Signalling that it has entered the next phase in its rapid growth, Brite Payments today announced the appointment of Alexander Kassai as Chief Operating Officer and Fredrik Strömqvist as Chief Financial Officer.
The appointment of two new senior leaders follows a period of strong growth for the Stockholm-based fintech, which leverages the capabilities of open banking to give merchants and businesses a complete, out-of-the-box instant payments and payouts solution.
Alexander Kassai joins Brite to lead the company’s operational functions in his role as COO, bringing more than a decade of fintech experience, including at Klarna, where he led global merchant support during the company’s hyper growth phase. Most recently, he served as CIO at Aleris, a leading Scandinavian healthcare provider. At Brite, Kassai will focus on scaling operational teams that deliver a first-class consumer and merchant experience.
“What attracted me to Brite was the opportunity to join an experienced and highly capable team that has built a top-class product that solves major pain points for businesses,” said Alexander Kassai, COO, Brite Payments. “In light of Brite’s rapid growth, I will be focused on how technology, including process automation, can support our further expansion; this will be all important as we scale up and serve customers in more markets. I believe my background in technical as well as operational roles will also help greatly as we continue to innovate with open banking-based instant payments.”
Fredrik Strömqvist has taken on the role of Chief Financial Officer following a stint as interim CFO at FOREX, a leader in the Nordic travel money market. His career spans more than 15 years in the financial sector, including roles at Oliver Wyman, Skandia, SBAB and DLL. Strömqvist is also responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with a growing network of banks.
“I’m excited to lead the finance function at Brite, which is crucial to supporting our local operations and is a key driver of our growth. I am also looking forward to helping shape the strategic direction of the company,” said Fredrik Strömqvist, CFO, Brite Payments. “Brite has already demonstrated that it has a very attractive offering in the instant account-to-account (A2A) payments space, and I believe it has the people as well as the technology to be a true instant payments leader.”
“Alexander and Fredrik are joining at an exciting time for Brite, bringing extensive experience to the business that will be invaluable as we continue to grow,” commented Lena Hackelöer, Founder & CEO, Brite Payments. “Our management team will benefit from their functional expertise, as well as their proven leadership capabilities. The finance and operations teams they lead are absolutely integral to our future success.”
The appointment of new senior leaders at Brite follows strong headcount growth in 2022, with the company nearly doubling in size. It also caps off a busy period during which the open banking payments specialist announced its Brite Instant Payments Network (Brite IPN) - a proprietary network that enables instant payments and payouts through open banking and helps close the gaps in Europe’s fragmented real-time payments landscape.