Luno appoints new CEO as it gears up for possible listing

Luno has appointed its chief operating officer, James Lanigan, as its new CEO as it readies seeks new funding and eyes a stock market listing.

Lanigan will replace Marcus Swanepoel, who moves into the role of executive chairman, Luno said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company, which has its roots in South Africa but which is now headquartered in London, said Swanepoel, who co-founded the business and has been its CEO for the past 10 years, will work closely with Lanigan “to guide Luno’s vision and strategy while focusing on broadening Luno’s investor base to support its next stage of growth”.

“As part of this process, Luno has hired Canaccord Genuity Group to help bring on new institutional and strategic investors alongside Digital Currency Group (DCG) to fund scaling, support expansion, accelerate market share gain and prepare the company for an eventual public listing.”

Luno did not say on which financial market or markets it might seek to list.

In his five years at Luno, Lanigan has helped lead its operations, commercial activities, countries, product, marketing and customer success departments.

Luno is a wholly owned investment of the Barry Silbert-founded and -led DCG, which bought the company in 2020.

Read: Crypto exchange Luno to cut 35% of its workforce

In 2022, DCG subsidiary Genesis Trading found itself exposed to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, losing about US$175-million in the bankruptcy. Its Genesis Global Capital unit last November halted customer withdrawals after the business reportedly experienced a run on its deposits.

Read: Luno gets South Africa country manager

DCG also owns crypto news site CoinDesk and Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset management business, among other assets.  – © 2023 NewsCentral Media

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