Sander Parawira

Sander Parawira is an Indonesian-born founder and quantitative finance professional. He won a bronze medal for Indonesia at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2005 while a student at SMAK 1 Penabur Jakarta. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2005-2008) and an M.S. at Stanford University (2009-2011). He worked in US high-frequency trading and market making - Jump Trading (2009), Knight Capital Group (2011-2013), KCG Holdings (2013-2017) and Virtu Financial (2017-2019) - before returning to Indonesia and founding Makmur, a digital investment platform, where he is Founder & CEO (Direktur Utama).

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• Quant employment verification: CONFIRMED. Primary-source evidence of actual quant-finance roles: FINRA BrokerCheck (CRD# 5653928) records Sander Parawira registered with Virtu Americas LLC 09/2018-02/2019 and lists him employed at Virtu Financial as Quantitative Strategist (investment-related, San Jose, CA) from 08/2011 to present. A self-reported LinkedIn/Crunchbase timeline lists Virtu Financial (Quantitative Strategist, 2017-07 to 2019-08), KCG Holdings (Quantitative Strategist, 2013-07 to 2017-07), Knight Capital Group (Assistant Vice President, 2011-07 to 2013-06) and Jump Trading (Financial Technology Associate, 2009). Employer classification: Jump Trading, Knight Capital, KCG Holdings and Virtu Financial are all US high-frequency trading / market-making firms, i.e. genuine quantitative-finance employers, not merely 'quant'-named companies. Identity is supported by the IMO 2005 result (Indonesia), the LinkedIn profile, Crunchbase and press coverage. Caveat: FINRA's 08/2011-present Virtu employment line appears to reflect the Knight Capital -> KCG -> Virtu registration lineage (Virtu acquired KCG in 2017) rather than a continuous 2011 Virtu hire, so exact Virtu start dates conflict between sources; the underlying quant roles are nonetheless confirmed.2026
• Self-reported LinkedIn/Crunchbase role timeline: Jump Trading (2009), Knight Capital Group (2011-2013), KCG Holdings (2013-2017), Virtu Financial (2017-2019). All four are US high-frequency trading / market-making firms, so the quant-employment claim rests on real quant employers (an index/profile source, not independent primary confirmation).
• Returned to Indonesia in 2019 after ~14 years in the US and founded Makmur (2020), a digital investment platform for rupiah- and US-dollar mutual funds and stocks; he is Founder & CEO and Direktur Utama.Aug 6, 2026
• Won a bronze medal for Indonesia at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2005 in Merida, Mexico, as a student at SMAK 1 Penabur Jakarta (Wardaya College team); scored 21 points, ranked 131st.Jul 21, 2005
• In his own account he was recruited at a campus career fair where Jump Trading handed out brainteasers on the spot and gave him a six-figure offer as a fresh graduate. Self-reported anecdote, not independently confirmed.Aug 6, 2026
• Makmur raised a seven-digit (USD) seed round led by BEENEXT with Kinesys Group, Trihill Capital and angels (2021); Makmur's own site additionally lists Ares, Alto, Quona, JAFCO and GSR Ventures as investors.Sep 27, 2021
• By 2026 Makmur reported ~1.3 million users (~700k active/funded) with a target of 2 million investors by end-2026.2026
• Named chairman (ketua) of PAPERDO for the 2025-2028 term, an Indonesian digital-investment industry association role.Oct 19, 2025
• Co-authored a Stanford CS229 machine-learning project paper (Dec 2009), evidence of applied ML/CS work during his Stanford M.S.Dec 4, 2009