Flutterwave has appointed Mitesh Popat as the company’s Chief Financial Officer to drive the firm into its next phase of growth and financial sustainability.
With over 20 years of global financial services experience across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Popa recently held executive roles at Citi including as Chief Financial Officer for Middle East and Africa, overseeing finance operations across 29 countries, and CFO for Global Equities Sales and Trading, providing financial leadership for all aspects of a $5 billion revenue business.
Welcoming Mitesh, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said, “We have an ambitious goal to connect Africa to the world and Mitesh embodies our vision with his experience working extensively within Africa in a global capacity. He shares our values of customer obsession and we’re certain that with his impressive track record in financial management, he will contribute to the next phase of our growth.”
Mitesh’s appointment follows the firm’s appointment of several new executives from companies such as PayPal, Stripe, and Western Union last year with speculations that the firm is eyeing to go public in the next few years. In 2022, Flutterwave appointed American Express and Kabbage, executive Oneal Bhambani as its new Chief Financial Officer after its recent $250 million Series D funding, valuing the company at over $3 billion.
At his appointment, the firm said it needed to bring in executives with a strong track record in controllership, treasury, and tax and saw former Kabbage Controller, Rebecca Mendel, and former Kabbage Head of Treasury and Tax, Daniel Eidson also join the company reporting directly to Oneal. Following its Series D funding round in February 2022, which valued the company at over $3 billion, Flutterwave has continued to expand across Africa and internationally not only taking advantage of the increasing shift to digital payments but also to make it attractive to global investors should it choose to go public.
“It is a rare opportunity to join a high-scale, de facto market leader in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. 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 at the time of his appointment. If his role had nothing to do with the firm going public, he got it ready and close for that and Mitesh will have an easy time driving the firm to its next phase.
Mitesh will be responsible for overseeing Flutterwave’s corporate finance functions. This is to support the company’s growth plans, leveraging his expertise in managing finance and operation functions of a complex global business. He will also ensure balanced resource allocation and strategic execution across Flutterwave.