Former Chancellor Lord Hammond has joined London-based FinTech Embedded Finance, trading as Railsr, as chairman.
He will succeed Rick Haythornthwaite, who is standing down to become chairman of NatWest Group in April.
Embedded Finance was once touted as a potential unicorn before being rescued from administration.
Last year it raised £20m and brought in a new executive team in April after it was acquired by a consortium led by D Squared Capital in a pre-pack administration deal.
During his distinguished political career, Lord Hammond held a number of senior Cabinet posts. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 2016 and 2019. Previously, he was Secretary of State for Transport and Secretary of State for Defence from 2011 until 2014. He also served as Foreign Secretary from 2014 until 2016.
Since leaving Government, he has taken on a number of commercial roles, including non-executive director at Ardagh Group, senior adviser at OakNorth Bank and chairman of Copper Technologies.
Railsr provides banking-as-a-service and cards-as-a-service with offerings such as card issuing, virtual wallets and BIN sponsorship.
The company’s APIs make it easy for developers to integrate banking and card functionality into their products and services, and the Railsr platform is designed to be flexible and customisable to meet the specific needs of each customer.
The platform allows customers to focus on their end-user embedded finance experience while Railsr manages financial regulation, streamlined connectivity to popular payment schemes like SEPA, UK Faster Payments, Bacs, and SWIFT and relentless improvement of customer operations.
Embedded Finance Limited, the holding company of Railsr, was founded by D Squared Capital and Moneta to acquire top tier FinTech assets.
Haythornthwaite said: “I am very pleased to be passing the baton to someone of such international standing. The company will benefit enormously from Lord Hammond’s extensive business and political experience at this key juncture. I am optimistic about the future of the business, with such a clear strategy and strong leadership team.”
Lord Hammond said: “I’m delighted to be joining Railsr at this pivotal moment in its development. I would like to thank Rick Haythornthwaite who has done an excellent job in steering Railsr to its current position. I am confident that the business has a strong future ahead of it and that it will become the preeminent provider of embedded finance.”
Dan Adler, managing director of D Squared Capital and co-founder of Embedded Finance, said: “We are thrilled to announce Lord Hammond’s appointment as the new chairman of Railsr.
“His joining signifies Railsr’s strong market position and its path to becoming the preeminent embedded finance business.
“We extend our gratitude to Rick for his significant contributions, and we are confident that Lord Hammond’s wealth of experience will propel us forward as the market leader for years to come.”
Meirav Har Noy, managing partner of Moneta, said: “We are very proud to take part in continuing to build Railsr to be a great FinTech company. We are very grateful to Rick and confident in Lord Hammond’s ability to take Railsr to new heights.”
Philippe Morel, CEO of Embedded Finance, added: “This is another very positive step for Railsr after we secured significant new funding in October last year. We have completely rebuilt momentum at the company and we have a clear path to regaining industry leadership.
“We are very confident about the future of the business, with its best-in-class technology and strong market position. I want to thank Rick for all he has done for the business and I look forward to working with Lord Hammond in this exciting new phase for us.”