Leading connected payments provider, Checkout.com announces the key strategic hires of Ott Kaukver as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Nick Worswick as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).
Ott was previously CTO at Twilio and led engineering at Skype. Nick held the CRO position at both WeWork and GrubHub before joining Checkout.com. Their appointments reflect Checkout.com's business momentum and global expansion following its recent Series C funding, which tripled its valuation to $15bn, making it EMEA's most valuable venture-backed business and one of the largest fintechs globally.
Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and Founder of Checkout.com said: “Today we welcome two world-class technology leaders to the business. Collectively, they bring unrivalled experience in scaling and building functions that will unlock our next phase of product and operational growth. I’ve been humbled and inspired by their wealth of knowledge, earned by serving as leaders at some of the most dynamic technology companies and look forward to our partnership.”
Scaling global payments infrastructure
Ott Kaukver joins the business after serving as CTO at the leading cloud communication platform powerhouse Twilio, where he led the company’s engineering operations and technical architecture. There he scaled the technology organization to thousands and was a key executive growing the business for almost seven years. He brings years of experience in scaling global products with an agile microservices architecture, solving complex business challenges through developer-first technology, and building deeply integrated engineering organizations. Prior to Twilio, he was an early employee at Skype, where he launched SkypeOut and grew the business into a $1 billion product line.
Ott Kaukver, in-coming CTO of Checkout.com, said: “My passion is to build great products for the customers with modern technology on a global scale. Guillaume and the Checkout.com team share this passion. We are building a modern cloud-based infrastructure platform for global payments that enables growth for our fast growing customer base. I’m excited to be part of the journey and help our customers to scale.”
Ott will be responsible for driving Checkout.com’s technology strategy as the business looks to remove the complexity from global payments and create world-class customizable payment solutions.
Accelerating enterprise acquisition
As Checkout.com continues to drive globally-focused innovation within its payments platform, the business will also accelerate business growth in key markets, strengthening its footprint in North America and delivering on expansion plans in Asia Pacific. Nick Worswick joins the business to lead this growth after four years as Chief Revenue Officer of WeWork. During his time, he increased revenue by more than 450% in four years and grew the commercial function from 80 sales and marketing professionals to over 1,200.
Prior to joining WeWork, Nick also held executive positions at GrubHub leading a large team through its successful initial public offering in 2014. He also held executive leadership roles at IntraLinks prior to their IPO in 2010, and Bullhorn before the acquisition by Vista Equity Partners in 2012. He brings a wealth of experience in replicable growth and global expansion in pre-IPO technology companies.
Nick Worswick, in-coming CRO of Checkout.com, said: “Enterprise merchants are demanding more from their payments providers. They have recognized that payments can be a competitive advantage. Guillaume and the Checkout.com are building the payments platform that unlocks global growth. I’ve always been inspired by exceptional products that help customers grow and thrive. I look forward to supporting Checkout.com to achieve this next phase of growth.”
Nick will lead Checkout.com’s revenue organization, overseeing its commercial and marketing function. He will be based in Checkout.com’s recently announced New York office, as the company meets the growing demand of US-based merchants for high-performance domestic, international and cross-border payments.
The new executives come amongst a recruitment drive which will see Checkout.com hire an additional 700 people in 2021, adding to its 1,000-strong global workforce. Last year alone the business added 500 people to their 17 international offices.