Dr. Michelle He

Dr. Michelle He is a Singapore-educated data scientist and fintech entrepreneur who co-founded Abound, one of the UK's fastest-growing consumer lending platforms. She holds a PhD in machine learning from the National University of Singapore and is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), a combination that reflects her rare ability to bridge rigorous quantitative research with real-world financial services. Before co-founding Abound, Michelle was a Director at EY in London, where she advised banks and major financial institutions on lending strategies, credit analytics, and complex banking transformations — gaining first-hand insight into the limitations of traditional credit scoring systems.

In 2020, Michelle co-founded Abound (originally Fintern) alongside Gerald Chappell, with the shared conviction that consumer credit was fundamentally broken. By leveraging Open Banking data and artificial intelligence, Abound's proprietary platform, Render, analyses each applicant's real-time financial transactions to build an accurate picture of their true affordability — rather than relying on statistical credit score averages that are frequently wrong at the individual level. As COO and co-founder, Michelle has overseen the development of a lending business that produces 75% fewer defaults than the industry standard and has issued over £650 million in loans since launch.

Abound has raised over £1.3 billion in combined debt and equity financing, including a £500 million round in 2023, an £800 million round in 2024, and a £300 million facility from Deutsche Bank in March 2025. The company turned profitable in 2024 and is now expanding into prime lending in the UK while rolling out the Render technology to banks and traditional lenders across Europe. Michelle's work at Abound has positioned the company at the forefront of responsible AI-powered financial inclusion.