About this episode

Miguel Armaza interviews Michael Calvey, a legendary investor in emerging markets, discussing his experiences and successes in Russia.

Send us Fan Mail Miguel Armaza sits down with Michael Calvey, one of the most successful and legendary emerging markets investors of our time. Mike moved to Moscow at age 27 in the early 90s and built Baring Vostok into a powerhouse with $10+ billion invested in Russia. They backed now-decacorns like Yandex, Revolut, Tinkoff, and Kaspi at their earliest stages. Yandex alone was a 450x return for the fund. Along the way, he survived a 98% market crash, was detained by Russia's secret service,...

People in this episode

Host: Miguel Armaza

Guest: Michael Calvey

Topics covered

• emerging markets
• investing
• entrepreneurship
• technology
• success stories
• market challenges

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Baring Vostok, Yandex, Revolut, Tinkoff, Kaspi

Places: Russia

More episodes of Fintech Leaders

• Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses · May 26, 2026 · 55 min
• Rob Heyvaert, Motive Partners Founder: Investing Billions to Build the Future of Finance · May 13, 2026 · 53 min
• The Trader Who Builds Billion-Dollar Companies: Tom Sosnoff on Thinkorswim, Tasty, and What Comes Next · April 14, 2026 · 60 min
• Is Finance Technology? How Founders Can Avoid the Mistakes That Kill Fintech Companies · March 31, 2026 · 44 min
• Lesaka - Building Africa's Leading Fintech as a Publicly Traded Company, with Ali Mazanderani · March 24, 2026 · 51 min
• Sequoia's George Robson: An Inside Look at Sequoia and What it Takes to Build Generational Companies · March 10, 2026 · 48 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Fintech Leaders podcast page.