Yobie Benjamin

Co-founder, Avegant; CTO, Token.io

Currently CTO of Token.io - providing software to banks that enables them to issue a new payment type designed specifically for use in the digital era. Senior advisor the the CEO and Board of Directors - AstroDigital.com (satellites and space imagery), CambrianInnovation.com (clean water and clean power), Stilla (wearables), and Wonderloop (video), WildlifeWorks.com (forest and wildlife conservation/carbon credits), WearableWorld (IoT accelerator), Moni.com (payments/fintech)

As Co-founder of Avegant, Yobie has advanced the development of a next generation wearable device - Avegant Glyph - The Smart Headphone and raised $1.5MM on Kickstarter, $9.4MM on Series A and A1 and $24MM on Series B. As an advisor for Skully, Yobie has raised $3.4MM via crowdfunding and $11MM on a Series A.

Yobie was a volunteer civilian advisor for NASA AMES Collaboration Labs.

Previously, Yobie was Global Chief Technology Officer at Citigroup ICG/GTS and Chairman of GTS Research Development Innovation & Learning Centres at Citigroup | Institutional Clients Group / Global Transaction Services, with a focus on projects such as Citi Commerce Server, the backend to Google Wallet and Apple Pay.

He was the Founder & CEO and coder of a progressive e-commerce company, GoodStorm.com and served as GoodStorm Brand President and SVP of Business Development at Zazzle.com.

Yobie is a former Partner and Chief of Global Strategy at Ernst & Young LLP and former Chief Knowledge Officer and Director of Enterprise Security Services at Cambridge Technology Partners' Management Labs.

Awards: CNN Top 10 Technology Products of 2014:
Avegant Glyph
Skully Systems AR1 Helmet
2015 Technology Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum

Additional Highlights: Successful venture investor; innovator in the technology, retail and consumer products space; fintech; restaurateur; consumer product design; next generation KYC/AML and anti-fraud systems; systems architect; writer; social activist

Personal Interests: Synthetic biology, games and game theory, all things food and wine, progressive politics, technology, music, social justice, getting people to vote

Portfolio companies: Token.io, Avegant, Skully, Skyport, Gusto, Indie Bio, Wearable World, Wildlife Works.

Votunteer - Vote.org, Amnesty International