In the fast-growing world of fintech, talent acquisition and strategic recruiting play a key role in laying the foundation for future growth and stability.
Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, the region’s most vibrant fintech hubs, are buzzing with activity as companies continue to strengthen their teams with top experts to gain expertise, agility and competitive advantage.
In this roundup, we look at the key personnel and changes announced so far this year within these markets.
Toons hires former Worldpay executive as new CFO
Singapore cross-border payments company Thunes Hired Sigrid Hulsebosch has been appointed as the new CFO. Hulsebosch will be responsible for the company’s financial strategy and global finance function, and her new responsibilities will also include financial planning, treasury, tax, reporting and investor relations.
Mr. Hulsebosch has more than 20 years of financial leadership experience in controlling, management and financial accounting, most recently serving as CFO at Malvern Panalytical, a materials and life sciences analytical company.
Mr. Halsebosch also served as CFO at Worldpay where he was instrumental in the company’s growth and highly successful initial public offering (IPO). Prior to these roles, he was Head of Asset Management and Deputy CFO at ING.
Y’s strengthens presence in Singapore
Global fintech company Wise has expanded its Singapore office and announced key executive hires. Said March.
Y’s office space in Paya Lebar Quarter will be expanded to 23,000 square feet to become its Asia Pacific (APAC) hub, more than doubling its workforce to 450 by 2022. In addition, senior management will AppointedThey include Shrawan Saraogi, Head of APAC Expansion and Country Manager Singapore, Mike Truong, Director of Product Asia Pacific (APAC), Erin Smith, Director of Product Global Spend, Ser-Jin Lee, Director of Compliance APAC and Samarth Bansal, General Manager Wise Platform APAC.
Arvind Guruprasad Also participated Guruprasad is most recently appointed to the position of Head of Risk for Asia Pacific at Wise in Singapore. Prior to that, Guruprasad spent two years at Stripe, first as Global Head of Financial Risk Management and then as Head of Treasury and Financial Risk for Asia Pacific.
Wise said its customer base in Singapore grew 26 percent year-on-year. The company now has Expanding The company operates domestically and across the Asia-Pacific region. It connects to the PayNow network in Singapore and its infrastructure service, the Wise Platform, Live Streaming We partnered with Hong Kong’s Mox to begin accepting international payments.
Indonesia’s Flip Group appoints experienced fintech leader as group CEO
Indonesian payment platform Flip Appointed Pratyush Prasanna has been appointed as the new Group CEO. Having joined Flip Group last year as Managing Director, Prasanna is now leading the group into its next phase of growth and innovation.
Prasanna was previously Head of Merchant Payments at GoTo Financial where he oversaw significant growth in merchant payment solutions and previously held leadership roles at Poynt and Paytm where he drove product development and expansion in Asian markets.
Founded in 2015, Flip Group is Indonesia’s leading fintech group. What started as a fee-free interbank remittance service has since expanded into a comprehensive suite of services for both individuals and businesses, including the Flip consumer app, Flip for Business, a business financial management platform, Flip Globe, an international remittance service, and a wide range of consumer services including bill payments, lending, and investment products.
Advance.AI Hires New Leader to Expand Operations in Indonesia
Singapore-based risk management solutions provider Advance.AI has appointed two new leaders to manage its business operations in Indonesia, DailySocial reported. report In March, the newly appointed leaders were Fuenny Liwang, currently director of growth accounts, and Anggraini Rahayu, who took on the role of director of strategic accounts.
Mr. Liwang has 30 years of sales and leadership experience across a variety of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, IT systems, healthcare and airports. Previously, he held senior management positions at PT T System Indonesia, VMWare, Microsoft and Telkom Indonesia Group.
Mr. Rahayu has three years of experience in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), analytics, financial services, IT, retail and other industries. Prior to joining Advance.AI, he held senior management positions at PT SAS Institute, Diebold Nixdorf and IBM Indonesia.
Advance.AI also Appointed The company has appointed industry veteran Dennis Martin as CEO of its credit reporting business. Based in Singapore, Martin has 25 years of leadership experience in the global credit reporting industry and previously served as Group CEO of CTOS Digital in Malaysia, overseeing a full portfolio of credit and risk management solutions and services widely used by banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, telcos, large corporates and small businesses. He previously served as Managing Director of Experian Southeast Asia and Dun & Bradstreet New Zealand, and has also served on the boards of several credit reporting agencies, including Chairman of CIBI in the Philippines.
