Shield is run by three co-founders who have sat on the customer side of cross-border trade. Between them: risk and compliance work for a $200 billion bank, product engineering at Meta and Pinterest, and a Y Combinator-backed supply chain company that generated over $35 million in revenue. Shield is a FinCEN-registered Money Services Business headquartered in Miami, backed by a16z CSS, Giant Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Factor Capital, and MoonPay Ventures.
Leadership
Emmanuel Udotong, Chief Executive Officer
Emmanuel has a background in risk and compliance. Before founding Shield he was a software engineer at Pinterest, advised a $200 billion-plus AUM US bank on risk and compliance frameworks at McKinsey & Company, and co-founded a Y Combinator-backed supply chain company that generated over $35 million in revenue. He is a graduate of Princeton University. He spoke to TechCrunch about why Shield exists, and to the Miami Herald about Miami trade on stablecoin rails.
Luis Carchi, Chief Technology Officer
Luis leads product and technology. He is a Princeton graduate who spent three years on Facebook’s product team, where he helped launch Secret Conversations. He also ran an electronics import business from the US to Ecuador, which gives him firsthand insight into the problems Shield customers face. Forbes Ecuador profiled his path from Cuenca to Shield.
Isaiah Udotong, Chief Operating Officer
Isaiah leads operations. He is an MIT engineer and a two-time founder whose ventures have processed hundreds of millions in trade volume, working mainly with wholesalers, factories, and trade businesses internationally. Before Shield he co-founded Releaf, a Y Combinator and Breakthrough Energy Ventures-backed company that develops industrial food-processing systems and has moved machinery and commodities across four continents.
Why This Team
Our founders have done trade in Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and North America, and have run product and risk operations on the finance side. Shield exists because we have sat on the customer side of cross-border payments and know what established businesses require: speed, certainty, and compliance that stands up to scrutiny.
How Shield Is Governed
Shield is a FinCEN-registered MSB. Every customer completes formal KYB verification, transactions are screened against sanctions and AML requirements, and our compliance function is led by dedicated personnel, not outsourced. We work with regulated US banking partners, and we file the reports the law requires, every time. More on our compliance program, on keeping a bank account while accepting USDT, and on what the GENIUS Act changed for stablecoin payments.
