Volt, the real-time payments platform vendor, has announced the appointment of Irina Chuchkina as its first Chief Marketing Officer. Chuchkina joins from Thunes, the cross-border payments platform where she was also CMO for the last two and a half years.
She began her career in Russia, working in the banking industry in various marketing leadership positions before holding several positions at Visa for five and a half years. Her work at Visa saw her relocate to Singapore. She then moved into the SaaS industry, holding senior positions at Grab and then Rapyd before taking the CMO role at Thunes and subsequently moving to London.
She joins Volt as it looks to accelerate growth following its $60 million funding round led by Silicon Valley investor IVP. Late last year, it launched in Australia and also brought on board Matt Henderson, formerly of Stripe, as a special advisor to help with that growth. Chuchkina’s role will be to direct and lead the global marketing strategy to achieve growth. Her experience at Thunes, Rapyd and Grab will have given her the experience and skill at developing initiatives to deliver the growth. At Grab, she helped launch the mobile wallet GrabPay, as well as the loyalty platform GrabRewards.
Founder and CEO of Volt, Tom Greenwood, commented, “Irina’s experience in payments and marketing is second to none and I couldn’t be more delighted to welcome her to the team. To have someone of Irina’s stature within the industry taking on the role is a testament to the great progress we have made. Continuing to build on our global vision is a primary objective. Irina’s international experience will play a crucial role in ensuring our success.”
A recognised leader
Chuchkina was recently named among the top 25 women leaders in financial technology in Europe by The Financial Technology Report. During her time in Singapore, she became a member of the Executive Committee for the Singapore FinTech Association, a cross-industry non-profit initiative designed to facilitate collaboration between all market participants and stakeholders in the FinTech ecosystem. After leaving the city, she became an ambassador for the organisation, helping to promote the Singapore FinTech Festival, which brings together over 70,000 participants from 134 countries.
Chuchkina also has an MBA from INSEAD and degrees from NEOMA Business School in European management and in Sociology from the State University of Management (GUU). Commenting on her appointment, Chuchkina said, “I firmly believe in the transformative power of real-time payments. Over the next few years, they will disrupt the status quo and reshape the payment ecosystem, and there is currently no company that is better suited to lead this evolution than Volt.
“Tom and his co-founders have done an incredible job assembling a high-calibre team, laying the vision and foundations of a successful business. However, I believe this is just the beginning of a remarkable growth journey. I couldn’t be more excited to join Volt at this time as the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer, to help it realise its immense potential, grow the value and power of its brand, and help the company expand into new markets.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Chuchkina has an impressive track record, and her international experience will stand her in good stead. Volt has been gathering a leadership team and funding ready for a major push in 2024 to expand its footprint globally, starting with Australia. It will be interesting to see what initiatives Chuchkina and Greenwood put together to further expand the company.
IVP will want to see a return on its investment, and with the global payments market estimated to grow from $2.476.8 trillion in 2023 to $5,848.5 trillion by 2030, there is certainly a huge opportunity, source GlobalData.
