Gagan Bhatia: GM EMEA, Curve

Previously

General Manager – EMEA, APAC & Canada
Co-Founder and CEO, Diaspora
Director, The Family

Company

Curve is a financial superapp which combines all a customer’s money into one – from debit and credit cards to accounts. Customers can spend from any account via one card, with one PIN, and seamlessly manage or move money within the Curve app across their accounts.

Background

Curve were in the market for a GM to lead their EMEA region who had seen hyper growth before in a multi geography technology business. Since their founding in 2015, culminating in a $95m Series C funding round in 2021 led by led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital, and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, Curve had raised a total of $169.3m in funding. After the latest raise, the business wanted to further expand internationally – launching the US market, building a new lending business (Curve Credit), and extend its reach in the European market.

Requirements

Curve were seeking an EMEA General Manager, to report to the CEO, to take responsibility for the growth and development of Curve in its home market, the UK, as well as the EMEA region. Working closely with Curve’s Leadership Team, the GM would develop a cross-functional and comprehensive UK and EMEA strategy, identifying and leading key strategic initiatives. The GM would identify new areas of strategic value to meet local market needs and would be accountable for the P&L for UK and EMEA. This would also involve driving changes in the product and operations to ensure successful adoption in the UK and EMEA, working with the Customer Experience and Product teams. Alongside this, the GM would be required to scale operations and work with the cross-functional team at London HQ, from Operations to Finance, FinCrime, Legal and Compliance, as well as local teams. Curve wanted the GM to build the team gradually by hiring the best people across designated business functions, create scalable business operations across an employee’s lifecycle, whilst aligning culture to ensure retention.

Result

We placed Gagan Bhatia into the role, a seasoned technology executive and Founder, who as a multi-functional General Manager could coalesce the team across EMEA, having run multiple regions for Uber previously. He has overseen numerous growth stories, and brings the ability to provide strategic input for Curve not just in the UK and EMEA region, but across the business.