Fintech
Compliance chief Brex has left the fintech startup to join Andreessen Horowitz as a partner
Ali Rathod-Papier has resigned from her role as global head of compliance at the corporate card expense management startup Brex join a venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a partner and compliance officer, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
Rathod-Papier and a16z declined to comment on the move.
In your opinion LinkedIn profile, Rathod-Papier now “oversees a16z’s foreign expansion and policy efforts, supporting the government affairs team, managing financial crime and national security risk, as well as overseas operations.” She was at Brex for a total of 2.5 years, in various roles, including financial crime compliance manager, before joining a16z in May.
Brex CFO Ben Gammell told TechCrunch that his departure was “amicable,” adding that Rathod-Papier “made invaluable contributions to financial management and compliance during his time at Brex” and that he helped position the startup “good for growth” in its next chapter.
Rathod-Papier shared the decision with colleagues in April, according to a Slack communication seen by TechCrunch. A Brex spokesperson told TechCrunch this week that the startup is currently hiring a replacement for his role. Meanwhile, Bruce Wallace, a long-term Brex consultant who previously served as COO at Silicon Valley Bank and head of risk and fraud operations at Wells Fargo, has taken on the role of interim chief compliance officer.
The hire comes at an interesting time for a16z, which had invested in Synapse, a banking-as-a-service startup that filed for bankruptcy in April and has since under fire for an estimated $85 million worth of missing customer funds. The company has remained silent on the topic of the controversy surrounding Synapse. TechCrunch spoke to fintech leaders and general partners at a16z Angela Strange AND Anish Acharya in 2022 on the company’s strategy in space. The high profile non-crypto company fintech investments include Wise, Affirm, Deel, and Greenlight, among others.
Meanwhile, TechCrunch also learned this week that Doug Adamic is no longer Brex’s chief revenue officer. The startup told us Garrett brand he recently took his place as Brex’s new CRO. Marker most recently served as vice president of global sales at Braze, a cloud-based customer engagement platform for multi-channel marketing.
Adamic took over as Brex CRO in May 2022 after Sam Blond left, later join the Founders Fund as a partnera role he has finished resign since the beginning of this year. Previously, Adamic worked for SAP Concur (a Brex competitor) for over 16 years.
The moves come as Brex announced it it abandoned its co-CEO model with co-founder Pedro Franceschi becoming sole CEO and co-founder Henrique Dubugras taking over as chairman of the board.
The pair told TechCrunch earlier this month that they believe having two CEOs could pose a bottleneck to the company’s growth, preventing its leadership from making quicker decisions. They also have a sense that when Brex eventually goes public — something they don’t expect to happen until 2025 or later — investors will be more attracted to a traditional model of a single CEO running the company.
Interestingly, in June 2023, Jason Mok, former operating partner of a16z, he joined Brex as head of startups.
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