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NewslettersCFO Daily

Tappit taps a new CFO

Sheryl Estrada
By
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl Estrada
Senior Writer and author of CFO Daily
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Sheryl Estrada
By
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl Estrada
Senior Writer and author of CFO Daily
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 22, 2021, 5:00 AM ET

Good morning,

So today, I’m breaking some CFO news. 

Jonathan Simkins has joined cashless payment technology company Tappit as its new CFO. You heard it here first. 

The company provides global payment and data ecosystems for sports, events, stadiums and venues. If you plan on going to an NBA, MLB or NFL game in the near future, there’s a good possibility you’ll be using Tappit’s platform to buy a hot dog in the stadium. The privately held company has under 20 U.S. employees; it declines to disclose revenue.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Tappit has formed several multi-year partnerships to provide cashless payment technology at the stadiums of major sports teams. Tappit’s roster includes football’s Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars, the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, and the San Diego Padres baseball team. The company most recently partnered with the Cincinnati Reds in March, ahead of the 2021 baseball season. Tappit provides the technology for Reds Pay, a white-label mobile payment solution. Reds fans attending games at Great American Ball Park can make purchases using their cellphones. 

The technology “helps solve a lot of reopening requirements that sports teams and concerts and other similar events need [to solve] to comply with state regulations,” Simkins tells Fortune. “In Texas and Florida it’s a little bit easier, [compared to] California and New York, where it’s a little bit harder than average, but most states are still requiring some sort of contactless-type payment to allow higher capacities.”

Simkins was most recently president and CFO of Appgate, a cybersecurity company; he led its spin-out from Cyxtera Technologies as a standalone company in January 2020.

In his new role, Simkins will help Tappit, which was founded in the U.K., firmly plant its roots here in the U.S. One of his first priorities is to hire more people. “I don’t feel right now we have enough employees to handle the interest we’re getting, and the demand for the product, which means we’re leaving out future revenue,” he says.

In the current heated war for talent in the tech realm, finding the right candidates to handle the software and data is a challenge. “It’s a tough market to hire, especially for the type of roles we need,” Simkins says. He’s hopeful, though, that as the economy rebounds, tech talent currently tied up at major companies like Amazon and Google will feel comfortable enough to leave jobs and “take a risk with a startup,” he says.

Tappit competes with some big players, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, but Simkins says Tappit is ahead of those firms in its access to data on consumer habits and spending.

“I’ll put it this way, I took this job when I saw the data product, it blew me away,” Simkins says. “Our data piece is incredible. And we’ve seen evidence with our customers that it makes a meaningful contribution to revenue growth.”


See you tomorrow.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

Multinational corporations are "increasingly adopting e-learning platforms to enhance employee engagement and learning experience and minimize learning and development costs," according to the latest report by Technavio, a global technology research and advisory company. Technavio expects the gamification market size to grow by USD $17.56 billion by 2024.

Technavio has announced its latest market research report Gamification Market by End-user, Need, Application, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024

Going deeper

A survey by Unisys Corporation found that U.S. business leaders may be out of touch with what employees seek from a hybrid workplace experience. Flexible schedules and work locations were cited by 65% of U.S. business leaders surveyed as most important to an ideal employee experience, compared to only 55% of U.S. employee respondents. Meanwhile, 70% of U.S. employees ranked recognition as their most important priority, compared to only 50% of business leaders. The findings are further explored in a new IDC white paper, sponsored by Unisys, titled “Digital Workplace Insights: Seeking Digital and Experience Parity to Support the Hybrid Workforce."

Leaderboard

Stephen Bearpark was named CFO at Bitstamp, a bitcoin exchange company. Bearpark joins the company from Amazon, where he held the role of finance director for the past three years.

Anjan Sur was named CFO at PK, a digital services firm, effective April 19. Sur will succeed current CFO Craig Stack, who announced his retirement after 16 years with the company. 

Overheard

"Our goal has always been to bring our scientific capabilities and resources to develop a safe, effective vaccine that would complement other measures to end the global pandemic."

— Joe Wolk, Johnson & Johnson executive vice president and CFO, said during the company's first quarter earnings call on April 20. 

About the Author
Sheryl Estrada
By Sheryl EstradaSenior Writer and author of CFO Daily
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Sheryl Estrada is a senior writer at Fortune, where she covers the corporate finance industry, Wall Street, and corporate leadership. She also authors CFO Daily.

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