The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards are a yearly showcase of the greatest advents in fintech from leaders and visionaries in the worlds of finance and technology. This year, we have executives, developers and innovators from the likes of Facebook, Amazon, IBM, JP Morgan, Zelle, TD Ameritrade, TradeStation, Fidelity, and so many more.

In preparation for its biggest installment yet this May, we're profiling the companies competing for the BZ Awards. In this feature we focus in on Cashaa.

What does your company do? What unique problem does it solve?

Janina Lowisz, VP Marketing Cashaa: Despite the existence of new technologies like blockchain, 3.5 billion people are still unbanked and underbanked and left with outdated, expensive services which are charging the poorest the most, giving higher exchange rates and are slow, full of intermediaries, bureaucracy and extensive paperwork.

Cashaa is building a better bank, challenging legacy banking by building an app and products with input from our community of users. Our blockchain based platform enables its community to store, save, spend, receive, borrow and get insured, with a simplified user experience in a legally compliant way. Ultimately, Cashaa aims to become a one-stop-shop for financial needs.

We bring you our wallet, with tokenized cards powered by CAS tokens. They will also allow users to access and pay through any smart device.

Together with Master Card Service Provider we have built the world's first wallet that enables our user to store or transfer money to any card in the world. The sender and the receiver transact in their respective local currencies and needs no awareness of cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology.

Money in the Cashaa wallet will move faster and easier than cryptocurrencies, receiver will be able to get the money within 30 minutes in their local currency deposited to any MasterCard, as well as bank account or wallet in the world in our network.

Who are your customers?

Lowisz: We are targeting personal consumers such as immigrants, average bank users, international students and travellers, as well as business consumers: Fintech companies with innovative ideas can use us as platform, such as for lending, bill payments, e-commerce, crowdfunding, startups, ICO launching card based solutions, media companies, businesses with multiple vendor payouts etc.

How long have you been in business?

Lowisz: Cashaa was founded in June 2016.

Where are you located?

Lowisz: We are registered in Estonia, with offices in London and shortly in Mumbai.

Who is your company's leadership? What kind of experience do they have?

Lowisz: Our team is comprised of some of the best, brightest and most passionate people in the industry sharing the same vision. Our team has more than 200+ Years of Payments and banking experience and includes executives from Fortune 100 technology companies, central bank and top academic institutions. More information can be found here.

Who are your investors, if any?

Lowisz: Our investors include 2F Capital and Celestial Digital Ventures. Instead of looking for further investors, we decided to conduct a token sale, in which we received 33 million USD in 2017, out of which 14 Million was rejected due to strict AML and KYC policy setup by us.

Is there anything else Benzinga should know about your company?

Lowisz: Cashaa will use Auxesis Group`s Auxledger, one of the world`s largest private blockchain networks, which has already 53 Million users resulting from a State Government partnership.

To meet with the minds behind companies like Cashaa and others testing the cutting edge of fintech, grab a ticket to the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards May 15-16 in New York.