By Oliver Smith on Tuesday 27 September 2022
New CFO Robert Mitchell arrives with good news as the company works to recover from a recent management exodus.
After focusing on turning its remittances business around in the first half of 2022 Zepz, the parent company of WorldRemit, says it reached profitability.
The news came today along with Zepz 2021 results, which saw revenues grow by 67 per cent to $399m, but losses also increased by 174 per cent to $151m.
Zepz said 2022 had seen a sharp reversal in its fortunes, with a company-wide focus on “an efficient approach to growth” that included investing in marketing, talent and technology.
Today Zepz also appointed a new group CFO, Robert Mitchell, who joins the money transfer firm from Fast, the online checkout firm recently acquired by US buy now, pay later player Affirm, where he was CFO and sat on the board of directors.
“Our 2021 and H1 ‘22 numbers show swift profitable growth that proves the grit of this organization and the resilience of its customers as they face increasing inflationary and recessionary pressures,” said Mitchell.
His arrival comes less than a month after Mark Lenhard joined as group CEO, with Zepz racing to plug management holes left by the departure of its former CEO Breon Corcoran, CFO and CTO Mark Watson who all departed in quick succession.
While Zepz had been a 2022 IPO contender, the senior turnover along with reports of accounting issues, is said to have derailed those plans.
The fintech most recently raised a $292m Series E funding round in August 2021 and at the same time rebranded its parent company from WorldRemit to Zepz, following the $500m acquisition of African payments giant Sendwave.
In the first half of 2022 Sendwave saw its send volume growing more than 30 per cent year-on-year, while WorldRemit reported growth of 20 per cent in Asia and 35 per cent in Africa.
