Bio

Emmanuel Udotong is the co-founder and CEO of Shield, which provides banking and business credit for importers, exporters, wholesalers and resellers. Shield is a registered US Money Services Business. Shield has $600M+ processed as of September 2026. Shield is backed by a16z crypto and others. Before Shield, Emmanuel was on the founding team of Releaf, a Y Combinator-backed trade business, and ran its agricultural processing factory in rural Nigeria. He then spent a year at McKinsey in Lagos building a risk and controls program for a $200B bank. He graduated from Princeton in 2019.

Emmanuel Udotong is the co-founder and CEO of Shield, a financial services company for businesses that trade across borders. Shield provides importers, exporters, wholesalers and resellers a US-dollar account, international payments and business credit, with payments settled on USDT and USDC stablecoins. The company is a registered Money Services Business in the US. Shield has $600M+ processed as of September 2026. Shield is backed by a16z crypto, Giant Ventures, Kraken and MoonPay.

Before Shield, Emmanuel was on the founding team of Releaf, a Y Combinator-backed trade business, and ran its agricultural processing factory in rural Nigeria. He then spent a year at McKinsey in Lagos building a risk and controls program for a $200B bank. He graduated from Princeton in 2019.