Almond FinTech is building the first multi-chain, token-agnostic, cross-border FX routing optimization engine. That’s a complex story that needs to be told in a way that makes sense to people at every link in the chain of global money movement. The company’s veteran CMO says that it’s more about “show” than “tell.”
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Howard Davidson, Chief Marketing Officer of Almond FinTech, orchestrates a distributed marketing and operations team redefining clarity, credibility, and innovation in global money movement.
When the International Monetary Fund reported that migrant workers sending as little as $200 abroad often lose between 10 and 20 percent of their earnings to fees and delays, it underscored a long-standing and frequently unstated injustice in global finance. The IMF notes that smaller remittances “typically average about 10 percent, and can reach 15–20 percent in certain corridors.”
For millions of families, those losses are not abstract. They mean rent unpaid, meals skipped and education postponed. Even today, according to World Bank data, the global average cost of sending $200 remains about 6.6 percent, and in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa it still exceeds 8 percent. The G20’s target to bring global remittance costs below 3 percent remains distant.
Beyond the fees, there is the human frustration of delay. Many workers still rely on traditional banks — institutions that close on Sundays and holidays, charge exorbitant transfer fees, and take days to move money often needed immediately for food, medicine, or survival.
A source of delays and costs was inefficiencies in the behind-the-scenes fiat-to-fiat conversion process, problems which persisted even as bridge currencies running on blockchains have been introduced in recent years. An estimated 5% of each forex transfer is lost en route, adding up to a staggering $150 billion annually. The vision of a seamless end-to-end digital flow of money to the last mile was far from being realized.
Callout: 5% is lost on each transaction, adding up to $150B annually
Almond FinTech was founded to help close that efficiency gap and to relieve the real human suffering it causes, from the wasted time of treasury teams in corporate hubs to payment processors and their clients in developing countries. The company, led by cofounders CEO Adam Swartzbaugh and CTO Yunus Sevimli, aims to make cross-border payments faster, less costly, and fully compliant with global standards.
Chief Marketing Officer Howard Davidson joined in 2021 to shape how that inclusive vision is communicated, connecting the diverse elements of Almond’s complex story into a single, coherent message of innovation and trust.
In a conversation at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, he emphasizes that while it may be true that money talks, not everyone has been trained to listen. Understanding innovation in foreign exchange technology, he says, requires not just speaking to human beings but showing them. “Technology makes our product possible,” Davidson says. “But people are at the core of what makes our purpose real, and visible proof is what earns human trust.”
Clarity and Credibility
Under Davidson’s marketing leadership, Almond’s brand evolved from describing what it does — moving money across digital rails — to defining why it matters: measurable, evidence-based efficiency for every transaction and how it gets the job done: a first-of-its-kind technology powered by AI but guided by the desire to make money movement easier for humans, from treasury team members wasting time on manual processes, to forex payment processors seeking alpha in fiercely competitive regional corridors, to end-users who just want their funds delivered pronto.
At the core of Almond’s innovations is the first multi-chain, token-agnostic routing optimization engine, a programmable platform that selects the best combination of token, chain, and timing to execute each FX transfer. The result? Faster, more efficient, more cost-effective cross-border money movement, yielding 10 to 200 bps improvements per transfer compared with traditional methods, consistently beating mid-market FX rates.
Davidson credits the technical team for building the systems that make those results visible and verifiable. “Our engineers designed the dashboards initially to evaluate our performance,” he says. “Now it’s used to give our clients actionable insights and transparent compliance across the board. Every routing decision can be analyzed and optimized to improve future outcomes.”
It is the world’s first crypto/forex correlation analytics platform, an evidence-based, data-verified view into FX market behavior combining insights into both fiat and bridge currencies. Historical and real-time dashboards help to forecast volatility, execution windows, and measure rails against mid-market rates and other benchmarks. The MMR comparisons typically validate Almond’s advantage. “We don’t ask clients to believe,” Davidson says. “We show them the data. Our analytics turn performance into proof.”
Callout: “Our analytics turn performance into proof.”
“Sometimes the most visionary thing you can do is just cut through the words and get to the point,” Davidson says. “A good dashboard,” he quips, “is worth a thousand words: if you promise real-time intelligence,” he says, “its visual and verbal expression should feel intuitive, clear-cut, and well-grounded.”
He credits Almond’s small, passionate team around the world for delivering that clarity. “From engineers refining routing models to analysts interpreting performance data, everyone here knows they’re contributing to something measurable. Numbers don’t flatter or rationalize. They show what’s real.”
The Human Side of Innovation
Over the past four years, Davidson and the Almond leadership team have shaped the company’s brand story from explaining what is AI-powered routing to demonstrating how FX market intraday volatility can be turned into value. But at the core remains the why — the core purpose of moving money more efficiently and cost-effectively.
That means not just saying but showing with data what makes it unique: a programmable FX engine that optimizes token, chain, and timing simultaneously. “The founders gave us the vision, the engineers built the capability, and my role is to translate that into communication that makes sense to people who aren’t technologists,” he says.
