Embedded finance platform Railsr has hired the former chairman of Mastercard and the World Wide Web Foundation , Rick Haythornthwaite, as its first chairman.
Haythornthwaite stepped down from Mastercard in 2020 and is currently chairman of Ocada Group and the AA. Other top posts include chairmanships at Centrica and Network Rail
Announcing the forthcoming appointment on LinkedIn, Railsr chief Nigel Verdon, says Haythornthwaite was introduced to the business by Mo El Husseiny of Ventura Capital.
He joins the company as it works on a $70 million funding round which should propel the business to Unicorn status and pave the way for a possible public listing.
Railsr has more than 250 business-to-business (B2B) customers and 5.5 million accounts, with current customers including the likes of Foris, Paceline, Plum, Wirex and Wagestream - the very first customer signed in 2018. Strategic Partners include AWS, Salesforce, Visa, Mastercard and Plaid.
Since its formation in 2016, the company has raised over $100m in equity financing and has the backing of leading investors, including Visa. Additionally, the UK-headquartered startup is now a global platform servicing global and regional customers, with offices in Europe, Apac and the US.
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