$4.7 billion European fintech firm Pleo appoints new CFO, pointing to IPO hopes

cnbc.com:

Danish fintech firm Pleo has appointed a new chief financial officer, the company told CNBC exclusively, beefing up its executive team — a sign the company is readying itself for an eventual initial public offering.

The company hired Soren Westh Lonning, a financial services executive with more than 20 years at companies such as Danish bioscience firm Chr Hansen, hearing aid company WS Audiology, and Danish Endurance, a sports and outdoor clothing startup.

Most notably, Lonning had experience as CFO at Danish food enzyme maker Chr Hansen. Chr Hansen, which is listed on the Danish stock exchange, is one of Denmark's most valuable publicly listed firms, with a market cap of more than $10 billion.

The European Union recently approved a $22 billion merger between Chr Hansen and competitor Novozymes.

Lonning told CNBC his biggest priorities for the firm when taking over as CFO will be pushing the company toward profitability and maturity; assessing how to continue growing the business despite the difficult macroeconomic environment; and pushing for the sound use of data to make better decisions as a business.

«There's many companies similar to Pleo who are going through… balancing growth and efficiency or profitability in the environment that we operating in right now,» Lonning said.

«Obviously, we want to continue to to grow and grow fast, but the environment also changed. That's a dilemma for companies, but even more so for the lifestyle of Pleo and tech companies.»

«So I think I can contribute in that direction, making sure we get as good as possible resource allocation across the company in terms of, you know, finding, finding the pockets where we get most bang for the buck in investing.»

While Pleo says it is not in a