our story
Management
Achim Bönsch
Managing Director & Founder
Achim Bönsch is responsible for the international expansion, our retail partnerships as well as the HR department.
Sebastian Seifert
Managing Director & Founder
Sebastian Seifert is in charge of the divisions Sales, PR/Marketing and business development. Furthermore, he is taking
care of investor relations.
Andreas Veller
Managing Director
Andreas Veller is accountable for the finance, operations, product and legal department as well as for the IT. He is the
former founder of Shopwings and worked as a consultant in the banking sphere. At McKinsey he managed the IT
restructuration of a retail bank and a post merger integration in the banking sector.
Junichi Takemura
Managing Director
Junichi Takemura assumes responsibility as a connector between viafintech and the Group. Previously he worked for
Glory Ltd., the leading company for cash management solutions, for over 17 years, particularly in the field of long-term
strategic projects. With his knowledge he will support viafintech to grow and expand to new markets.
TEAM
Behind great leaders is a great team
Internationalisation
Pedro Borges
VP Iberia, Latin America & France
Pedro leads the viafintech business in Iberia, Latin America and France. Before joining the team, he worked in Finance at Procter
& Gamble for 6 years, bringing combined knowledge of the finance and the retail sectors together with a sharp focus on
consumer needs. He holds an Economics Degree from the University of Porto and a Master in Finance & Strategy from
WHU.
Flavio De Laurentis
VP Southern Europe & General Manager Italy
Flavio takes care of the Southern European Market and is responsible for the development of the network of merchants and
retailers in Italy. He holds an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School. Before
joining viafintech, he worked for McKinsey and Company in Milan in Banking and High Tech Industry.
Lena Holderegger
General Manager Switzerland
Lena takes care of further expanding our network in Switzerland and works mainly from Zurich. She has many years of
experience as an in-house consultant and in the area of strategic digitalization at Credit Suisse. Lena has a master’s
degree in economics and business administration from the University of Zurich.
Sergio Kvaternik
General Manager Spain
Sergio is in charge of viafintech in Spain. He has developed his career in corporate finance for banks and private equity
funds, at PwC Deals; as well as growing startups as Head of Business Development and International Expansion at Billin.
He holds two degrees in Law and Business Administration, with experiences at the University of Toronto in Canada, and at
Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany.
Antonios Peppas
General Manager Greece
Antonios will bring the viafintech network to Greece. He graduated from the University of Bonn and holds a master’s
Degree from WHU Business School. Before working at viafintech, Antonios worked as a Management Consultant at KPMG for
the Healthcare sector.
Filip Surowiak
General Manager UK
Filip is leading viafintech’s expansion into the UK market. He has a track record of setting strategy and bringing new
financial products to the market. He managed and grew the online and retail business at Travelex and then International
Currency Exchange. Filip is also co-founder of Crozdesk, a SaaS marketplace, and holds a business degree from Warwick
Business School.
Anna Szczygielska
General Manager Poland
Anna’s main task is to introduce viafintech to the Polish market. She joined the company in 2019 after having spent 10+
years working for the top consulting companies, such as EY, Accenture and PwC. Anna managed multiple projects worldwide.
She is an ACCA Member and holds a master’s degree in Economics.
Sales
Janusz Buttgereit
Director Insurances, Telco, Housing
Janusz is in charge of insurance, telecommunications and housing customers. The payment specialist has many years of work
experience. Before joining viafintech he worked for Sofort AG, Paysafecard and Clickandbuy.
Lea Cys
Senior Banking Manager
Lea is responsible for our cooperation partners in the banking sector. She has several years of experience in the
financial sector as a management consultant at Accenture, especially in process digitalization, and is a certified
banker.
Madleen Naethler
Senior Key Account Manager E-Commerce and Payment Collection
As Senior Key Account Manager Madleen covers all ecommerce and debt collection accounts. She holds a degree in business
economics and has several years of experience in consulting working for Creditsafe and tecis financial services.
Florian Oberle
Senior Director Sales & Business Development
Florian is responsible for our strategic projects, the banking division and the management of the German sales team. He
gained experience in the financial services industry during his studies at the London School of Economics & Political
Science. Florian formerly worked as a consultant in the banking division of Simon-Kucher & Partners.
Weina Wang
Senior Director Retail
Weina is responsible for the stationary partners of viafintech, in particular for the further development of the network
in Europe. The versatile project manager previously worked in management consulting at Accenture and at Volkswagen in
China for several years.
Frank Weinmann
SVP Utilities and Public Sector
The former chairman of the management board of Energie SaarLorLux AG heads the Utilities and Public Sector of viafintech
and has statutory authority. Frank brings in several years of experience in business development, change management and
consultancy in the energy sector.
