THUR, MAY. 04 2023-theGBJournal| Former Investec and Starling Bank Executive, Symmie Swil has been appointed Head of Operations at Finverity, according to a statement seen by theGBJournal Thurday, amid continued investment in operational excellence, and on the back of its recently announced $5m equity fundraise and 15x revenue growth in 2022.
Fiverity which operates in Africa with clients in Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana said, Swil will focus on building scalable and efficient operations as the business and its clients’ needs grow, supporting the growth of the funding platform for mid-market corporates, the SaaS offering and the wider business operations.
“We are delighted to welcome Symmie to Finverity,” said Alex Fenechiu, COO & Co-Founder. “With her track record and contagious, positive energy, she is the perfect fit to lead our operations as we continue to grow our international client base and expand our suite of services.”
According to Finverity-a leading trade and supply chain finance digital ecosystem said, Swil brings diverse strategy and operational leadership experience gained in both senior fintech and investment banking roles: building for scale at UK digital bank, Starling, and managing the complex operations of a large organisation at Investec.
During her 18-month tenure as Head of SME Banking at Starling, Swil played a pivotal role in building the business banking department and tripling the number of business accounts to over 430,000. Prior to Starling, Swil spent over 10 years at Investec, where she was Head of Strategy Development and then Deputy COO for Investec’s UK Corporate and Investment business.
At Investec, her remits included digital transformation and operational delivery. Swil’s vast insights and experience of growth opportunities and operational challenges will prove invaluable as Finverity scales up its number of corporate and banking clients as well as partnerships.
During her career to date, Swil has also spent 8 years advising mid-sized corporates on M&A and fundraising transactions in Sydney and London at various investment banks including RBS, ABN Amro and in venture capital.
“We are very excited to bring Symmie onboard. She is fully behind our mission of helping close the global trade finance gap and her experience of building out scalable operational processes is paramount to our growth phase” said Viacheslav Oganezov, CEO & Co-Founder.
“I’ve seen the power of technology in transforming legacy banking and revolutionising access to finance”, said Swil. “We take for granted the trade finance that underpins almost everything around us – from avocados on toast to the latest iPhone – but it is still largely governed by paper and inaccessible to most mid-market enterprises. Digitalisation is fast replacing manual, time-consuming, operational processes that are prone to human error, whilst also bringing the benefits of reduced friction that accelerates the allocation of funding. However, technology has barely scratched the surface so far. Closing the trade finance gap is arguably the biggest opportunity in fintech right now and so I’m delighted to be joining Finverity as we continue to make trade finance better, fairer and more accessible for more businesses.”
Swil is based out of Finverity’s London Fitzrovia office. Finverity currently serves clients in 11 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Central & Eastern Europe.
