Pipe Lines Up New CEO Following Layoff Reports
Embedded capital FinTech Pipe is reportedly set to name a new chief executive.
Luke Voiles, who became the company’s CEO in 2023, will be replaced by Pipe’s chief product officer, Jason Mikula of FinTech Business Weekly wrote Sunday (Dec. 7) on LinkedIn.
Sources familiar with the matter told Mikula that Pipe’s chief product officer, Claurelle Rakipovic, would step into the CEO role, and that finance chief Ben Goodyear has also left the company.
PYMNTS has contacted Pipe for comment but has not yet gotten a reply. A Pipe spokesperson told FinTech Business Weekly that the company is making leadership changes as “part of broader changes,” and that an official announcement would come this week.
The report noted that Voiles has said that Pipe had roughly $200 million “in the bank” when he joined the company, which he characterized at the time as “nearly five years” of runway.
The news follows reports from last month that Pipe had instituted job cuts affecting around half of its 150-person workforce.
In a statement sent to the website FinTech Futures, a company spokesperson described the move as “a difficult decision to shift to a leaner org structure.”
The statement added that while “Pipe’s business is strong and growing rapidly,” the FinTech “needs to put a stronger focus on profitability, operating efficiency, and our core product set” to be able to scale the company “in the right way.”
In September, PYMNTS wrote that Pipe had launched a partnership with Uber designed to help restaurants access working capital.
And earlier this year, Pipe acquired Glean.ai, adding that company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered spend management offering to Pipe’s embedded financial solutions for software platforms which serve small businesses.
“With seamless access to capital and smarter spend insights, we’re enabling sustainable growth, better operational oversight and long-term success for small businesses,” Voiles said at the time.
PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster spoke with Voiles last year about the challenges facing smaller companies — micro-businesses lining American Main Streets — as they try to gain access to credit products to help them manage day-to-day operations and their working capital.
“There’s a huge gap in the market for the micro-merchants that just can’t get those same features they’d want from an Amex card, or from the cards offered by digital only neobanks that are typically offered to larger firms,” Voiles said.
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