Kalixa CEO Ed Chandler voted most influential person in payments 2014

Over 20,000 payment professionals worldwide voted for 2014 Payments Power 10

London, UK – 12^th June 2014 – Ed Chandler, CEO of Kalixa, has today been voted the most influential person in the European payments sector, building on his third place from last year. The Payments Power 10 is organised by leading industry event PayExpo2014 and recognises the ten most influential figures in the European payment industry. The shortlist is an elite group of payments leaders that includes executives from Google, MasterCard and Vocalink.

“This latest accolade is a huge honour and one I accept on behalf of the entire Kalixa team,” said Ed Chandler, CEO of Kalixa. “I’ve dedicated my career to delivering payment innovation that make people’s lives easier, and helps businesses and economies to grow. Kalixa’s recent acquisition of PXP is a massive step towards realising my vision. It means Kalixa has the scale and breadth of services, as well as the expertise and insight, to significantly disrupt the global payments market. This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our team and underlines our dedication to providing valued payment services to consumers and businesses across the globe.”

Ed is responsible for a number of pioneering payment industry firsts. These include Tesco Instant Insurance, Barclaycard OnePulse and Freedom, Orange QuickTap and MasterCard Mobile Payments.

At Kalixa Group, Ed’s aim is to unshackle consumers, small businesses and merchants from a costly and complex payment value chain. By providing solutions in issuing, acquiring and acceptance, Kalixa can disrupt this scenario by removing excess links in the chain and deliver solutions that are simple, seamless and secure. Late 2013, Ed spearheaded Kalixa’s expansion into the Americas with new offices opening in both New York, United States, and Sao Paolo, Brazil.  Ed recently led the company’s acquisition of PXP Solutions, making it one of the top five payment services providers in the world.

For more information, please visit the website at PayExpo 2014.

Kalixa Group strengthens global leadership team

London - 10 March, 2014 – Kalixa Group, a next generation FinTech company, today announced the appointment of six senior executives, including a new CFO.

The new executives will take up leading roles across Kalixa and their core products:  Kalixa Pay, an e-wallet linked to smart devices with a prepaid MasterCard®; Kalixa Pro, a next generation small business account including a mobile POS; and Kalixa Accept, an in-store and online payment acquiring service.

Following a rebranding in April 2013, Kalixa Group has secured new contracts, expanded into North and Latin America, launched Kalixa Pay in Austria, partnered with Invapay and Sisal, and been selected by MasterCard® to provide test cards for acquirers worldwide.

The new hires are:
·         Julian Leigh – Chief Financial Officer: Julian joins Kalixa from bwin.party where he held various financial roles including Group Financial Controller and Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management. Prior to this Julian held senior roles in internal audit at HSBC.
·         Andre Boesing - Head of LATAM / US: Andre Boesing will lead Kalixa Group’s expansion into the US and Latin America. Andre, who has 13 years of experience within the payments industry, has held senior positions at Royal Bank of Scotland, Arthur Andersen, Bibit Global Payments and Smart2Pay.
·         Joerg Heidenreich – Sales Director, Kalixa Accept: Joerg has 13 years of experience in the payments industry working for companies including Wirecard and ClickandBuy. He was also responsible for helping SOFORT to grow from a start-up to a leading payment system in Europe.  
·         Jonathan Bennett – Sales Director, Kalixa Pay: Jonathan has substantial experience in issuing, most recently leading Access Prepaid’s European prepaid business. At Travelex he delivered $1.5 billion in annual prepaid sales volume across six markets. 
·         Colin Swain – Head of Product, Innovation and Insight: Colin takes a leading role in developing new products and propositions for Kalixa Group. Prior to joining Kalixa, Colin worked at MasterCard, Barclaycard and WhatIf Innovations where he helped businesses build and launch market leading payment propositions such as MasterPass™ and One Pulse™.
·         Danielle Stroud – Head of Marketing and Communications: Danielle is responsible for all Group marketing and communication activity. Previously Danielle was responsible for developing and executing MasterCard’s country marketing strategy for Ireland as well as co-marketing with partners in the UK and Ireland including Metro Bank, Lloyds, and Post Office.

Ed Chandler, CEO of Kalixa Group said, “Recruiting the very best Fintech talent is critical to our long term strategy and success. With these hires we have brought on board people who are experienced and innovative payment experts to keep Kalixa at the forefront of our industry’s evolution.

“These hires compliment a world class team based across London, Vienna, New York and Sao Paulo. We will continue to expand into other regions across the globe and launch our range of disruptive products that help consumers, small businesses and merchants make and accept payments anywhere, anyway and any time.”

These six executives will be joining Edward Chandler (CEO), Kamran Hedjri (COO), Kaveh Sheikh-Hestani  (Director, Service Operations), Deyan Petrov (Technology Director) and Erich Cagler  (Head of Project Management ) to complete Kalixa Group’s leadership team.        

Kalixa Group expands payment services into the Americas

Sao Paulo / New York – 20th February 2014: Kalixa Group, a next generation FinTech company, today announced its expansion into the North and Latin American markets, with new offices in New York, United States, and Sao Paolo, Brazil. The move will allow merchants and consumers to benefit from its unique end–to-end payments proposition that covers virtually every area of the payments chain – from issuing and acquiring to acceptance.

Enabling payments across multiple channels and any device is essential in today’s increasingly digitised yet fragmented e-commerce market. This calls for an integrated approach to the value chain that has all too often been lacking in the North and South American markets. With Kalixa’s offering, merchants can benefit from a single connected ecosystem where they can replace multiple provider interactions with a single point of contact. Ultimately, both merchants and consumers benefit from dramatically reduced complexity and cost, making it easier to accept payments anyway, anywhere, anytime. 

The company will lead its charge into North American with Kalixa Accept, which allows merchants to accept more than 200 payment methods. The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has already deployed the solution in New Jersey where Kalixa has received its Money Transmitter License to provide payment acceptance services. This is a significant deal, granting Kalixa access to 41% of the local gaming market. 

Future phases will see the company expand into additional states and roll-out Kalixa Pay, its prepaid e-wallet, and Kalixa Pro, an mPOS for small businesses and sole traders. These offerings are underpinned by strategic partnerships with several high profile payment providers in the region.

In Latin America, Kalixa will also lead with its Kalixa Accept offering. This will commence in Brazil before expanding into Mexico, Argentina, Columbia and Chile in 2015. 

Ed Chandler, CEO of Kalixa Group, said: “This is an exciting and important stage of our development, where we can really build on our success in Europe. In North America, the market is having to contend with several challenges, not least around risk and fraud. Recent high profile examples of financial fraud continue to highlight just how important secure, reliable and effective payment solutions are in the global market place. 

“In Latin America, there is a huge untapped opportunity and Brazil alone represents around 60% of the e-commerce market. Increasingly, consumers are shopping online and want to pay electronically. Merchants are starting to see a real demand for solutions that can help them accept a range of payment options to turn these new browsers into buyers. 

“In both markets, we can offer merchants a vast range of low-risk payment services from a single platform that will enable them to accept payments simply and securely, now and in the future.” 

Visit: www.kalixa.com