Paytech scale-up announces three senior hires after hitting £5 billion reconciliation milestone

A North East fintech firm specialising in payment reconciliation and reporting has announced the appointment of three senior hires.

Following a successful 12 months, Kani Payments has appointed Alina Ciocan as head of finance, Melissa Beckett as chief marketing officer and Sophie Harbisher as data science lead.

The new hires will help meeting growing demand, which has seen Kani reconcile more than £5 billion in payments in the last year.

Founded by CEO Aaron Holmes, Kani Payments enables other fintech’s, payments companies and challenger banks to better understand the payments ecosystem through payment reconciliation and report technology.

The company also offers training and upskilling for in-house finance teams.

With more than 10 years’ experience in the finance and payments space, including time with EE Mafcote International and Flex-e-Car, Alina Ciocan will lead the finance team and influence the finance process requirements of Kani’s reporting platform.

Melissa Beckett previously led NatWest’s business accelerator programme for the North, while Sophie Harbisher previously worked as a postgraduate research student in Bayesian statistics at Newcastle University.

Aaron Holmes said: “Alina is a key member of the Kani team and is an expert in payments. She has done a brilliant job at leading our finance operation, which was a key factor in inviting Alina to head up the finance team as we move into a new stage of growth.

“The appointment of senior female leads in Melissa and Sophie also signifies a huge milestone moment in the Kani Payments growth journey – not only does it demonstrate our commitment to building a diverse and inclusive team, as well as the overall trajectory of the company.

“The combined experience of these new additions to our team, coupled with Kani Payments’ truly innovative data reconciliation solution, are the perfect foundation for a remarkable year in 2021.

“With their support behind us, we look forward to revolutionising the reconciliation process for businesses of all sizes across the globe, empowering them to drill down deeper into their data to make informed, strategic decisions that aid their success.”

The expansion follows the Kani’s successful expansion across Europe, the US, Middle East, and Australia, where it has a fast-growing customer base and a number of strategic partnerships emerging.

The company was also named ‘Europe’s Leading Financial Services or Payments Start-up’ by the Emerging Payments Association in 2019.