Nordigen execs join GoCardless following acquisition

GoCardless is bolstering its leadership team with three of Nordigen’s execs following its acquisition last year.

The two co-founders of the Latvian open banking provider, former CEO Roland Mesters and former chief product officer Roberts Bernans, will lead key areas of the business for the fintech unicorn as it hopes to become a leading provider of open banking data solutions.

Mesters is now vice president of bank account data at GoCardless and Roberts has been named vice president of connectivity, while Nordigen’s chief technology officer Jake Sebastian-Jones has joined the product team as a director of engineering. 

“I’m excited to join GoCardless so we can bring open banking data to even more businesses around the world,” Mesters said.

“By adding open banking data to GoCardless’ offering, we can build a single port of call for all businesses that want to reap the many benefits of open banking, from faster, more secure payments to creating more intelligent decisioning processes.”

Bernans will be responsible for building and scaling the company’s connections to payments schemes and “rapidly expanding” its open banking connectivity footprint, according to GoCardless.

As the companies continue to integrate, the three execs are set to play a key role in putting GoCardless at the forefront of open banking providers.

“There is no better time to join GoCardless as we set out to build the world's bank payment network,” Bernans said.

“Over the past 18 months, GoCardless has emerged as a major player in the open banking space with the release of features like Instant Bank Pay and Verified Mandates. 

“The next phase is to bring open banking connectivity in-house.”

Bernans explained that this will allow the fintech to not only accelerate its speed-to-market for open banking solutions but also provide a way for businesses “to connect to multiple banks in multiple markets, all in one simple step”.

Nordigen’s connectivity already covers more than 2,400 banks across 31 countries, so through the incorporation, GoCardless expects to “significantly accelerate” the rollout of its open banking-powered services.

According to GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi, open banking data will underpin and enrich everything the company does.

“As we enter the next phase of our growth, open banking will be a key enabler, and data and connectivity will play a massive role,” GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said.

“In-house connectivity will open up new revenue streams, taking us toe-to-toe with traditional open banking providers while also helping us move faster and develop even better products and features.”