Revolut, Ant, Feedzai and more

Here’s a roundup of the most headline-worthy and recent hires, departures and company moves in January and what it could mean for 2023.

Revolut

Revolut plans to hire a behavioral team that will be referred to as ‘CultureLab’ to address an “aggressive” corporate culture, according to an article published in The Guardian. The company also plans to “upgrade” this culture and introduce new “value-based behaviors” with the CultureLab team, which will include an applied behavioral scientist and psychologist.

N26

N26 CFO Jan Kemper is leaving the digital bank despite only joining the company 18 months ago after being brought in to help with an IPO and serving as interim COO following Adrienne Gormley’s departure in 2022. Co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal will take on the role of COO alongside the job of CEO of N26 Bank while they search for a new CFO.

Ant group

Alibaba founder Jack Ma relinquished control of Ant Group this month as part of a restructuring of the company, meaning his stake in the company will be reduced to 6%. Ma owns 10% of Ant, but controls the company through related entities that represent 53.46% of the shares in Ant Group. During the restructuring, he will relinquish this control by transferring voting rights to independent Ant managers. Ant has been in the crosshairs of Chinese regulators for years. In late 2020, a planned $37 billion IPO was derailed by moves to impose tighter restrictions on fintech firms entering the banking market.

HM Treasury

The UK Treasury is advertising for a candidate to lead the government’s approach to the introduction of a digital central bank currency. With the Bank of England, the Treasury is working through the CBDC Taskforce to explore the case for a digital pound. The two-year job can be based in London or Darlington with a salary of £61,260 – £66,500 per annum. Treasury will hold a drop-in session for potential applicants, 6 February 13:30-14:30, to give candidates greater insight into the role.

Open Banking Implementation Entity

Marion King will succeed Charlotte Crosswell as Chair and Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity. King will take up the post in early February when Crosswell leaves to take over as chairman of the Center for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), an organization set up on the advice of the Kalifa Review. She will be focused on safeguarding the ongoing CMA Order requirements and the assessment and potential implementation of Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC) decisions on the future long-term regulatory framework for Open Banking in the UK.

Feedzai

Paige McNamee exclusively reported on Feedzai’s workforce cuts amid cited restructuring. Although the exact numbers are not clear, teams in several countries were affected. The cuts come despite chief executive Nuno Sebastiao telling a company-wide “all-hands-on-decks” meeting last month that the organisation’s performance was strong and staff should not be worried about their roles. The company has recently launched employee-friendly policies such as mental health, menstruation and menopause, building on a decision from 2021 to move to a four-day week.

Molly

Mollie appointed Klarna’s former chief technology officer Koen Köppen as CEO this month following the departure of Shane Happach. Köppen, formerly CTO of Klarna for five years, joined Mollie in the same role in May. One of Köppen’s main tasks will be to increase the pace of product development and delivery across the business. Mollie’s current CEO is also leaving the company to take a leadership role in Asia.

Market

Marqeta has a new CEO as of yesterday. Simon Khalaf joined the company in June 2022 as CPO, and with over 30 years of experience scaling large companies such as Flurry, Twilio, Verizon, Yahoo and Novell, Khalaf succeeds founder and chairman Jason Gardner, who will become executive chairman. In other news, Todd Pollak, who has experience at Google and Ancestry, has been named chief revenue officer.

Copper

Copper appointed former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond as chairman this month. Hammond was hired by Copper as a special advisor to the board in October 2021. Since then, the firm has grown from 50 to over 300 people, doubling revenue. In appointing Hammond, Copper will draw on his connections and high public profile to argue the need to connect traditional finance with distributed ledger technology and reform UK digital asset regulation.