Exclusive: Nubank’s Rafa Plantier joins ‘Stripe for phone plans’ startup Gigs

Gigs, a new startup bringing banking to the telco industry, has hired Nubank’s Rafael Plantier as its new head of financial services.

Plantier, who has previously held leadership positions at Stripe - where he was head of banking EMEA - and Tink where he was head of UK & Ireland, will help Gigs advance its Stripe for phone plans.

The company, founded by Hermann Frank and Dennis Bauer in Berlin in 2020 and a later graduate of Y Combinator, raised $20m last year from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Google’s venture arm Gradient Ventures.

Gigs describes itself as a ‘Telco-as-a-Service’ platform, this allows companies to launch their own branded phone plans.

“Analogous to banking, wireless connectivity is among the most used consumer services worldwide, yet has one of the worst customer satisfaction levels. This disparity calls for urgent innovation. That’s why, after 16 years in fintech and helping Stripe,Tink, and Nubank scale globally, I'm here to support Gigs in harnessing this immense opportunity,” said Plantier.

“By enabling any company to launch their own branded, programmable mobile service, Gigs has created a category of its own, making it one of the most exciting high-growth businesses worldwide,” he added.

As well as having already won a number of fintech clients, Gigs has been making a number of hires from the likes of Revolut,Stripe,Klarna,SumUp, and PayPal.