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 London based VP’ operating in the Payments space. If you think a VP’ 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.
Nilan Peiris
VP of Growth of Wise
Nilan Peiris is VP Growth at TransferWise, the international money transfer platform. TransferWise is the low cost and fair way of transferring money internationally. Using peer-to-peer technology and without any hidden fees, it makes sending money abroad up to ten times cheaper compared to using a bank. TransferWise customers send £500m every month using the platform, and it’s attracted $91m from investors such as world’s largest VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, the co-founders of PayPal. Prior to TransferWise Nilan was VP Growth at HouseTrip, in charge of scaling the company’s growth in the European market. He’s also worked as Chief Marketing Technology Officer at Holiday Extras, where he was responsible for all areas of technology, marketing and customer acquisition. Nilan also advises a number of early stage startups on growth and getting to traction.
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About Wise: Wise is a money transfer service allowing private individuals and businesses to send money abroad without hidden charges.
Maor Fishman
Deputy General Counsel, VP Data Protection of Checkout.com
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About Checkout.com: Checkout.com is a global payments solution provider on a mission to enable businesses and their communities to thrive in the digital economy
Matt Blanks
VP MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships of Mastercard
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About Mastercard: Mastercard provides payment processing products and solutions, and related consulting services.
Edoardo Volta
VP, Head of Fintechs of Mastercard
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About Mastercard: Mastercard provides payment processing products and solutions, and related consulting services.
Neil Taylor
Vice President Data Strategy of Mastercard
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About Mastercard: Mastercard provides payment processing products and solutions, and related consulting services.
Liz Oakes
Executive Vice President of Mastercard
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About Mastercard: Mastercard provides payment processing products and solutions, and related consulting services.
Hélène Alunni-Botteri
Senior Vice President, Innovation Group of Wells Fargo
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About Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion assets providing banking, insurance, and investments.
Antonio Gagliardi
Vice President – Strategy, Product, and Analytics – Merchant Services of American Express
Before founding CompareEuropeGroup, Antonio was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company in their UK Financial Services practice. Prior to this, Antonio worked at Bain & Co and at JP Morgan Chase. Antonio holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, with a special distinction for finishing in the top 10%, and graduated summa cum laude from Bocconi University.
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About American Express: American Express is a global financial services company best known for its credit card, charge card, and traveler’s cheque businesses.
Stephen Lemon
Co-Founder | Vice President | Strategic Partnerships & Corporate Development of Currencycloud
Steve has worked in Foreign exchange and international payments, pretty much forever, and participated in the first FinTech of the late 90s wave (before it was even called Fintech) as founding team member of HiFX. The current, product lead revolution has tipped him over the edge and he’s now a fully paid up FinTech geek, of the opinion that we live in exciting times and that Open APIs will change the world. Stephen currently also serves as a Non-Executive Director and Advisor for a number of early stage FinTech companies, and has recently mentored for the 2017 cohort at Techsters. In his personal time Steve is a keen amateur photographer, motorsport lover and live music fan.
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About Currencycloud: Currencycloud specializes in a fully cloud-based platform for B2B cross-border payments.
Judith Shackleton
Vice President M&A Integration of Visa
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About Fraedom, Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Alisa Bornstein
CPO Europe – Vice President of Visa
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About Visa: Visa is a multinational financial services company that facilitates electronic payment systems throughout the world.
Omar Haque
SVP, Chief Product Officer, Merchant Services of Nets
Omar Haque is Nets MS’ Chief Product Officer and over 17 years of experience in managing digital and technology-driven transformation at global organizations. He has helped companies exploit and develop market and technology trends. Before joining Nets he has been with e.g. Worldpay, Vestas, Cisco.
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About Nets: Nets is a provider of payments, card, and information services with an ambition.
Nick Stone
VP Engineering of Bink
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About Bink: Bink develops a mobile application that links card payment to loyalty schemes.
Jon Hodges
VP Product – Head of Buy-Side Portfolio Manager of FIS
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About FIS: FIS focuses on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, and outsourcing solutions.
Peter Francis
SVP – Global Head of Professional Services – Corporate Liquidity & Insurance of FIS
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About FIS: FIS focuses on retail and institutional banking, payments, asset and wealth management, risk and compliance, and outsourcing solutions.
Richard Wray
Vice President of Operations of Carta Worldwide
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About Carta Worldwide: Carta Worldwide is an international leader in digital transaction technology, specializing in mobile & emerging payments.
