Unzer Appoints Robert Bueninck as New CEO

Unzer, one of the fastest growing FinTech companies in Europe, is realigning its management team as part of the ongoing transformation of the company. Robert Bueninck, formerly Chief Commercial Officer of Unzer, succeeds as new CEO. Jacob von Ingelheim is appointed Managing Director.

As of July 1, 2021, Robert Bueninck succeeds Dr. Axel Rebien as CEO. Axel Rebien had joined Unzer in 2017 as CFO. Since then, Axel was one of the driving forces in growing Unzer successfully. Under his leadership, Unzer completed and integrated 10 transactions in just 18 months and was able to record growth of more than 40% in the last fiscal year. “It is the right time to initiate the next phase of the company’s development with a new management team. I am extremely grateful for what we have achieved in the last years. With its great growth trajectory, Unzer today is well on its way to challenge the top players of the European payment industry. I wish my successor Robert and his team all the best on this journey,” says Dr. Axel Rebien.

Robert Bueninck is an industry veteran in the payment industry, having worked more than eight years for Klarna, most recently as Managing Director of the DACH region. During this time, he played a leading role in successfully growing Klarna's business in the DACH region, as well as in the strategic transformation into a consumer brand. Robert joined Unzer in March 2021 as Chief Commercial Officer, taking charge of the business development and expanding Unzer’s client base throughout Europe. “I am very pleased in taking over the CEO role at Unzer. In my first months with the company, I experienced ambitious teams that are fully focused on being the partner-of-choice for our merchants. We are focused on bringing together all the bright minds within the added firms, harmonising our offering and joining forces to continue creating a world-class organisation,” comments Robert Bueninck.

The CEO transition is part of a larger realignment of Unzer’s management team as Unzer has ambitious goals in order to secure a position among the top-3 player in the European payment sector and wants to enter the next phase of the company’s development. As part of the managed transition towards the new management team Jacob von Ingelheim, besides his role as Chief Financial and Risk Officer, is appointed Managing Director of Unzer. He is joined by Dr. Max Steiger, Chief Compliance and Governance Officer, who is also becoming Managing Director. The recent hiring of several industry experts, amongst them Niv Liran (Chief Product and Technology Officer) from AUTO1 Group, Sebastian Wenzel (Vice President Group Marketing) from Börse Stuttgart Digital Exchange and Mareike Gerdes (Vice President Group HR) from XING further underlines Unzer’s ambitions to establish best-in-class structures and further mature as a company.

About Unzer

Unzer is an innovative and modular platform for international payment transactions. Companies of all sizes and from all sectors rely on the data-driven, secure and perfectly tailored solutions to help them drive growth – whether online, mobile or at the point of sale. The modules, which are easy to integrate, cover the entire spectrum of payment management: from processing of various payment types, through automated analytics of customer behaviour and requirements, all the way up to integrative risk management. Since its foundation in 2003, Unzer has become one of the fastest growing FinTech companies in Europe through acquisitions of many centers of excellence. As one of the pioneers in the sector, Unzer has repeatedly introduced groundbreaking innovations in and around transaction management over the course of the last 17 years. Over 750 payment experts and tech enthusiasts throughout Europe today work on helping retailers achieve sustainable growth in a dynamic market. KKR has been the majority shareholder of Unzer since 2020.

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