Sunil Chandra

Oak North Appoints Ex-Google VP Sunil Chandra as Chief Executive Officer

Oak NorthUK-based Softbank backed fintech and banking service provider Oak North recently revealed in an announcement that it has hired a new Chief Executive officer. The UK based startup aims to provide banks and lending institutions around the world with a means to cater to lower and mid-market business segments in a holistic and profitable manner.

The fintech service provider’s platform has helped its newly emerged banking division become one of the most successful new banks in the UK given its track record in lending business pegged at C$5bn in the last four years. As per the update from the firm, Mr. Sunil Chandra who has been hired to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer will be handling the firm’s technology division and the decision to hire Mr. Sunil is a part of the firm’s efforts aimed at ramping up its business growth following a record-breaking fundraising earlier this year.

The update from the firm on appointment of Mr. Sunil Chandra as the Chief Executive Officer of its technology division comes a bit late given the changes made to Mr. Chandra’s LinkedIn profile according to which he began his term at Oak North in September of 2019. 

Before taking up his current role at Oak North, Sunil served as Vice President at Google in their San Francisco Bay Area office for 12 years and six months. However, his current appointment at Oak North is not his first rodeo into fin-tech and financial services business industry given his experience serving in several other market-leading firms during his 24-year long career.

Sunil started his career as a consultant at one of the big four global auditing firms –PricewaterhouseCoopers in the firm’s Sydney office in June 1995. He then moved on to McKinsey & Co – a management consulting firm where he served as Director of Administration for the firm’s Australia and Singapore office for nearly seven and a half years. He then joined Barclays Capital where he served as CTO & COO in the firm’s Singapore office.

The fintech service provider was recently in the news for its head-turning fundraising event which saw a single direct investment of US$ 440 Million from Japanese conglomerate Softbank’s vision fund making it the largest European fintech fundraising till date. This fundraising event also saw additional investment made by Singapore based conglomerate Clermont Group which when combined together pushes the value of UK based fintech and banking service providers to nearly US$ 2.8 Billion. 

Commenting on his appointment at the firm, Sunil Chandra stated, “It’s an incredible privilege to be joining the team at Oak North. In a short period of time, the business has identified a key segment of the market that is underserved, proven that thesis with the profitable Oak North Bank in the UK, and is now scaling the solution globally by licensing its platform to other lending institutions. SMEs account for roughly half of the GDP of the world. By supporting their growth, we are not only helping them but also their local communities who will benefit from new jobs and additional GDP. After more than 12 years at Google, I am excited about this next challenge and look forward to building the business into what will no doubt be one of the world’s premier tech companies born out of Europe”.

Speaking on the same note, Rishi Khosla, Co-Founder of Oak North commented, “The last decade has seen the growth of tremendous technology companies like Google, and Sunil was instrumental to that growth and indeed the broader industry. Joel and I are incredibly excited to have him join us, as we scale to meet the strong interest our platform has garnered with clients globally. His strong management experience and track record in scaling one of the world’s largest tech companies will help shape Oak North’s future evolution and expansion with partner banks around the world”. 

Source: 

https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/80146/oaknorth-appoints-google-exec-sunil-chandra-ceo-platform-business