Jim Lofgren Board Representative, Hokodo

Company

Hokodo was founded to make B2B trade simpler, safer and supported. The business is made up of an international and diverse team of finance, tech, and data science specialists, based in London and Paris, working to modernise B2B payments. Hokodo removes all the risk and hassle associated with offering payment terms online, and streamlines the entire process, allowing sellers to make credit decisions in real-time when the customer reaches the checkout. The B2B Buy Now, Pay Later solution enables merchants to offer credit terms to their business customers instantly, and Hokodo arrange the financing so their sellers can get paid up front if they choose. The business is rapidly scaling across Western Europe, and recently raised $40 million in Series B investment to support the mission of enabling 1 million businesses to access a better way to pay by 2025. Hokodo works with over 30 large merchants, which include some of the leading European B2B marketplaces, with more than 30,000 buyers transacting on the platform.

Search Background

Korelya, an investor in Hokodo, approached Erevena to hire a representative who could take one of their seats on the Board, and who could help the business tackle commercial growth topics. The primary role of the Board Representative is to represent Korelya on the Hokodo Board, and effectively work with the Hokodo team to scale the company. Korelya wanted an operator with deep experience in the segment who could support the business on its scaling journey and work collaboratively with the team.

Requirements

There was a strong preference for candidates who brought C-Suite, ideally previous Board experience, good understanding of growth in a B2B2B context, and availability to spend time with the Leadership team for coaching and advice, alongside the typical Board meetings. The candidate profile was centered around those who had commercial and product backgrounds, and the search focused on those who had strong customer centricity.

Result

Erevena executed an extensive search, placing Jim Lofgren, who is a proven international CEO. Currently CEO at Nosto, Jim is a product led executive, and has always sat in the commercial side of an organisation. Notably at Klarna, he built out a sales and product team to solve for the difficulty the business was experiencing in signing global enterprise clients. He has an international mindset and is entrepreneurial, having seen some stellar growth journeys in relevant categories, and his experience spans across both B2B2B and B2B2C business models, in payments, BNPL and ecommerce. He has done global roles, as well as looking at expansion into new geographies, and brings strong regulatory understanding.