Flutterwave Appoints Oneal Bhambani, an ex-Executive of American Express, as CFO

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has announced the appointment of Oneal Bhambani as its new Chief Financial Officer. Oneal joins the unicorn company from American Express and Kabbage, where he managed large-scale fintech businesses and helped lead the sale of Kabbage and its integration into the American Express Global Commercial Services segment.

Flutterwave, the most valued African fintech company, closed a $250 million Series D funding round in February 2022, bringing the company’s total valuation to more than $3 billion. And Oneal’s appointment as Chief Financial Officer is timely and critical in enabling the company’s expansion with best-in-class discipline, operational controls, and financial rigor.

Oneal was in charge of all financial operations and functions at Kebbage, including IPO-ready financial and operational controls. Following the acquisition by American Express in April 2022, he was the CFO and Head of Capital Markets of Kabbage’s business unit, which provides credit, banking, and payments solutions to American Express’ commercial customers.

Before and after the American Express acquisition, Oneal was a key stakeholder in capital allocation and led critical strategic initiatives for the company. Oneal began his career as a growth-stage investor at The TCW Group (a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group) and Riverwood Capital. At UBS, he started his career in investment banking.

Commenting on the appointment, Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said, “I am excited to welcome Oneal to Flutterwave. His track record of operating finance to enable scale and innovation with listed company standard financial controls will help us accelerate our growth as we continue to meet the needs of our expanding global customer base. I am also looking forward to working with Oneal on deal-related initiatives, given the number of inorganic opportunities we see in today’s market environment.”

The company confirmed leveraging its current growth to expand its global finance team by bringing in executives with a strong track record in controllership, treasury, and tax.

In addition, Rebecca Mendel, a former Kabbage Controller, and Daniel Eidson, a former Kabbage Head of Treasury and Tax, have joined the company. They will both report directly to Oneal.

Oneal Bhambani expressed his excitement about joining the market leader in the African fintech space and promised to bring his “best-in-class strategies” learned from his former employers. “It is a rare opportunity to join a high-scale, de facto market leader in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. I look forward to partnering with Flutterwave’s team to enable solutions for our customers in Africa and globally. I fully expect to apply best-in-class strategies learned from my tenures at American Express and Kabbage.”