Oslo, NORWAY, 15 November 2019: Former Nets VP and Smart Payments CEO Susanne Brønnum has been elected chairperson of the board of Oslo-based mobile payments technology company, Auka*. The newest members to join the board are Edwin Poot and Barbara T. Anderson. Ashley Head, Perry Blacher and Kjell Jørgen Hole transition off of the board after their collective years of dedication to democratising money.
The company behind Norway’s first mobile payments app, Auka, continues in 2019 and 2020 with the expansion of its new mobile payments wallet, Settle, in the EU. The new board composition allows for a deep bench of experience to guide Auka in making strides to make paying and getting paid instantly a reality for people in Europe.
Susanne Brønnum has been on the Auka Board since January 2019 after serving over 25 years with Nets, the biggest financial payments provider in Northern Europe. Susanne held a number of positions at Nets since she joined in 1997 – including Product Manager where she was responsible for the company’s acquiring business for the MasterCard, Visa and JCB brands.
In 2007, she was appointed Director of Cards, the largest Nets business unit. Susanne was appointed CEO of Nets Denmark A/S and Group Executive Vice President in 2010.
“After having worked with digital payments my whole career, I look forward to embark on a new journey working with projects and companies that I believe will have a profound effect on the future of financial systems. Auka’s track-record shows that they have the experience and drive to fundamentally reshape how Europeans – and beyond – pay and get paid,” said Ms Brønnum.
Edwin Poot, a Dutch multi-disciplinary technology strategist, product and technology officer, and entrepreneur has also joined the Auka Board. Currently the Global Chief Architect and the lead for digital transformation at Booking.com, Mr Poot previously built Energyworx SaaS company, worked for several fortune 500 companies and founded multiple other product and consulting companies. His belief that cloud technology (serverless architectures) will play an important role in the shift towards a data-oriented democracy driven by people and communities aligns perfectly with Auka’s vision to digitize money and make it universally available.
“With an extensive career in information technology for the energy, telecom and finance industries and building a cloud native SaaS company, joining the Board at Auka is a great opportunity for me. They are developing the most exciting, innovative digital payment solutions that empower the future of a cashless society. I’m very excited to be part of this fast growing company in the emerging fintech industry and look forward to making great contribution to Auka’s success.”
Barbara Taudorf Andersen, a financial and payments sector leader, has been responsible for some of the national infrastructure schemes in Denmark and Norway that have been the backbone for making these countries some of the world’s most digital societies. Barbara started her career in the Ministry of Finance and Prime Minister’s Office and has throughout her career worked with large scale business transformations, commercial negotiations, robotics and regulatory implementations in Banks and Nets. Today, Barbara works as a non-executive Board member and Business Angel within technology platform solutions.
“Joining Auka is a unique opportunity to support a visionary payments pioneer to offer Nordic infrastructure to the rest of Europe and beyond. The Nordic governments and financial sector have for decades empowered their citizens with easy to use, low cost infrastructure for interaction between citizens and large institutions. Today, market players develop and penetrate payment markets with infrastructure-like solutions without governments. With Settle, Auka will empower citizens with easy payments in European countries. The Auka business model offers the local financial sector and telco players the ability to offer world class payments solutions without starting over or selling out to a global player.”
Currently, the new Auka Board consists of five non-executive directors and their work together is carried out in alignment with the Auka values, to be honest, informal, inclusive and innovative. The current board roster brings together a diversity of expertise and focus areas. Susanne Brønnum (Chairman), Payments & M&A, Harald K. Andersen – Finance, Thomas B. Carlsen – Legal & Contracts, Edwin Poot – Technology and Barbara T. Andersen focusing on Compliance & Risk.
Daniel Döderlein, Auka CEO and founder is currently leading the company through the expansion of Settle into regions across Europe.
“The appointment of Susanne, Edwin and Barbara has been a great way for Auka to end 2019! We have a really busy year ahead and some very ambitious goals. That said, we’re now in the best position to make significant inroads toward digitising money across the most cash-heavy regions of Europe with Settle, with the backing of a hugely talented and experienced Board and team,” said Mr Döderlein.
For enquiries, please contact:
Lydia Lobb
Head of PR, Auka
Lydia@settle.eu
+47 45260835
About Auka
Since 2010, Auka has been making a name for itself as leaders in mobile payments and e-commerce. From its headquarters in Norway, they’ve spent almost a decade developing an award-winning and world-class financial services platform.
Auka developed the first mobile payments platform in the Nordics (mCASH) and launched the first mobile payments solution in Norway, impacting the lives of millions of people and helping to fundamentally change the way people pay and get paid in Scandinavia.
Now Auka, with its mobile payment app Settle, is on a mission to make it easier than ever for people and businesses to pay and get paid in Europe.
About Settle
Settle was founded in 2018 and comes from Oslo-based mobile payments pioneer, Auka. Settle makes it easier than ever for people and businesses to pay and get paid.
If you want to pay friends money you owe them, send money to someone who you have purchased a second-hand item from or simply get lunch, you have to use different tools and methods and often pay hefty fees in the process. Not to mention the time spent worrying about security. Clearly “old money” needs to be replaced with something better. That’s why they created Settle – “new money”.
Auka has been making a name for themselves as leaders in mobile payment and commerce since 2010. From their headquarters in Norway, they’ve spent almost a decade developing an award-winning and world-class financial services platform. They developed the first mobile payments platform in the Nordics and launched the first mobile payments scheme in Norway, impacting the lives of millions of people and helping to fundamentally change the way people pay and get paid in Scandinavia.
The company’s appetite for change for the better and their mission to digitize money in order to make it universally useful for people and businesses everywhere drove the creation of Settle.
