Wayflyer founders Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierse. Image: Wayflyer
Wayflyer’s CEO said the success of its recent Series B funding round means the company can ‘confidently’ meet its hiring targets for the year ahead.
Dublin-based Wayflyer has announced a series of recent senior hires across its offices in Europe and the US.
The company said this is part of a plan to grow its global headcount from 250 to 600 by the end of the year across its offices in Dublin, Atlanta, London and Sydney.
To help with this strategy, Wayflyer has added two members to its talent team. Ciara Smyth has been Wayflyer’s chief talent officer since last December, while Roisin Faizullah-Khan became the company’s VP of talent acquisition in February.
Smyth has previous experience as the chief people officer of King, the developer behind games such as Candy Crush and Farm Heroes. Faizullah-Khan previously led internal recruitment at Stripe.
Meanwhile, Will Mahon-Heap has been the company’s chief business officer since October. He founded equity crowdfunding platform Equitise and served as Revolut’s head of global authorisations between 2017 and 2021.
Deirdre MacCarthy became the company’s chief legal officer earlier in January, after being with international law firm Maples Group for nearly a decade.
Emer Mc Carthy, who was previously the head of brand at Paddy Power and Betfair, joined Wayflyer as head of brand last month.
Finally, Dan O Brien was recently promoted within Wayflyer to chief revenue officer. He first joined the company in February 2020 and previously worked with AI technology provider Vantage as its head of strategic partnerships.
Wayflyer is developing a revenue-based financing and growth platform for e-commerce companies.
The new appointments follow significant expansion for the Irish start-up in 2021, which saw its headcount increase from 40 to 250. Wayflyer said the amount of funding it provided to e-commerce companies also grew by 900pc last year.
Wayflyer CEO and co-founder Aidan Corbett said the company’s recent $150m Series B funding round means it can “confidently meet” its 2022 hiring targets.
“At the same time, we are a business founded on a strong company ethos where diversity of thought, culture and experience is at the core of everything we do,” Corbett said. “These hires are a great example of how we are delivering against this ethos. I have no doubt the depth and breadth of talent and skills they collectively bring to the table will be invaluable as we grow.”
The Series B funding round made Wayflyer Ireland’s sixth tech unicorn, joining Intercom, Fenergo, Workhuman, LetsGetChecked and Flipdish, which hit unicorn status at the start of this year.
Wayflyer had already raised $76m in a Series A funding round last May and expanded into new markets including Spain and the Netherlands. The start-up recently opened an office in Atlanta and signed partnerships with companies such as Adobe, Sezzle and eBay UK.
Earlier this month, it signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Irish golfer and Ryder Cup winner Shane Lowry, who is an investor in the company.
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