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IndustryUpdate

ACQUISITIONS technology officer, adding a seasoned technology leader
with deep expertise in AI- and ML-driven fintech inno-
vation to its leadership team. Sambhus brings a strong
Paystand acquires Bitwage record of scaling intelligent platforms, most recently

Paystand acquired Bitwage, marking a major enterprise leading the developer & ML platform at Block Inc. She
move in a year of accelerating corporate stablecoin adop- has held executive roles at Realtor.com and Vuclip, co-
tion. The deal is expected to enable Paystand to offer founded analytics startup 10jumps, and advised multiple
enterprise-grade stablecoin settlement, FX and treasury emerging fintech and AI companies. She also served on
automation across its B2B payments network, which pro- AvidXchange's board and is an advisory board member
cesses over $20 billion annually. The acquisition comes at Illuminate Ventures. Sambhus said she looks forward
amid growing regulatory clarity and billion-dollar sta- to advancing Butter's ML technology and supporting
blecoin deals by Stripe, Ripple and others. Paystand said clients' growth as Butter Payments continues to scale.
combining its AR/AP network with Bitwage's global Aneal Vallurupalli joins Drata
payout engine brings faster, lower-cost, compliant cross-
border payments to CFOs. As stablecoin transaction Drata named Aneal Vallurupalli as chief financial officer,
volume surges and institutions adopt on-chain money bringing to the company a seasoned financial leader
movement, the combined platform positions stablecoins with extensive experience guiding high-growth technol-
as scalable infrastructure for global businesses, Paystand ogy companies. Vallurupalli previously held senior roles
stated. at Airbase, Mattermost, Mapbox and Guidewire, where
he built scalable financial operations, led major fund-
S&P Global acquires ORBCOMM's AIS business raising initiatives, supported mergers and acquisitions,
S&P Global completed its acquisition of ORBCOMM's and prepared organizations for enterprise and public-
automatic identification system (AIS) business, a leading company maturity. His background spans corporate
provider of satellite-based vessel tracking and maritime development, operational transformation and strategic
visibility data. The AIS unit will operate within S&P growth execution. Vallurupalli said he is joining Drata at
Global Market Intelligence, supporting the company's a pivotal moment as the company uses AI to modernize
broader supply chain strategy and strengthening its trust management, noting that organizations increas-
maritime, trade and risk solutions. Alongside the acqui- ingly need strong, transparent foundations of risk and
sition, the two companies formed a strategic alliance compliance to operate confidently.
to develop enhanced supply chain data products and Worth adds three executives to leadership team
insights. The deal is not expected to have a material
financial impact on S&P Global or its Market Intelligence Worth expanded its executive team with three seasoned
division, but it expands the firm's data capabilities fintech leaders to support its rapid growth following a
worldwide. strong seed round and rising adoption of its onboard-
ing and underwriting platform. Craig Snodgrass joins
APPOINTMENTS as chief data officer after serving as CDO at Cardlytics,
where he built enterprise-scale data programs. At Worth,
he will oversee data architecture, governance and ana-
Payments+Partnerships welcomes Bhavna Kaushal lytics to reinforce the company's AI infrastructure.

Payments+Partnerships appointed Bhavna Kaushal as
engagement lead and senior consultant. Kaushal brings Sethen Maleno was appointed chief technology officer.
to the company more than two decades of leadership in Formerly CTO of WorldWinner and vice president of
financial services, fintech and loyalty, with expertise in engineering at PrizePicks, he will guide technology
digital transformation, strategic partnerships and global strategy and advance Worth's platform reliability and
market expansion. She previously drove Scotiabank's scalability. Blaine Dawson is Worth's new chief operat-
multi-product loyalty strategy and major digitization ing officer, bringing extensive experience leading fintech
initiatives across 25 Latin American and Caribbean operations at FieldPulse and Stax to the company. He
markets, and held senior roles at American Express and will manage internal operations, client delivery, and
Berkeley Payments, where she advanced fintech–bank implementation as the company grows its enterprise
collaboration. A respected industry voice, Kaushal sits base.
on Euromonitor's Global Loyalty Expert Council and
has contributed to CPPO and ACT Canada. She also Worth stated these hires reflect its commitment to
received the 2023 Women in Payments Social Impact & strengthening execution across data, technology and
Sustainability Award. operations as customer reliance on automated decision-
ing increases. The expanded leadership team provides
Butter Payments hires Sonali Sambhus the operational and technical foundation needed to sup-
port continued scale and meet rising customer expecta-
Butter Payments appointed Sonali Sambhus as chief tions.

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