Alona Shevtsova named Women Entrepreneur in FinTech for the second year running

The Brit FinTech Awards 2026 returned to London on Friday, 9th October, bringing together leaders from across the fintech, payments, banking, and financial services sectors for an evening of recognition at Landing Forty Two. For Sends, it turned out to be a night to remember.

Alona Shevtsova, CEO of Sends, took to the stage not once, but twice. Earlier in the evening, she moderated the panel discussion "Can Fintechs and MSBs Afford to Ignore AI?" — a timely conversation that drew on the real pressures facing payments businesses and money service operators as AI reshapes the industry's infrastructure, compliance landscape, and customer expectations. It was the kind of discussion that tends to move beyond the headline and into the practical, and that was precisely the point.

Then came the award. For the second consecutive year, Alona was recognised as Women Entrepreneur in FinTech of the Year at the Brit FinTech Awards — a title that speaks not just to individual achievement, but to the consistency and conviction with which she has led Sends through a period of significant growth. Winning the same award back to back is not a coincidence; it reflects a sustained commitment to building something that matters in a space that demands both rigour and ambition.

We are proud of what this recognition represents — for Alona, for the team behind Sends, and for the wider conversation about what entrepreneurial leadership in fintech looks like today.