• Peter Jackson, former CEO of Worldpay UK, joins as chair of Aire’s Board of Directors
• Sarah MacQuade, former sr. HR Business Partner EMEA for Uber takes post as Head of People
• Aire launches plan to double workforce in 2018

Aire, which provides a more accurate way for lenders to understand and score new applicants, today announces the addition of world-leading talent to its company leadership, whilst embarking on an ambitious plan to double its workforce to over 40 employees this year.

Fintech pioneer Peter Jackson, former CEO of Worldpay UK and current CEO of Paddy Power Betfair, took the post of Chairperson of Aire’s Board of Directors in October 2017. Previously, Peter worked as Head of Global Innovation at Banco Santander and held senior positions at Lloyds and Halifax. His list of recent posts also includes that of CEO of foreign exchange company Travelex.

HR specialist Sarah McQuade also joins Aire as its new Head of People after previously working for Uber as Senior HR Business Partner EMEA. Prior to Uber, Sarah worked as Head of HR for data-insight marketer Weveand alsoBadoo.  Recruiting new talent to the organisation will see the headcount nearly double in size in 2018. Key areas for hiring additional team members will be data scientists and data engineers as well as operational staff.

Aneesh Varma, co-founder and CEO of Aire commented:

“After taking our vision to market and proving that out credit assessment technology works for our Partners across the credit cycle, we are now entering a stage of fast growth. Peter brings unrivalled experience of how to run a profitable fintech business, while Sarah will actively contribute to scaling up our offer by acquiring the right people at a time of immense competition for talent. As we embark on this significant expansion of our team, we are focussed on continuing to develop our culture conscientiously and to preserve our unique DNA and our mission-driven approach.”

Peter Jackson added:

“Aire is one of the few businesses that follows a vision of making finance more accessible by taking the full picture of credit applicants and their individual situations into account. The compelling thing about Aire is that providing better credit assessments does not only help advance the well-being of consumers, but it also means massive increases in efficiency for lenders.”

Aire secured a Series A funding round of $5m in 2017, after gaining full Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval in September 2016.