Former Goldman Sachs director signs on as Zepto CFO

Former Goldman Sachs executive director Laura Mineo has joined Byron Bay-based merchant payments fintech Zepto as Chief Financial Officer.

Her C-suite role follows the appointment of Julia Bearzatto as Chief Product Officer in November last year.

Mineo was most recently in New York as CFO at locally-founded, US-based Rokt, Australia’s third most-valuable private tech company behind Airwallex and Canva, with a valuation of $750 million, which is reportedly preparing to list publicly.

Mineo said the role at Zepto appealed because the fintech had “created something truly special” in the real-time payments space.

“There’s an incredible opportunity in front of us. Zepto’s trusted, world-class technology opens up a unique set of access points to Australia’s payments infrastructure,” she said.

“We are changing the way value moves through the economy and redefining the future of business payments.”

Zepto began life in 2018 in the Northern NSW holiday town as Split Payments. The API-embedded infrastructure was originally developed to solve the payments problems of the four founders in their skydiving business  The fintech rebranded as Zepto in 2021 and last March raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Sydney VCs AirTree Ventures and Decade Partners.

Zepto was the first non-bank fintech approved to connect directly to the New Payments Platform for PayTo as a ‘Connected Institution’, and the first non-bank payments provider Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) under the Consumer Data Right (CDR). It creates real-time account-to-account payment solutions for businesses via API-powered solutions.

CEO Chris Jewell said Mineo’s work with sophisticated financial institutions will be beneficial for Zepto’s international experience and insights as the business looks out for global opportunities.

“We are thrilled to welcome Laura to Zepto’s leadership team,” he said.

“It’s exciting to tap into the experience Laura gained driving global strategy at Goldman Sachs through a period of transformation, and leading Rokt’s finance function and funding strategy.”