Fintechs Stanhope and Stenn hire new CPOs as they look to scale

European fintechs Stanhope Financial Group and Stenn have each appointed new chief product officers (CPO).

Stanhope Financial and Stenn each hire new chief product officers as they look to expand

Paytech veteran Rob Groombridge joins Ireland-based Stanhope Financial as CPO from paytech Cardoro while Bilal Bajwa joins UK-based SME digital financing platform Stenn.

Groombridge will be tasked with leading Stanhope’s card and payments offering, leveraging his more than 30 years’ experience working across international markets.

At Cardoro, where Groombridge served as chief commercial officer, the fintech firm focused on providing API-led card solutions. Prior to this, he had a stint at Glownet, a tech provider to the events industry, providing payments services and solutions.

Stanhope Financial says it has seen significant growth since it began operations in October 2021 with the company’s SH Payments division, licensed as an electronic money institution (EMI), offering businesses banking services.

The company recently completed a $10 million Series A funding round.

Rob Groombridge, Stanhope Financial CPO

CPO Groombridge says: “Stanhope is at the forefront of the payments industry, designing, building, and launching products and services that will reshape the market.

“I will be working with the team to develop our global payments services, onboard new partners and deliver agenda-setting products that transform the way the industry operates.”

At Stenn, Bajwa will leverage his extensive experience leading global teams and scaling data-led platforms as the business looks to offer further financing solutions which will help to bridge the significant SME funding gap.

He has previously held roles at Zynga, a Silicon Valley-based social gaming platform, and dubizzle, an online marketplace in the UAE, where he led a team of 120 people in product, engineering, design, growth, and performance marketing.

He was also CEO of OLX Pakistan, an online marketplace which he grew to ten million monthly average users over just four years.

Stenn CPO Bajwa says: “Stenn is solving problems of a huge magnitude and I have been impressed by the impact it is having on SMEs in emerging markets.”

Stenn CEO Greg Karpovsky says Bajwa  brings “invaluable experience” across key geographies, “and his focus on market research and data analytics to inform the expansion of our product offering will be crucial as we improve Stenn’s customer proposition”.

In April, Stenn landed a $50 million equity investment from Centerbridge Partners taking its valuation to $900 million.