shuchi Batra

My career in fintech and consumer lending spans over 11 years across multiple international markets. After completing my engineering degree and MBA from Indian Institute of Management Indore, I started my journey in Dubai with Simply Life, powered by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, where I gained first-hand experience designing zero-to-one credit products. I then spent 3 years at Citibank managing portfolios in UAE and Bahrain, building fraud models, risk acquisition models, and underwriting systems while working closely with US and APAC partners. At CBD1, the digital factory powered by Commercial Bank of Dubai, I was hired to create a digital financial platform similar to what Revolut and Monzo were doing in London. There I designed an innovative credit card called CBD1 that gave customers the power to choose their own rewards and merchants, which won the Visa Innovation Challenge Award worth $25,000, with Visa agreeing to invest $5 million as a brand partner. During COVID, I helped rebuild the entire digital banking suite in just 2-3 months and built the product analytics function from the ground up. After my husband moved to the US, I completed my second MBA at USC in one year, then joined Credit One where I managed portfolios worth $8.5 billion serving 10 million customers, focusing on gamification and flexible repayment solutions for subprime customers. In October, I resigned to partner with Bond Credit in a fractional capacity, designing product and GTM strategy for their credit GPT. I then joined Empower as co-founder and Chief Product Officer, working with Emmy Award journalist Tamara Lane to build an agentic AI lending platform that helps lenders expand credit access to gig workers and underserved Americans by providing 360-degree customer data beyond traditional bureau scores. Beyond my corporate work, I am also a published poet with over 2,000 poems written, 65,000 Instagram followers, and three Amazon bestselling books including 'You Belong With Me' which made me India's bestselling author. I have performed over 20 stand-up comedy shows in Dubai and currently serve as Secretary for the Poetry Society of Virginia.