Operations
Michael Bernstein
Director Finance & Accounting
Michael is responsible for Finance and Accounting. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business administration from HWR
Berlin. Prior to viafintech Michael worked for several finance departments such as financial accounting, accounts
payable and treasury in different industries.
Ulrike Czekay
Director PR & Marketing
Ulrike deals with all corporate communication topics at viafintech. After her studies of media, music and cultural
sciences at HU Berlin she gained longstanding experience as a PR consultant in a PR and Lobbying agency and worked for
several Start-ups.
Mareike Gnadt
VP Human Resources
Mareike is responsible for HR and Recruiting and is primarily responsible for the strategic direction of the department.
She not only has several years of experience in managing HR departments but also has experience in building HR
departments in the Berlin start-up world.
Thomas Lewicki, LL.M.
Director Legal & Data Protection Officer
Thomas is leading the legal department at viafintech. After studying law (specialized in International Corporate Law),
Thomas worked as a Legal Counsel at BIOTRONIK. He also gained experience at ISiCO data protection where he worked as a
data protection officer for several fintech companies.
Julia Martens
Director Operations & Risk
Julia is responsible for building the Operations & Risk department as central head quarter function. Prior to joining viafintech as compliance manager to build new processes, strengthen organisational structures and ensure regulatory compliance of the product, she gained 3 years of experience in the audit and regulatory advisory in banking and financial services at Deloitte.
Constanze Meyer
Director Product
Constanze heads the product department at viafintech. She gathered experience in several Berlin start-ups and digital consulting. During her studies at Humboldt University, she specialised in entrepreneurship and information systems. Constanze is also a apprenticed banker.
Tobias Schoknecht
Senior Director Software Engineering
Tobias is leading the Software Engineering department at viafintech. He holds a Masters degree in Practical Computer Science. Over the years at viafintech he has shaped the direction of the Software Engineering department and the system architecture.
Martin Seener
Senior Director System Administration
Martin leads the system administration department and is responsible for the data centre and the in-house environment. He has been working for viafintech for 10 years and previously worked as a system administrator for netzXperts and Dualis Search Solution and managed various system environments there.
Philipp Wiegel
VP Technology & CTO
Philipp heads the technology departments of viafintech – including Software Engineering, System Administration, Product and Solutions.
Philipp’s background is in software development. He was a product
manager in numerous companies and gained several years of experience as an entrepreneur.
Advisory Board
Dr. Uwe Franke
Dr. Uwe Franke was executive chairman of BP Deutschland AG and BP Europa SE from 1999 to 2012. He is president of the
World Energy Council Germany since 2014. Dr. Franke has an extensive network in the energy sector and shall support Cash
Payment Solutions GmbH at further development in this sector.
Michael Müller
Michael Müller is the founder of paysafecard, a safe prepayment method that made online cash payments possible for the
first time. With Michael Müller as the CEO, the paysafecard grew to a globally leading financial service company.
Paysafecard has been acquired in 2013 for 140 million euros by the Skrill Group.
Bernd M. Fieseler
Bernd M. Fieseler was managing director of the Deutsche Sparkassen- and Giroverband from 2001 to 2011. The former
McKinsey consultant, bank manager and member of the board of directors of many payment companies shaped the payment and
transactions sector in Germany and Europe for over a decade.
Investors
GLORY Ltd.
GLORY LTD., headquartered in Himeji, Japan, is a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of cash handling machines
and systems. GLORY provides a variety of products such as cash handling machines, cash management systems, vending
machines, automatic service equipment, and cash management solutions that are built on its leading-edge
recognition/identification and mechatronics technology. Committed to meet society’s wide-ranging needs, GLORY serves the
financial, retail, vending machine, amusement and gaming industries in over 100 countries around the world. GLORY
employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide. For more information about GLORY, please visit GLORY’s group website at corporate.glory-global.com
GRENKE BANK AG
GRENKE BANK AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of GRENKE AG since 2009 and a member of the GRENKE Group. The GRENKE Group is
a broadly diversified provider of IT-based services in Small-Ticket-IT-Leasing, Factoring and Banking for small and
medium-sized companies. In addition, the GRENKE Bank offers its traditional online services also to private customers.
The GRENKE Group is independent of vendors and banks and holds a leading market position in Europe in the field of
small-ticket IT leasing for products such as PCs, notebooks, copiers, printers or software of relatively low asset
value. The GRENKE Group operates in 32 countries and employs more than 1700 staff.