Jeevika Makani

Buckle up, cause I’m bout to tell you about Jeevika Makani, this absolute beast in the startup world. She’s a YC W22 alum, which already says a lot, that’s the real deal, right? She’s based out of Sydney but her hustle’s global. Jeevika’s been around the block in fintech, AI, and even circular economy stuff, and she’s crushing it in all of them.

Her story kicks off with a solid background, she studied economics at Melbourne and then went for an MBA at INSEAD, so she’s got the brains and the business chops. But what’s really cool is how she’s jumped into different spaces, proving she’s all about pushing boundaries. She co-founded re-mint, which was dedicated to making the economy more circular, basically, trying to make waste a thing of the past. That’s pretty progressive, especially for a startup. Then she moved into risk and operations at Fat Llama, the peer-to-peer rental marketplace, think Airbnb but for almost anything. She was behind the scenes making sure everything ran smooth, which is no small feat.

But here’s where it gets even more interesting. She’s now the CEO and co-founder of Top Road, a company that’s building payments and analytics tools for apps in the OpenAI GPT Store. Yeah, she’s riding the wave of AI and democratizing access to it. That’s some advanced shit. She’s all about making AI and financial tools accessible and useful, especially in new markets and for people who might’ve been left out before. She’s not just building a business; she’s trying to change the game for a lot of folks.

What’s clear from her process? Jeevika’s driven by a real passion for tech that makes a difference. She’s not just doing startups for the sake of it, she genuinely wants to create tools that help people and push the boundaries of what’s possible. Whether it’s making the circular economy work, enabling financial inclusion, or building AI-powered apps, she jumps in with both feet, learns fast, and then crushes it.

Her experience screams motivation, she’s all about jumping into new problems, learning on the fly, and then scaling those ideas into real solutions. She’s got a knack for spotting where the world’s headed, especially with AI and fintech, and then actually building the stuff that makes it happen. No bullshit, just straight-up value.

So yeah, Jeevika isn’t just some founder, she’s one of those people shaping the future, pushing tech forward, and doing it in a way that’s accessible for everyone. That’s why she’s such a big deal.