Open banking fintech Waave nabs former Qantas and eBay exec Belinda Jonovska as COO

Waave has recruited former Qantas exec and eBay Australia chair Belinda Jonovska as payments fintech’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) to oversee risk, governance and commercialisation.

Jonovska joins the startup after the open banking payments fintech raised $4.7 million in a Seed round in April.

Cofounders Ben Zyl, Mark Connolly and Peter Traianou launched Waaveearier this year. The result is Pay by Bank, a cheaper, alternative payment method to traditional cards, allowing customers to pay instantly and directly via their bank. Pay by Bank takes a flat 28 cent transaction fee, making it up to 80 percent cheaper than card payments, while providing instant authorisation, faster funds settlement and no dishonour charges or chargebacks.

Jonovska brings her own banking experience to the new role, having spent a decade at NAB before joining Qantas as payments manager of innovation, risk and regulatory, and later, senior manager of the airline’s digital portfolio. She was subsequently headhunted to eBay Commerce Australia three years ago as general and board chair.

Ben Zyl, Waave’s CEO said it’s a coup to have her join the fintech’

“She is an exceptional strategist who knows the payments industry extremely well. As we ramp up our internal operations and commercialisation of our offering, we are grateful to be able to draw on Belinda’s extensive knowledge of successfully launching and growing new products in competitive industries,” he said.

Belinda Jonovska said the brand’s goals of fairness and transparency appealed to her. 

“Waave is all about improving the connection between consumers and businesses by making payments fairer, more affordable, and transparent,” she said.

“The industry has been crying out for this and I am excited to join the Waave team to bring this vision to life. My role will focus on all areas of the operational business to make Waave the best possible payment method business and support the team to grow the platform’s ecosystem,” she said.

Waave is the first both B2B and B2C payment platform use case of Open Banking in Australia.  It works across all Australian banks, with customers guided through an easy and secure, one-time sign-up process, enabling them to connect directly to their bank – without needing to divulge and enter card details. 

The fintech is currently rolling out its services to key eCommerce customers while exploring other additions to its payments ecosystem.