Nigeria’s fintech giant, Flutterwave, valued at over $3 billion on Tuesday, announced the appointment of Oneal Bhambani as its chief financial officer.
The service payment company, which surpassed SoftBank-backed Fintech OPay and FTX-backed cross-border payments platform Chipper Cash as the most valued African startup, sees this appointment as a necessary step to not only strengthen the company’s balance sheet but to take advantage of opportunities in the global market.
Bhambani joins flutterwave from American Express and Kabbage, where he successfully drove fintech operations to enviable heights. At American Express, he helped integrate fintech and financial institutions’ operations through a multi-product agreement that helped develop innovative payment systems for consumers and businesses on the American Express global payments network.
Until this appointment, the University of California graduate had played an important role in the $1.2 billion growth in valuation of Kabbage Inc. An achievement that saw him as an important asset in American Express’s ambition to continue to play a leading role in financial technology and commerce.
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According to finextra.com, he was the CFO and Head of Capital Markets of Kabbage’s business unit, which provides credit, banking, and payments solutions to American Express’ commercial customers.
At Kabbage, his intellectual ability saw him successfully reorganise the company’s financial operations and functions to meet complex challenges. This included getting IPO-ready financial and operational controls.
Earlier in his career, Bhambami had helped Riverwood Capital—a Delhi-based company—grow into a reputable name in investment banking with over $5 billion under its management.
Bhambani will be taking over as the CFO of a company that has successfully raised $250 million in a Series D round that tripled the company’s valuation to over $3 billion within just twelve months. This follows earlier fundraising schemes where it raised $170 million, $35 million, and $20 million in a Series C, B, and A program, respectively.
According to itvnewsafrica, Bhambami will design and oversee the company’s expansion objective with “best-in-class discipline, operational controls, and financial rigor.”
Flutterwave will be gaining a lot from a man who has rich experience in portfolio management, structured finance, and venture capital management.
His appointment adds to the number of former Kabbage executives, such as Rebecca Mendel and Daniel Edison. Both executives will report directly to Bhambami.
Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said his appointment is an important step towards expanding the operations of the company to meet the challenges in the global market. According to him, “I am excited to welcome Oneal to Flutterwave. His track record of operating finance to enable scale and innovation with listed company standard financial controls will help us accelerate our growth as we continue to meet the needs of our expanding global customer base. ”
“I am looking forward to partnering with Flutterwave’s team to enable solutions for our customers in Africa and across the globe. I fully expect to apply best-in-class strategies learned from my tenures at American Express and Kabbage,” said Bhambani, commenting on his new appointment.
