Flutterwave, Africa’s fintech giant, has hired several high-profile executives to help lead its risk and compliance efforts one month after the abrupt exit of its CFO.
Flutterwave, the African fintech giant widely believed to be
considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ, has named five new
executives across its risk, compliance, and expansion departments one month
after Oneal Bhambani, its former CFO, abruptly left the company.
Today, Flutterwave shared the profiles of its new
executives. Amaresh Mohan, Chief Risk Officer, joins from GoTo Group, one of
Indonesia’s largest startups. Amresh also had leadership positions at Stripe
and Paypal. Stephen Cheng, who has held C-level positions at American Express
and First Data, is the EVP for global expansion and payment partnerships, a
role he has had since July.
Amanda Ortega, an experienced regulator in Wyoming, will
lead Flutterwave’s regulatory standards and compliance in North America as Head
of Compliance for the United States. Flutterwave recently acquired money
transfer licences for 13 states in the United States.
Steven Huynh has also joined as VP of global expansion and
payment partnerships, while Chris Davis joins as VP of risk and compliance
operations. Adewale Ayantoye joins as VP of risk management.
These new executives could help transmit confidence to the
public market and further fuel speculation that Flutterwave remains serious
about its IPO plans. In August, Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave’s CEO, shared
that the company was moving ahead with its IPO plans on the NASDAQ but declined
to give a timeline.
While that provided fuel for the speculative fire, the exit
of Bhambani, the company’s CFO and two other finance executives, in October,
may have called those plans into question.
Today’s announcement of new hires may provide much-needed confidence as Flutterwave recovers from legal troubles in Kenya and allegations of workplace bullying that called its reputation into question.
In February and March 2023, Flutterwave lost a little over N3 billion in three security incidents. While
Flutterwave denied all three incidents, it obtained court orders to freeze
several Nigerian bank accounts within the same period.
In 2022, Flutterwave was sued by the Asset Recovery Agency
(ARA), over money laundering and compliance concerns. Last month, the case was
formally withdrawn, opening the door for Flutterwave to apply for a Kenyan
payments and remittance licence.
Last month, Flutterwave acquired an international transfer
license in Malawi; the startup also expanded into India recently, and it
received an Egyptian payment service license in June.
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