Technology & Innovation Roundup: Pipe names new CEO after founders step down; Appgate lays off 34 employees

Pipe has named a new chief executive to succeed co-founders Harry Hurst and Josh Mangel, who resigned from their co-CEO roles last year.

Fintech veteran Luke Voiles will become CEO and join Pipe’s board of directors on Feb. 20.

Voiles is currently the general manager of Square Banking at Block Inc. (formerly known as Square), the tech conglomerate co-founded by Jack Dorsey. Before that, he spent five years at Intuit, where he led the team building out the company’s small business lending unit.

“Embedded financial services are disrupting the status quo, and Pipe has the opportunity to demonstrate to the world what the future of capital access looks like,” Voiles said.

The Miami startup also appointed Albert Periu, CEO of Zilch USA, to its board.

Launched in 2020, Pipe is a revenue trading platform for businesses. While companies usually sell equity or take on debt to fund their growth, Pipe allows them to sell revenue flows. The idea is to treat recurring revenue streams as an asset and trade future recurring revenue for upfront capital.

More than 23,000 companies with $7 billion in annual recurring revenue are now connected to the platform, Pipe reports.

Co-founders Hurst, Mangel and Zain Allarkhia all resigned from their executive positions in November. It was a surprising move for Pipe, which reached a $2 billion valuation in 2021 after completing a $250 million equity round.

Mangel, who still serves as executive chairman of the company, said Voiles’ experience at Square and Intuit will be an asset for the fintech as it scales.

“He is a true builder and an entrepreneur at heart, and with his leadership experience, he will take Pipe into our most exciting phase of growth,” Mangel said.