Dive Brief:
- Wise has hired Delivery Hero finance chief Emmanuel Thomassin to become its CFO effective Oct. 1, the money transfer fintech announced Monday.
- He will take on the CFO role from Wise finance chief Matthew Briers, after the company announced last May that Briers would be stepping down in 2024 to fully recover from a cycling accident. Briers will now leave with immediate effect. In the meantime, Wise’s senior group financial director, Kingsley Kemish, will serve as interim CFO, the company said.
- Delivery Hero’s supervisory board “is actively engaged in evaluating successors to ensure a smooth transition,” the company said. Thomassin will stay at the company until the end of September, according to a Monday announcement.
Dive Insight:
Berlin, Germany-based Delivery Hero originally announced Thomassin would be departing during its Q3 2023 trading update analyst call. Thomassin will depart the online ordering and delivery provider after a decade in its top finance seat, having first joined the company in January 2014.
He “played a pivotal role in our financial management and strategic direction,” Delivery Hero said Monday. Thomassin’s move to Wise comes as the fintech, founded in January 2011 as TransferWise, looks to capitalize on its past quarters of strong growth in the face of growing competition. The fintech saw a surge in customer growth, reporting a 30% increase in active customers year-over-year to reach 7.5 million, according to a January trading update.
The company said the increase was widely driven by growing adoption of its “Wise account” — which allows users to hold and convert money into multiple currencies with the real-time exchange rate, according to a page on its website — as well as a jump in its business customers. The fintech also updated its guidance for full-year 2024, expecting income growth of between 42% to 44%, as opposed to previous guidance targeting between 33% to 38%.
Wise is also seeing more competition from traditional banks such as HSBC, which recently launched a money transfer product called Zing to better compete with Wise and similar entities. The product, which can be accessed without an HSBC account, marks a departure from existing foreign exchange policies that can often come attached with hidden fees, Wise CEO Kristo Käärmann said on Twitter, now X, according to a report by TechCrunch.
Delivery Hero, meanwhile, is searching for Thomassin’s successor as it looks to lower its debt and boost its liquidity. The company announced a financing transaction at the start of the month to raise add-on facilities of about €500 million, with the goal of optimizing its capital structure and extending its term facilities from August 2027 to December 2029. The transaction came after the online delivery company announced it had terminated discussions with its main negotiating partner surrounding a potential sale of its foodpanda business in Southeast Asia, Delivery Hero said in February.
Wise declined to comment beyond the details included in its release.
