Sends
Alona Shevtsova named to Powerlist 2025 Standout 45
09.03.2026
Sends is proud to share that its CEO, Alona Shevtsova, has been named to the Standout 45 of the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist 2025, an annual initiative celebrating the women shaping the future of financial services through leadership, innovation, and impact.
Organised by Innovate Finance, the UK’s industry body for fintech, the Powerlist recognises individuals who are advancing transformation across banking, payments, digital assets, and financial infrastructure. Now in its tenth year, the initiative continues to highlight leaders whose work is helping redefine the financial services landscape.
The 2025 edition introduces a Hall of Fame for the first time, recognising a decade of influential fintech trailblazers alongside the Standout 45 - a group of women whose work continues to push the industry forward.
The recognition comes ahead of International Women’s Day, reinforcing the importance of celebrating the achievements of women across technology and financial services and encouraging greater diversity in industry leadership.
As CEO of Sends, Alona Shevtsova has focused on building a secure, compliant payment infrastructure designed to support businesses operating internationally. Under her leadership, the company has expanded its capabilities in areas such as AI-enabled risk monitoring, tokenised payment flows, and digital identity-aware onboarding, helping businesses move money globally while meeting evolving regulatory expectations.
“Ahead of International Women’s Day, it’s more important than ever that we elevate the stories of women who are shaping the future of finance,” said Shevtsova.
“Fintech has always been about challenging existing boundaries: whether technological, regulatory, or cultural. Real progress happens when diverse perspectives come together to build systems that are more inclusive, resilient, and globally connected.”
Her inclusion in the Powerlist follows a series of international recognitions highlighting her leadership in fintech innovation, compliance, and digital payments infrastructure.
The Women in FinTech Powerlist has become one of the sector’s most respected initiatives for recognising female leaders in financial technology. By highlighting role models across the industry, the programme aims to inspire the next generation of innovators, founders, and decision-makers.
The Women in FinTech Powerlist 2025 Celebratory Reception will take place on 12 March in London, hosted at the offices of KPMG, bringing together leaders from across the UK fintech ecosystem.
A sort code is a six-digit UK banking code that identifies the bank or payment service provider connected to a UK account. Businesses use a sort code together with an account number to send and receive local UK payments, while Sends helps companies manage UK local payments alongside SEPA, SWIFT, Global IBAN and multi-currency account functionality.
12.05.2026
IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is the ISO 13616 standard for numbering bank accounts in a consistent, internationally usable format. In the official IBAN registry published by SWIFT, the term is defined as an “expanded version” of a domestic account identifier (BBAN), intended for international use and uniquely identifying an individual account at a specific financial institution in a specific country.
07.05.2026
Over two intensive days, we joined engineers and data innovators from across the UK and beyond to explore new approaches to data ownership, privacy, and interoperability — and built a working prototype along the way.
01.05.2026
