Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CTO’ operating in the Mobile Payments space. If you think a CTO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Vlad Yatsenko
Co-Founder & CTO of Revolut
Prior to co-founding Revolut, Vlad spent ten years building financial systems at tier one investment banks. Serving as CTO, Vlad has been at the forefront of Revolut’s award-winning technology, building a next generation banking experience.
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About Revolut: Revolut is a financial services company that specializes in mobile banking, card payments, money remittance, and foreign exchange.
Robert Howes
CTO & Board Advisor of Judopay
Rob co-founded Algomi to build on a strong technology background engineering sophisticated solutions to complex problems. Drawn to opportunities where technology can be used to challenge the status quo, Rob has spent many years successfully leading the delivery of ambitious Fixed Income solutions, including Credit List Trading at UBS and more recently a first of its kind anonymous crossing platform for bonds. Rob holds a M. Eng. in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College.
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About Judopay, Judopay: Judopay is a mobile-first payments platform.
Mark Watson
CTO of Zepz
As Chief Technology Officer for WorldRemit, Mark leads the company’s technology team in developing and running world class technology. Mark has over 30 years’ experience in large companies and start-ups, several of which he co-founded and built from scratch. After working at IBM and Tivoli Systems, he co-founded Volantis Systems, an early pioneer of mobile Internet content delivery platforms. He served as the CTO and CEO there, until the company’s acquisition in 2011. In 2012 he took up the role of VP Engineering at Causata Inc., an innovative platform providing automated customer insights based on machine-learning and Big Data. In 2013, Causata was acquired by NICE Systems and Mark went on to co-found Skipjaq, a company which applies machine learning techniques to the field of cloud-based system performance and cost optimisation.
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About Zepz: Zepz is a money transfer service that helps migrants send money to their loved ones all over the world.
Donovan Frew
Chief Technology Officer of Goodlord
Donavan brings to Goodlord over 20 years’ experience of building software and technology teams and has most recently occupied a similar role for six successful years at Secret Escapes. When he’s not busy improving the Goodlord platform, you can find him strutting his stuff on the dancefloor or watching one of his (many) favourite football teams.
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About Goodlord: Goodlord offers a cloud-based software to help estate agents, landlords, and tenants manage the rental process.
Chris Greeno
Chief Technology Officer of Cuvva
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About Cuvva: Radically better insurance, fit for the future.
Steve Cook
Chief Technology Officer of Form3
Steve has architected and developed great products and managed dynamic technology teams in the financial services sector for over 20 years. He brings a broad range of experience in FinTech, having led key technology teams across banking (Lehman Brothers, Nomura, Gain Capital), and having launched several startups in the FinTech and cloud computing space. Steve previously lived and worked in Asia for 15 years, and has extensive experience in the Asian banking and capital markets environment. He also holds a degree in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. As the CTO of Form3, Steve is responsible for all aspects of technology, including product architecture, development, delivery and support of the Form3 Financial Cloud.
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About Form3: Form3 is a cloud native payments-as-a-service platform that designs, builds, and runs the technology that powers the future of payments.
Samuel Heather
VP, Chief Technology Officer of KodyPay
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About KodyPay: Revolutionising in-person payments to grow your business with a trustworthy and innovative solution.
George Wetz
CPO, CTO & Founding Member of Yumpingo
George Wetz is the Chief Technology Officer at Yumpingo.
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About Yumpingo: Yumpingo is an internet company that specializes in customer engagement and analytics platforms designed for the Hospitality Industry.
Natalia Mila
Chief Technology Officer of Upstream
Natalia joined Upstream in 2008 as a senior software engineer. She has worked in several roles within the company, as a team leader and later on as chief architect and head of engineering, leading the design and implementation of Upstream’s mobile commerce platform. She is now the company CTO, responsible for its technical product, engineering and infrastructure functions. She has more than 17 years of work experience in enterprise software, in companies such as Intracom and Intralot S.A. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and a Master’s degree in Distributed and Multimedia Information Systems, from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
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About Upstream: Upstream is leading the mobile internet revolution in high growth markets.
Nicholas Pennington
CTO of SETL
Nicholas Pennington is a CTO at SETL.
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About SETL: SETL is a technology company that focuses on blockchain settlements and payments.
Mike Raath
CTO of Thunes
Mike Raath is the CTO at Thunes.
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About Thunes: Thunes offers a global cross-border payment network for seamless transfer of funds to 100 countries in 60 currencies.
Ritesh Tendulkar
CTO, Co-founder of Modulr
Ritesh Tendulkar is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Modulr.
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About Modulr: Modulr is a fintech company that provides Payments as a Service API for digital businesses.
Stuart Fiske
CTO of Consult Hyperion
Stuart is a founding Director of Consult Hyperion. Prior to 1986 he was involved in the development of transaction processing systems and fault-tolerant command and control software. Stuart obtained a BA Honours degree in Physics and a PhD from the University of York. Stuart has specialised in the analysis of business requirements and the specification and verification of payment systems. He provides and oversees specialist consultancy to clients focussing on the design and deployment of innovative identity and payment methods based around the use of secure cryptographic devices. Stuart works with clients such as the global card schemes, banks and fixed and mobile telecommunications operators. His current interests include both contact and contactless payment cards, NFC-enabled phones, and the specification and verification of vendor products which form part of those schemes.
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About Consult Hyperion: Consult Hyperion is an independent strategic and technical consultancy.
Gavin Lilley
Chief Technology officer of Zapaygo
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About Media Maison, UK Ministry of Justice, Zapaygo: Zapaygo provides a menu of goods or services and a pre-order and payment facility to consumers.
Franck Ndame
CTO of XPO
CTO @ XPO
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About XPO: We pay creator invoices, crazy fast.
Kamran Yazdanjoo
CTO and Head of Global Products Development of Spire Payments
Kamran has over 25 years international experience in executive leadership positions within card payments. Before joining Spire, Kamran served on the Board of Directors of Cubic Transportation Systems Limited as Director of Open Payments. Prior to this, Kamran was the Vice President of Global R&D at VeriFone Inc. with responsibility for products and services. In this role he led a global organization across Asia, Europe and North America. He also served on the Board of Directors at VFI Pvt Ltd from 2003 to 2009 and had a lead role in a number of key business transformations at VeriFone. Kamran holds a BSC Honours degree in Mathematics and a post graduate Master of Science degree in Optimization and Computing.w
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About Spire Payments: Spire Payments is one of the fastest growing European POS solutions provider.
Melvin Artemas
Chief Technology Officer of Localz
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About Localz, Medipass Solutions: Localz is the leading provider of Day of Service software.
Catherine Woolgar
Co-Founder/ CTO of SmartTrade App
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About SmartTrade App: Accept any card payment, organise your paperwork and run your business with a free application on your phone, SmartTrade App.
