About Spout Finance

Spout Finance is building a DeFi prime brokerage that lets you borrow against your tokenized US stocks at 0% interest, and lets lenders earn yield. Loans are funded by a disciplined, per-asset covered-call strategy rather than by charging borrowers interest. We are a team from traditional finance, engineering, law, and design, building at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi.

Team

  • Mira Emelis, Head of Socials
    Social media strategist and SheFi Season 16 alum with a Business Ed. background, helping blockchain companies grow their social presence. Supported Popula (NEAR Protocol) through social campaigns and community-driven product insights.
  • Marc Ryan, Co-Founder & CEO
    Former tech investment banker at HSBC covering fintech, software, and hardware, including the Arm IPO. Mathematics at Vanderbilt with research on the Black-Scholes model, and a long-time options trader. Founder of FlipVault, an Aptos-funded decentralized P2P exchange, and angel investor in Theoriq, PIN AI, and GAIB AI.
  • Paul van Mierlo, Co-Founder & CTO
    Smart contract developer and ZK researcher with a Master's from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Multiple-time award winner across global hackathons, specializing in privacy protocols, payment systems, and secure DeFi.
  • Paul Jan Reijn, Co-Founder & General Counsel
    Legal counsel trained at Erasmus School of Law, with years of experience in software, having architected legal frameworks for international B2B SaaS and private equity portfolio companies. Owns the regulatory architecture behind Spout's tokenized equities, from entity structuring to onchain compliance.
  • Ishan Lakhwani, Infrastructure Lead
    Full-stack blockchain developer with 7+ years shipping at scale, engineering at SendAI. Rust and Solana protocol work across DeFi and mobile apps reaching 10M+ users. Top contributor to IntentKit, a 6.5K-star open-source AI agent framework.
  • Ramy Chatbi, Lead Protocol Engineer
    Cryptographer and Solana engineer specializing in zero-knowledge proofs. Founder of Styx Protocol, a post-quantum privacy and payments layer for Solana with a native on-chain STARK verifier. Previously full-stack developer at Thales. Master's in cybersecurity from Epitech.
  • Saksham Tyagi, Product Engineer
    Full-stack Web3 developer building across Move and EVM chains. Previously full-stack developer at Rewardsy and UI designer at iknowspots. Hackathon winner across Aptos, TON, and QuickNode, and recipient of an Indian government grant under the MSME 4.0 Ideathon.
  • Ashish Yadav, Head of Design
    Founding designer with experience at Headout, Aquanode, and Rancho Labs, building scalable design solutions for products at consumer scale. Deep expertise in design systems and brand identity.
  • Onuorah Gabriel, Marketing & Growth Lead
    Growth operator scaling go-to-market engines for web3 products from zero to one. Led community systems and partnerships at Santa Browser and Digital Era Bank, and spearheaded GTM strategy at GemXBT. Runs Spout's points program and acquisition strategy.

Advisors

  • J. Christopher Giancarlo

    J. Christopher Giancarlo (Regulatory & Policy Advisor) is an advisor to Spout Finance.
    13th Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he oversaw the first regulated market for bitcoin derivatives. Independent director of Nomura, board member of Paxos, Chair of Polymarket's Advisory Board, and senior advisor to Jefferies. Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Digital Dollar Project.
    Affiliations: Nomura, Jefferies, Polymarket, Paxos, Digital Dollar Project

  • Neil Amhis

    Neil Amhis (Quantitative Strategy Advisor) is an advisor to Spout Finance.
    PhD, UCL. Former quant analyst at BNP Paribas and Natixis; now Lead Researcher at Zann Capital.
    Affiliations: BNP Paribas

  • Saiprasad Raut

    Saiprasad Raut (Product Advisor) is an advisor to Spout Finance.
    Chief Technology Advisor for Crypto at Worldpay (FIS); Co-Chair of the Hedera Council's Technical Steering & Product Committee.
    Affiliations: FIS, Worldpay, Hedera

Angel investors

  • J. Christopher Giancarlo

    J. Christopher Giancarlo (13th Chairman of the U.S. CFTC; director at Nomura and Paxos; Chair of Polymarket's Advisory Board) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Polymarket, Paxos, Nomura, Jefferies, Digital Dollar Project

  • Anatoly Yakovenko

    Anatoly Yakovenko (Co-Founder of Solana Labs) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Solana Labs

  • Raj Gokal

    Raj Gokal (Co-Founder of Solana Labs) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Solana Labs

  • Dean Swennumson

    Dean Swennumson (Co-Founder & Head of Operations at Superstate; formerly Compound Labs) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Superstate, Compound

  • Eric Chen

    Eric Chen (Co-Founder & CEO of Injective) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Injective

  • Paul Taylor

    Paul Taylor (Former BlackRock Private Equity; #1 most active crypto angel investor in the US (2024)) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: BlackRock

  • Benjamin Jessel

    Benjamin Jessel (Former Principal at Oliver Wyman; Banking and Payments, Digital Strategy at IBM) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Oliver Wyman, IBM

  • Shane Qiu

    Shane Qiu (Founder & CEO of Bitway) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Bitway

  • Saiprasad Raut

    Saiprasad Raut (Chief Technology Advisor, Crypto at Worldpay (FIS); Hedera Council Co-Chair) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: FIS, Worldpay, Hedera

  • Anna Yuan

    Anna Yuan (Founder of Perena; former Head of Stablecoins at the Solana Foundation) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Solana Foundation, Perena

  • James Parillo

    James Parillo (Former General Partner at Figment Capital) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Figment Capital

  • Stefano Glauser

    Stefano Glauser (Partner at Polymorphic Capital) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Polymorphic Capital

  • Nicolai Svistunov

    Nicolai Svistunov (Head of Liquidity Provisioning & Due Diligence Desk at Turtle.xyz) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Turtle

  • Steve Schoonebeek

    Steve Schoonebeek (Business Development Executive at Triton One) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Triton One

  • Whales Lee

    Whales Lee (Co-Founder of CollegeDAO; ex-Head of Product at Solayer) is an angel investor in Spout Finance.
    Affiliations: Solayer, CollegeDAO

Investors

Spout Finance is backed by Solana, Anchorage Digital, Draper Dragon, Solayer, 2Square, Perena, Bering Waters Group, Vessel, Blockstreet, Taisu Ventures.