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How to be a CEO · Feb 19, 2024 · 18 min

Pockit’s Virraj Jatania: How he got through a crisis “out of our control”

On this episode of How to be a CEO we’re continuing our series looking at start-up success stories. Pockit is a London-based fintech, serving customers left behind by mainstream banks. It was launched in 2014, has more than 900 thousand customers, and last summer it raised ten million dollars in funding – but it hasn’t been all plain sailing. Its CEO Virraj Jatania spoke to the Evening Standard’s business editor, Jonathan Prynn about: How Virraj’s childhood growing up in a family business shaped his entrepreneurship Why seeing the struggles of people restricted from mainstream banking made him want to launch Pockit The chance meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson that led to him becoming an early investor How his role as CEO changed as the company scaled up What happened when a big funding round collapsed just as the pandemic arrived How the Wirecard scandal led to a crisis at Pockit The “two primary objectives” he has for the company’s future How to be a CEO drops every second Monday. Hit your follow button to make sure you don’t miss an episode. You can read more from Jonathan Prynn at standard.co.uk/business Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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transcript

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show notes

On this episode of How to be a CEO we’re continuing our series looking at start-up success stories.

Pockit is a London-based fintech, serving customers left behind by mainstream banks. It was launched in 2014, has more than 900 thousand customers, and last summer it raised ten million dollars in funding – but it hasn’t been all plain sailing.

Its CEO Virraj Jatania spoke to the Evening Standard’s business editor, Jonathan Prynn about:

  • How Virraj’s childhood growing up in a family business shaped his entrepreneurship
  • Why seeing the struggles of people restricted from mainstream banking made him want to launch Pockit
  • The chance meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson that led to him becoming an early investor
  • How his role as CEO changed as the company scaled up
  • What happened when a big funding round collapsed just as the pandemic arrived
  • How the Wirecard scandal led to a crisis at Pockit
  • The “two primary objectives” he has for the company’s future

How to be a CEO drops every second Monday. Hit your follow button to make sure you don’t miss an episode. You can read more from Jonathan Prynn at standard.co.uk/business


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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