Ignacio González-Páramo
Vice President, Global Compliance & Regulatory Affairs of Payvision
Ignacio González-Páramo is Vice President for Global Compliance and Regulatory Affairs at Payvision and Acapture. In this role, Ignacio is in charge of corporate compliance with applicable legislation and acts as point of interaction with authorities and regulators. He also takes care of external engagement and public affairs on behalf of Payvision and Acapture as Payment Institutions. Currently, Ignacio represents both companies before the European Payment Institutions Federation (EPIF), where he sits on the Board and the Technical Committee. Ignacio is a long-standing professional with a legal background and extensive experience in the payments industry. Prior to joining Payvision, he worked at ServiRed, S.A., the major domestic payments scheme in Spain, in various capacities, most recently as Head of Rules and Compliance. Ignacio holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICAI-ICADE), Madrid, and a Master’s degree in e-commerce and IT from Universidad Carlos III, Madrid. Ignacio is often a speaker and panellist in industry events and is also a contributor on the blogs of Payvision and the Cross-Border Ecommerce Community, providing readers with insights on how to face regulatory challenges and compliance-related issues.
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About Payvision: Payvision, an independent payment solutions provider specializing in global card processing for the ecommerce market,
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.
Majid Daia
VP, Partnerships of Paystone
Vice President of Partnerships Paystone
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About Paystone, Paystone: Paystone is a provider of customer engagement services and electronic payment processing solutions for businesses of all sizes.
George Evers
Senior Vice President, Product, Realtime Payments of VocaLink
George has spent the last 15 years driving technology innovations, leading product and strategy development across emerging technologies and enabling digital banking channel transformation. He is a huge advocate of providing more businesses and consumers with access to immediate payments.George joined VocaLink in November 2014 as Immediate Payments Services Director. He oversees the international development of VocaLink’s real-time payments proposition and associated mobile payments solutions. Since joining, George has pioneered the development of international strategies for VocaLink in the US, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Before joining VocaLink, George was Head of Channels within the Corporate Banking Division at RBS. It was there that he developed a Corporate Banking self-service channel strategy and managed existing core digital channel propositions. George also held the position of Head of Product Management & Development for RBS Global Transaction Services where he managed the growth development of the UK Domestic Cash product set. Building on VocaLink’s 2014 success of implementing Immediate Payments in Singapore, George’s most recent career highlight has been part of the team involved in the signing of a contract with The Clearing House- a partnership that will bring real-time payments to the United States.
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About VocaLink, VocaLink: VocaLink develops and operates payments infrastructure solutions in the United Kingdom.
James Winter
SVP, Europe of Thunes
James Winter is the senior vice president, Europe for 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.
Dave Nicholson
VP Strategy & Partnerships & Co-Founder of Yoyo Wallet
Dave is a co-founder and VP Strategy & Partnerships at Yoyo Wallet, responsible for ensuring that Yoyo continues to innovate and scale in the digital loyalty space through building relationships with partners. Before starting Yoyo, he was co-founder and Head of Product at Zopa – the world’s first peer to peer lender.
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About Yoyo Wallet: Yoyo Wallet is a mobile payment, loyalty and marketing platform.
Geraldine Butler-Wright
VP of People and Culture of Yoyo Wallet
Geraldine joined Yoyo as their VP of People and Culture in June 2018. Her role is to curate an exceptional culture to attract, develop and retain brilliant minds to grow our awesome product. Geraldine, who has more than 15 years’ experience in HR, has worked across industries, to include heading up talent acquisition at Imperial College – the first university to adopt Yoyo, when the company launched in 2014. Prior to Imperial, Geraldine worked at PayPal, where she delivered strategic hires across EMEA during a period of rapid international growth. She has also lead change initiatives with global organisations, to include the US Government.
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About Healthily by Your.MD, Yoyo Wallet: Yoyo Wallet is a mobile payment, loyalty and marketing platform.
Teemu Sorvisto
Senior Vice President – EMEA of JUNO TELE
Teemu brings over 15 years of professional experience in Business Development, Sales and Marketing from Mobile, Apps, Information Technology and Software businesses across markets globally. He has been in leadership positions in multinational mobile and cloud solutions companies such as Nokia, BlackBerry and F-Secure, being responsible for business development, partnerships and operator channel sales in mobile application ecosystem and VAS divisions. Teemu has a thorough understanding of various mobile solutions, related technologies and modern business models. He comes with a broad experience in leading and developing business across regions in EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America, while he has been living in the UK, Singapore and Finland.
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About JUNO TELE: JunoTele is a mobile payments technology company.
Nicky Koopman
SVP Business Solutions of AEVI
Nicky is a pioneer in digital innovation and is responsible for bringing together AEVI’s digital business solutions. She has over 15 years’ experience working in broadcast media, eCommerce and FinTech industry – developing digital business & growth strategies and scaling these across markets and customers.
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About AEVI: AEVI provides a platform for merchant-facing businesses that enables them to upgrade to more agile, more data-driven propositions.
Mark Roberts
SVP Sales & Marketing of Miura Systems
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About Charity Engine, Miura Systems: Miura Systems provides secure electronic payment hardware for the retail, hospitality, financial, government and healthcare markets.
