A shareholder in UK FinTech Fiinu Plc is looking to oust its CEO amid a £16 million legal battle.
Granicus Holdings is owned by Karol Oleksa and Marta Oleksa, former leaders of Everfex, which the London FinTech acquired last year. Fiinu is suing the Oleksas.
Despite Dr Marko Petteri Sjoblom (pictured) being re-elected at an AGM, Fiinu has now received a requisition notice from Granicus – which represents approximately 10.7% of the company’s issued share capital – seeking a general meeting containing an ordinary resolution to remove Dr Sjoblom as a director, as well as an advisory resolution to express the view that independent directors should review its executive leadership and governance arrangements.
Dr Sjoblom founded Fiinu and is its largest shareholder with a 31.42% holding.
Fiinu confirmed receipt of the correspondence and is currently reviewing its legal validity.
“The board notes that the requisition was received four days after the company’s annual general meeting, at which shareholders had the opportunity to consider the composition of the entire board… all the directors were duly re-elected [and] Granicus voted in favour of re-election of all of the company’s independent non-executive directors,” Fiinu stated.
Surrey-based Fiinu has been developing its Plugin Overdraft, an open banking-enabled platform which allows customers to access overdraft facilities without switching bank accounts. The group is also building a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform which enables third-party financial institutions to launch their own products using Fiinu’s infrastructure, alongside an AI-driven underwriting system designed to deliver faster and more accurate credit assessments.
It pivoted its offer after earlier plans to build a challenger bank, surrendering its banking licence in 2023 and reducing costs to preserve cash, while focusing on its core technology.
In August 2025 Fiinu returned to the junior AIM market in London after completing a reverse takeover of Everfex P.S.A., the owner of Polish currency-hedging specialist Stały Kurs, which reported an unaudited operating profit of around £1.3 million in 2024.
Subsequently criticising Everfex’s governance standards and capability, it then replaced its leaders Karol Oleksa and Marta Oleksa, with Sjoblom appointed to the same position within the new Polish subsidiary and Adam Narczewski as a senior executive officer, acting under delegated authority from Sjoblom. The company served formal non-compete breach notices against the Oleksas.
Ahead of last week’s AGM, Granicus distributed a shareholder letter criticising Fiinu for an incomplete account of both the Everfex acquisition and the group’s financial performance for FY2025.
Fiinu responded that a significant proportion of its reported loss relates to non-cash goodwill impairment together with integration, investigation and restructuring costs associated with the Everfex takeover, rather than shortcomings in its underlying operations.
It is also pursuing legal action relating to contractual claims against Granicus, alleging warranty breaches and failures to disclose relevant information during the takeover. The two legal proceedings seek damages exceeding £16m.
This morning Fiinu stated: “The board considers that Granicus’ decision to submit the requisition is disruptive, following last week’s shareholder approvals at the AGM, and is intended to distract the board’s attention from the proper prosecution of its claims against Granicus, Mr [Karol] Oleksa and associated parties.”