Advance.AI is a subsidiary of Advance Intelligence Group, which serves over 500 enterprise clients in banking, financial services, fintech, payments, retail and e-commerce sectors with operations across multiple countries including China, India, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.
Backbase hires new head of AI
Engagement banking platform operator Backbase Appointed Chris Chayan is the new head of AI. The changes are designed to advance Backbase’s AI vision and strengthen its technology offerings.
Shayan has extensive experience in digital banking transformation. He joins the fintech company from HD Bank, a Vietnamese commercial bank, where he served as Chief Digital Officer and significantly expanded its customer base and digital engagement. Prior to that, he served as CTO at Techcombank (TCB), one of the largest commercial banks in Vietnam, where he led the implementation of Backbase in both the retail and corporate banking divisions.
This appointment puts AI at the forefront of Backbase’s strategy. The Beginning We have established a new Center of Excellence in Vietnam, supported by a dedicated team of experts.
Backbase plans to grow the number of employees based in Vietnam to over 40, further strengthening its foothold in the APAC region and establishing Vietnam as a key hub for its R&D and customer success teams.
Funding Society appoints new CFO
Funding Societies has appointed Junxiong Ho, a veteran financial executive with experience in fintech companies, as its new CFO. eFinancialCareers report In May.
Prior to joining Funding Societies, Mr. Ho worked remotely at open finance startup Brankas for 15 months and was previously CFO of Singapore fintech company BigPay. He also spent three years at Stripe where he worked in the Global Finance and Strategy team. With his extensive experience, Mr. Ho is expected to bring valuable expertise to Funding Societies as it continues to expand.
Ho succeeds Frank Stevenner, who recently joined venture capital firm Antler as CFO, which specializes in early-stage investments, has about 2,000 employees and $500 million in assets under management (AUM).
Funding Societies recently hired Yogash Parthasarathy as senior product manager. Parthasarathy previously worked at Grab and GXS Bank.
Crypto.com Adds Staff
Singapore-based digital asset startup Crypto.com has added 700 new employees since November of last year, and the company plans to hire another 700 for customer service and corporate functions, Crypto.com CEO Chris Marszalek said. Said During April.
The expansion is in line with Crypto.com’s strategic plan to triple its user base, which currently has over 80 million registered users. The company is also looking to launch in South Korea, a strategic expansion into new markets. Previously cut 20% of employees.
This movement, Broader trends in the cryptocurrency industryFirms such as Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and Gemini are also adding employees as the industry recovers, buoyed by rising cryptocurrency prices.
Citi hires ex-Adyen executive for expanding digital payments services
Citi has appointed Priyanka Gargav as the new managing director of Spring, its digital payments service focused on Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. report Launched in March, Spring by Citi is an end-to-end digital payments service that enables e-commerce and business-to-business (B2B) fund flows on a global scale.
Gargav joins Citi from Adyen where he spent the past five years, most recently as commercial manager for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. In his role at Adyen, Gargav played a key role in managing one of the company’s largest offices based in Singapore, the fourth largest in the world, and also held the role of country manager early last year.
Gargav’s hire comes as Citi’s Spring team grows its presence in Singapore, the bank’s key hub for payments solutions in the Asia Pacific region.
Fintech VC Flourish Ventures hires new head of Asia investments
Flourish Ventures is a US-based, Asia-focused emerging markets fintech investor. teeth Ravi Kaushik has been appointed as regional head, based in Singapore. Kaushik is responsible for leading the firm’s fintech investments and portfolio management across India and Southeast Asia.
Kaushik previously served as CFO at Agro.Club and as a founding member and general partner at WaterBridge Ventures.
Kaushik’s appointment marks Flourish’s renewed focus on Asia after two years of slowing activity linked to challenging market conditions and the departure of two senior investment professionals in the region. Southeast Asian investor Smita Agarwal left the firm in 2023 to take up a role at the United Nations, while India-based Anuradha Ramachandran left in 2022 to join TVS Capital.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Flourish Ventures is an early-stage VC firm focused on the fintech sector. Have Total assets under management are US$850 million.
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