Flutterwave names new executives a month after CFO’s departure

Flutterwave, Africa’s fintech giant, has hired several high-profile executives to help lead its risk and compliance efforts one month after the abrupt exit of its CFO.

Flutterwave, the African fintech giant widely believed to be considering an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ, has named five new executives across its risk, compliance, and expansion departments one month after Oneal Bhambani, its former CFO, abruptly left the company.

Today, Flutterwave shared the profiles of its new executives. Amaresh Mohan, Chief Risk Officer, joins from GoTo Group, one of Indonesia’s largest startups. Amresh also had leadership positions at Stripe and Paypal. Stephen Cheng, who has held C-level positions at American Express and First Data, is the EVP for global expansion and payment partnerships, a role he has had since July.

Amanda Ortega, an experienced regulator in Wyoming, will lead Flutterwave’s regulatory standards and compliance in North America as Head of Compliance for the United States. Flutterwave recently acquired money transfer licences for 13 states in the United States.

Steven Huynh has also joined as VP of global expansion and payment partnerships, while Chris Davis joins as VP of risk and compliance operations. Adewale Ayantoye joins as VP of risk management.

These new executives could help transmit confidence to the public market and further fuel speculation that Flutterwave remains serious about its IPO plans. In August, Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave’s CEO, shared that the company was moving ahead with its IPO plans on the NASDAQ but declined to give a timeline.

While that provided fuel for the speculative fire, the exit of Bhambani, the company’s CFO and two other finance executives, in October, may have called those plans into question.

Today’s announcement of new hires may provide much-needed confidence as Flutterwave recovers from legal troubles in Kenya and allegations of workplace bullying that called its reputation into question.

In February and March 2023, TechCabal reported that Flutterwave lost a little over N3 billion in three security incidents. While Flutterwave denied all three incidents, it obtained court orders to freeze several Nigerian bank accounts within the same period.

In 2022, Flutterwave was sued by the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA), over money laundering and compliance concerns. Last month, the case was formally withdrawn, opening the door for Flutterwave to apply for a Kenyan payments and remittance licence.

Last month, Flutterwave acquired an international transfer license in Malawi; the startup also expanded into India recently, and it received an Egyptian payment service license in June.