VICTOR SANTOS

Airfox is what happens when cryptocurrency meets social entrepreneurship. The company is tapping into the decentralized power of the Ethereum blockchain to make financial services more affordable to the unbanked. Airfox recently held an $15 million ICO for a total funding of $16.5 million.

The Innovators Under 35 award recognizes individuals whose technical work promises to shape the coming decades. Santos was selected by MIT Technology Review for his dedication to accelerating financial inclusion through technology. Today, billions still remain unbanked and underbanked, meaning they lack access to basic financial services.

In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot his startup towards a new product built with blockchain — a quickly growing technology at the time. AirFox was an early stage startup that sold Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to small telecom companies. Santos and his team brainstormed a new business, which would launch a new blockchain currency to facilitate financial services for unbanked and underbanked customers in emerging markets via their smartphone.

Brazilian retailer Via Varejo has acquired Boston-based fintech Airfox, nearly two years after the companies announced a partnership to provide banking services to millions of consumers in the country.

Airfox entered a deal in September 2018 to provide its banQi mobile banking app through Via Varejo, which serves about 60 million customers through its Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio retail chains, according to a press release.

When he was 12, Victor Santos’ family sold all of its property in Brazil before moving to the United States and settling down.“When we arrived, I did not speak a word of English,” Santos said in an email.Santos, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2013, said in the email that he still struggles with distinguishing himself as either American or Brazilian. He added that he adopted his parents’ “optimism and work-ethic”

I can’t put my finger on it, but sometime over the last few years, I became a national villain. I was a wide-eyed 12-year-old when I arrived to the United States. My parents owned a small construction company in Brazil, and, like many before and after, moved here hoping to forge a brighter future for themselves and for their child. Possessing minimal savings and limited English, they worked hard to restart our family business in Los Angeles.