Flutterwave taps JPMorgan Chase executive on road to IPO

Flutterwave, Africa’s most valuable tech startup, is unrelenting in its global expansion plans and quest to become a publicly listed company.

The payment gateway company has announced the appointment of Marshall Lux, former chief Risk Officer at JPMorgan Chase, as a senior advisor.

In a statement to BusinessDay, Flutterwave says Lux, who comes with 30 years of experience will be instrumental in helping the company meet global risk management and compliance standards for merchants and partners as the business scales.

In February 2022, Flutterwave closed $250 million in Series D which pushed its valuation to over $3 billion. The payment company is widely reported to be planning its next move by listing on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. The quest may have suffered a setback as the company battled with lawsuits from former staff and a lack of operational licence in Kenya.

But Flutterwave appears laser-focused, as it went ahead to secure a switching and processing licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which allows it to process transactions faster, launch new and improve existing products, and improve payment experience.

With the appointment of Lux, Flutterwave can look to cleaning its books in readiness for global investors. The former JPMorgan executive has extensive experience in model building, stress testing, portfolio management and organisation, line setting and increases, fraud, regulation, cyber, and operations risk. As senior advisor, he will advise across Flutterwave’s businesses, with an emphasis on global risk management, compliance, and security-related areas.

“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to draw upon Marshall’s decades of world-class experience from companies such as JP Morgan Chase, BCG, and McKinsey. Robust risk management and compliance requirements have always been (and continue to be) our highest priority as we scale the business,” said Olugbenga GB Agboola, CEO and Founder of Flutterwave.

Read also: How Flutterwave’s new switching and processing licence works

While he worked at McKinsey, Lux served financial service clients across a variety of subsectors and led the firm’s risk, technology, and private equity practices. After McKinsey, he served as Chief Risk Officer for all consumer products globally at JP Morgan Chase including mortgages, credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and small business loans. He also helped build McKinsey’s Risk Management Practice.

Most recently, Marshall was a Senior Partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where he is currently an active Senior Advisor. He has worked on risk improvement programs for leading banks in the US and globally. He often sits or chairs the Risk Committees of Boards he sits on.

“I am thrilled to be advising Flutterwave. They are clearly a winner and an important company in the African payments ecosystem. I look forward to working with the ever-growing team, which is attracting world-class talent,” Lux said.

Lux sits on several private equity boards and advises companies ranging from consumer credit, wealth, insurance, and cybersecurity. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University and received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker and Ford Scholar.

Marshall’s appointment follows other additions to Flutterwave’s Executive Team including Oneal Bhambani (Flutterwave CFO and former American Express executive) and Gurbhej Dhillon, (Flutterwave CTO and former Goldman Sachs Managing Director.)