2022 Fintech Awards Spotlight: Ziad Makkawi, EQUIAM, Most Impactful Fintech Executive Award Nomination

Benzinga, a media and data provider bridging the gap between retail and institutional investors, will be holding its annual Benzinga Global Fintech Awards, a day of virtual dealmaking, networking and recognition in the financial technology space, in November.

The event will award Benzinga Listmakers — those top companies and executives who are part of Benzinga’s Global Fintech Index — for their accomplishments in innovating and merging the best of finance and technology.

In recognition of those disruptive innovators creating positive and diverse change within the financial services space, Benzinga presents EQUIAM’s Ziad Makkawi with the Most Impactful Fintech Executive award nomination.

Context: Founded in 2017 by CEO Makkawi, EQUIAM is a data driven venture capital manager specializing in technology-focused industry agnostic investment. Makkawi has over 30 years experience in the financial services industry.

Makkawi and his team is behind much of the company’s pioneering work in data driven investment and has helped multiple investors make greater and quicker returns through such an approach.

In the simplest way possible: EQUIAM uses a data and technology driven approach for its investment criteria, often allowing it to make superior returns for its investors quicker than the more traditional venture capital methodology.

Offering: Makkawi and EQUIAM’s focus allows investors to invest in EQUIAM funds, which give investors exposure to sectors and companies, all of which are diligently selected based on a proven data set.

““The team is leading a disruptive, timely, and dramatic evolution in VC investing, which ironically has not really kept pace with financial technology and has operated the same way for 70 years. Our algorithmic, tech-centric methodology uses harvested and cleansed data to power our decisions. The growth and late stage segment of the VC market is totally ripe for investing approaches that take emotions out of the equation,” EQUIAM says.

Innovation Outlook: Makkawi and EQUIAM are using his and the team’s impressive experience in the financial services sector to continually look for ways to refine their data methodology and improve the potential returns for companies and investors.

“Ziad chairs the Manager’s Investment Committee and is responsible for the firm’s overall strategic direction and product offering,” the company says.