Buy now pay later player Zip Co taps former Uber exec Steve Brennen as new chief customer officer

Steve Brennen joins Zip Co after three years with Uber, following stints at eBay, PayPal and Virgin Mobile.

News of the appointments at Zip Co sent shares in the company up 7 per cent to record highs. Picture: Supplied.

Buy now pay later player Zip Co has tapped a former Uber exec as its new chief customer officer as it builds its firepower to go global, sending shares to a record high on Friday.

Former Uber head of marketing for Asia Pacific, Steve Brennen will join the fintech, after Uber this week announced his departure from its local chief marketing officer role.

Mr Brennan joins after three years with Uber, following stints at eBay, PayPal and Virgin Mobile and alongside his role as chairman of a number of industry organisations.

Further bolstering its executive suite, Zip has also appointed former senior vice president of Moovweb Patrick Collins to a newly created role of chief product officer, with experience in Silicon Valley and in the launch of Fairfax Digital.

Shares jump

News of the appointments sent shares in the company up 7 per cent to record highs of $5.64 in Friday afternoon trade, closing up by 4.7 per cent to $5.53.

“It’s great to welcome both Steve and Patrick at such an exciting time for Zip as we transform from a local fintech to a global growth story,” Zip co-founder Larry Diamond said.

“We have ambitious plans ahead for both product and marketing, and for that we need seasoned, evangelical leaders who can co-found the next chapter in our book.”

Zip recently entered an agreement to acquire global instalment tech platform PartPay and is pushing its capabilities in small business lending through its acquisition of Spotcap - broadening its reach to NZ, UK, US and South Africa.

“I’m thrilled to join the talented and passionate team at such an exciting time - as the business scales in Australia and looks to global expansion,” Mr Brennen said.

Zip Co was recently added to the ASX300, after posting full year revenue of $84.2m, and total transaction volume of $1.13bn.

At its results announcement in September, the company said it was targeting 2.5 million customers with an active Zip account and $2.2bn in annualised transaction volumes for FY20.