A former executive at Mastercard has been appointed chairman at tech firm Yoyo.
David Yates, former president of New Payment Platforms at Mastercard and now a senior advisor to the credit card giant, has joined the award-winning technology platform, which aims to combine payment, loyalty and marketing.
Yates has more than 35 years’ experience building payments businesses around the world. In his capacity as president of New Payment Platforms at Mastercard, he also served as executive chairman of payments firm Vocalink, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2017, having been its CEO for the previous six years.
Before Vocalink, he was president of Western Union, where he drove the company’s diversification into digital money transfer and business payments.
Yates also spent six years as president of First Data International, building out its global activities outside of the US, including merchant acquiring, merchant transaction processing, issuer processing and ATM network solutions business units.
He also has substantial private equity experience both as operating partner with Advent International, advising on the acquisition of WorldPay from RBS, and then as a member of the WorldPay board from the initial investment through to successful IPO.
“I am delighted to join Yoyo as chairman having observed their growth over the past five years,” he said.
“I have no doubt that the next few years will be an exciting journey of rapid international scaling and continued product innovation.
“The energy and dedication of leadership and wider team at Yoyo is infectious. Having experienced first-hand the development of the payment industry, it is clear to me that the future very much lies in experiences that go way beyond just payment.
“In order to justify a transaction fee from a merchant, providers need to have a suite of value added services, such as Yoyo, in order to be the winners of the future.”
Yoyo matches the identity of both in-store and online customers to the items they buy at the checkout. This enables Yoyo’s retail partners to deliver a seamless, consistent and personalised omnichannel payment and loyalty experience to their customers, and at the same time build hyper-targeted marketing campaigns to measurably increase customer loyalty, footfall and lifetime value.
Yoyo is enjoying a period of rapid growth, with a string of partnerships with big-name retailers recently announced, including PAUL, Caffè Nero, SOHO Coffee, Planet Organic and Revital, as well as major catering companies, including Gather & Gather, CH&Co and Compass.
In addition Yoyo has unveiled a number of product innovations, including its eCommerce solution, purchase-linked customer feedback and order ahead – proving Yoyo to be the most innovative mobile wallet on the planet.
Such is its success that Yoyo already processes over three million transactions a month and more than 1.5 million users now shop, pay and are rewarded through Yoyo and Yoyo-powered apps, with up to 5,000 new users joining every day.
Yates takes over the role of chairman from Yoyo-co-founder Alain Falys, who launched the company in 2013 with co-founder and CEO Michael Rolph and COO David Nicholson.
Falys was previously CEO at Yoyo, taking the company through a successful £12m Series B funding round in June 2017, before stepping up to the chairman role in December 2017. He will remain on the Yoyo board while cultivating new ventures in the UK, Europe and beyond.
“David Yates will add a wealth of experience as Yoyo enters a new phase of growth,” said Falys.
“I’m pleased to hand over the chairman role to David and continue my entrepreneurial journey with the knowledge that we have a solid team at the helm of Yoyo.”
Rolph said: “It’s a testament to Yoyo’s growth and success that someone of David Yates calibre has taken on the reins of chairman at Yoyo. His experience and expertise in the international payments industry is unparalleled and will be especially invaluable as Yoyo continues to strengthen its position as the definitive digital solution for both physical and online retailers that want to deliver the most holistic, personalised and rewarding payment experience to their customers.
“Alain’s roles as co-founder, CEO and chairman has been crucial to developing and growing this unique and powerful proposition.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work alongside Alain and see Yoyo become one of the UK’s most successful FinTech companies under his stewardship. I look forward to continuing to work with him as we take Yoyo to a new level of growth.”