A recent marketing innovation has been showing the multi-dimensionality of the Almond solution by rendering those diverse dimensions as facets of a dynamic Rubik’s cube. FX is just such a complex puzzle, Davidson says, but when you know how to interpret the data, rates can be optimized efficiently and rapidly, saving time and money. Other fintech tweaked one facet of crypto or timing, but Almond is the first to put all those dimensions together in a real-time AI-powered optimization engine orchestrating each aspect of cross-border routing, and doing so in a way that is fully compliant with standards.
Almond has matured into a recognized leader in programmable FX infrastructure, powering treasury automation, remittances, and cross-border payments for clients worldwide. “Our mission, financial inclusion and borderless payments, only means something if we can quantify it,” Davidson says. “Those numbers represent people’s lives, their time, and the value of their work. That matters to us.”
The scale of the problem, he adds, is immense: alongside the 150 billion lost each year to FX inefficiencies, 50 to 200 hours per month is wasted on manual treasury operations. “Those aren’t just statistics,” he says. “They’re evidence of why innovation matters.”
Callout: “50 to 200 hours per month is wasted on manual treasury operations”
Davidson once led marketing at an AI-robotics firm. At Almond, he honors what AI does best while highlighting what only people can still do better than robots: human connection. “AI delivers performance. Human beings build relationships,” he says.
That balance defines Almond’s communication: data-driven but personal. Treasury teams reclaim time. CFOs gain clarity. Families receive their remittances faster. “People hate bureaucratic and compliance hassles. We let AI automate those chores, so treasury teams and payment processors have clarity and data to think strategically, no longer bogged down in manual busywork, and so customers of our clients get their transfered funds as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
“Clients shouldn’t need to think about tokens or blockchains,” he adds. “They should just think — hey, someone finally built something that works better.”
Validating with Visualization
Davidson sees the next phase of industry storytelling as moving from hype to evidence. “Awareness today isn’t about loud claims,” he says. “It’s about education, transparency, and trust.”
Every Almond claim is verified, every rate benchmarked, every improvement displayed in real-time. Its performance marketing analytics have become at once marketing tools and public proofs.
“In fintech, trust isn’t built with adjectives,” he notes. “It’s built with dashboards. Marketing is today less about aspiration and more about demonstration and confirmation. Show your proof or go home.”
Callout: “Show your proof or go home.”
“At Almond, data gives us credibility. But creativity gives us connection,” Davidson explains. The routing optimization engine drives performance: the analytics layer provides validation. Together, they deliver optimal FX rates and actionable insights for each client.
“That’s math, not marketing,” he smiles. “Data reveals what’s happening. Creativity explains why it matters.”
For Davidson, that synthesis defines Almond’s brand — a company where compliance, performance, and storytelling meet. “Cross-border FX has several distinct layers and we’re laser-focused on heuristics—optimizing every dimension so that money moves better. We’re building the intelligence layer for global money movement,” he says. “Our job is to make moving money more understandable and clear.”
Curiosity and Trust as Personal Compasses
Asked how he stays creative in a technical field, Davidson replies: “Curiosity and the people around me.” He credits younger colleagues for continually refreshing his perspective. “Our goal is to make global money movement as efficient as data movement,” he says. “But our purpose is also deeply human: to give time and value back to the people who move the world’s money.”
“You can’t market what you don’t understand,” he says. “At Almond, that means becoming an insider about FX spreads, liquidity depth, and gas fees, as well as tone, clarity and timing. I was once talking about gas fees and a guy asked me: “why do you talk about gas? Aren’t you guys electric yet? I explained that it was jargon to describe on-chain transaction costs, a bit like tolls. He said “oh,” and didn’t ask any more questions. But he liked our dashboards.”
Marketing, he says, connects proof and purpose. “The brand message is a bridge linking engineers, sales, and clients. Just as money transfers need to go end-to-end, fiat-to-fiat, communication with the marketplace begins and ends with trust based on the ability to prove your case with numbers. “We’re not here to promise the future,” he says. “We’re here to prove it in dashboards, one transaction, one basis point, at a time: in any token, any blockchain, and any corridor. Transparency builds trust.”
Callout: “Funds must be fully accountable and fully compliant, moving globally at nearly the speed of light, like data.”
Ultimately, Davidson observes, the goal of FX should be simple: to ensure that every unit of hard-earned money moves across borders with care, efficiency, and integrity. It should never be delayed, diverted, or eroded along the way. “Funds must be fully accountable and fully compliant, moving globally at nearly the speed of light, like data. Bringing money movement to light speed intelligently is at the core of Almond’s purpose, and mine.”
About Almond
Almond FinTech is the intelligence layer for global money movement, offering the first multi-chain, token-agnostic FX routing and treasury optimization engine. The analytics platform provides real-time benchmarking, crypto/forex correlation analysis, and evidence-based validation of every optimization decision.
Operating on a fully remote basis with team members in North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, Almond is led by co-founders CEO Adam Swartzbaugh and CTO Yunus Sevimli.