The 13 key executives at Walmart-backed Fintech ONE
- Walmart has entered the fintech space with the launch of ONE.
- Leadership has come to ONE from firms such as Goldman Sachs, Apple and Lyft.
- Meet the 13 key executives who man the helm of ONE, from C-suites to product and engineering talent.
Walmart has hinted at its ambitions in the fintech space for nearly two years.
In January 2021, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant first announced it was pursuing a fintech venture in partnership with venture capital firm Ribbit Capital, which was an early backer of Robinhood.
Details about the project were few, but it didn’t take long for Walmart to grab headlines again.
The following month, news broke that the project had lured two high-profile executives, Omer Ismail and David Stark, away from Goldman Sachs’ fledgling consumer bank, Marcus.
The group kept adding talent from blue-chip technology and financial companies, but they kept most of the details of the strategy under wraps.
The secretive venture, which was once known as Hazel, struck again in January, announcing that it had acquired both Earned Pay Access startup Even and neobank ONE. After the latter acquisition, Hazel took on the ONE name and brand.
The agreement also provided a peek behind the curtain of the new venture’s plan. Ismail told The Wall Street Journal at the time of the acquisitions that the company planned to build a financial super app.
Super apps put multiple activities – such as banking, budgeting, shopping, and stock and crypto trading – in one place. Universal banking models have achieved massive success in markets such as China and Southeast Asia, but similar efforts by other startups have struggled in a US banking market dominated by established financial firms.
The field is crowded with other contenders from major players such as PayPal, Cash App and SoFi, to smaller firms such as Chime and buy-now, pay-later providers such as Klarna and Affirm.
Legacy banks are also increasingly responding to the threat of fintech startups with varying degrees of success. From JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America to Marcus, top financial firms have revamped digital offerings throughout the pandemic and emphasized tech-forward approaches.
However, big banks’ attempts to digitize can sometimes fall flat. Finn, JPMorgan’s digital-only bank aimed at a younger demographic, closed less than two years after launching. Marcus has also faced challenges, as Insider previously reported, as it matures and struggles to get new products, like a checking account and a robo-advisor, off the ground.
The departures of key managers who lead these changes may therefore have consequences for incumbent actors. In February, for example, Bloomberg reported that Goldman executives, dismayed by the departure of Ismail and Stark, demanded back stock bonuses the duo had already earned.
At ONE, meanwhile, Bloomberg recently reported that the company plans to beta test its own checking accounts in the coming weeks, and that it will soon launch a refund feature for some purchases made with ONE’s debit card, including those at Walmart.
Insider identified the key people who crafted the strategy for the secretive endeavor using LinkedIn profiles and news reports. ONE currently has around 300 employees, many of whom have a combination of experience from both early stage startups and large financial services firms or technology companies.
ONE representatives declined Insider’s request for comment.
