Australian payment firm mx51 has hired Gilles Novel, a former executive at Mastercard, as its new Chief Product Officer (CPO). 

Novel has over 20 years of experience in the payments industry and was previously the vice president and head of acceptance at Mastercard. He has also held senior roles at Verifone, Optus, and Idemia (Morpho). 

"With this appointment, mx51 now boasts one of the most experienced teams in the payments sector in Australia," says Victor Zheng, CEO and Co-founder, mx51.

"We welcome Gilles to the team. His extensive experience across payments in the country will be crucial in delivering on our planned partnerships and also securing more of the local market, as well as expansion into other global markets." 

As CPO, Novel will be responsible for implementing mx51's product vision and strategy.

"It's exciting to join mx51 at such a significant stage of its growth. In such a short period of time, the company has gone from being a startup to a force within the Australian payments sector," says Novel.

"Given the calibre of payments industry talent within the company already, it's an honour to be appointed a leadership role within the company. I look forward to helping mx51 charge through the year ahead and reach a new level of growth."

Mx51 provides a payments-as-a-service platform for banks and acquirers, allowing them to keep up with rapidly evolving payments technology and consumer behaviour. 

For merchants, mx51 offers a single white-label merchant portal that integrates disparate payment technology solutions into a single, regularly updated platform. 

Since raising $32 million in 2022, mx51 is on track to double its growth across key customer and financial metrics. The appointment of Novel comes ahead of what is expected to be a year of partnerships and growth for the company.