FinTech Atlanta, a coalition of local companies, startups, universities and industry associations working to cement Atlanta as the global capital of financial technology (FinTech), today announced the appointments of Scott Meyerhoff to the role of board chair and Scott Grimes to the role of vice chair.
Meyerhoff is currently the chief financial officer of InComm, a leading prepaid product and payments technology company, and Grimes is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Cardlytics, a purchase intelligence platform that makes marketing more relevant and measurable.
“Under the leadership of Meyerhoff and Grimes, FinTech Atlanta starts its third year on track to advance its mission to ensure FinTech companies around the globe know Atlanta is the place for financial technology innovation,” said Barry McCarthy, president and CEO of Deluxe Corporation and inaugural board chair of FinTech Atlanta. “Together these two leaders have driven major innovations in financial technology while building Georgia’s FinTech ecosystem – currently employing more than 40,000 professionals.”
In their new roles, Meyerhoff and Grimes will provide strategic leadership to guide the coalition in its continuing mission of funding and fueling efforts to recruit, retain and expand businesses and jobs across the FinTech industry in metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia. Initiatives will include the facilitation of private-public partnerships to support the region’s growth as a hub of the international payments ecosystem.
“One of the areas we’ll be focusing on in the year ahead is fostering a strong local workforce for Georgia’s FinTech companies,” said Meyerhoff. “The industry is continuing to grow exponentially, and we will need talent to sustain that. Analysts estimate we will need an additional 5,000 FinTech workers by 2020. I look forward to working with Mr. Grimes and the rest of the FinTech Atlanta team to meet this need and help breed the next generation of payments professionals.”
Meyerhoff brings more than 20 years of corporate experience to the coalition. Since joining InComm in 2011, he has completed debt and equity offerings that have raised more than $2 billion for the company. Additionally, Meyerhoff and InComm have been driving forces behind several FinTech initiatives in Georgia, including the FinTech Academy, an educational hub open to students of Georgia’s 26 state colleges and universities interested in pursuing FinTech careers.
Meyerhoff succeeds the inaugural chair of FinTech Atlanta, Barry McCarthy, who, prior to becoming president and CEO at Deluxe Corporation, served as executive vice president of First Data, a financial services company providing credit card processing services to businesses.
“As a FinTech Atlanta partner since its inception, I’ve been encouraged by the early progress we’ve made towards elevating Atlanta as a major FinTech hub,” said Grimes. “Having founded a company in Atlanta, I know firsthand what it takes for businesses to succeed in this region and I want to use my time as vice chair to drive this mission forward.”
Grimes founded Cardlytics in 2008 with his business partner, Lynne Laube. In February, they took the company public on the Nasdaq as the first tech IPO of 2018. From 2008 to 2017, Grimes secured more than $200 million in capital from leading investors and scaled the company to become the dominant global leader in purchase history-based analytics. Headquartered in Atlanta and recently named the 5th Best Entrepreneurial Company by Entrepreneur Magazine, Cardlytics continues to add to the strong FinTech growth in the region through its ongoing hiring, training, and development of industry professionals.