Financial services democratization company LenddoEFL (a merger of Entrepreneurial Finance Lab and Lenddo) appointed Paolo Montessori as CEO this week. Montessori, who has served as Lenddo’s Chief Operating Officer since 2015, is taking over the role from Richard Eldridge, Lenddo co-founder.

Prior to his work at Lenddo, Montessori was CEO of mobile financial services software developer eServGlobal. In all, he has more than 20 years of multinational experience in financial services, IT, and telecom.

“Paolo has been working closely with me over the last 4 years as COO and has demonstrated all the qualities the organization needs to grow in 2019 and beyond. With his experience in the fintech sector in emerging markets, as a previous CEO of a listed company and his intimate knowledge of LenddoEFL, I am confident that Paolo will take the company to the next level”, said Richard Eldridge, who is staying with the company in a non-executive capacity.

LenddoEFL was formed in 2017 as the result of a merger between psychometric credit scoring company Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL) and alternative credit scoring company Lenddo. EFL showcased its credit scoring tool at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore.

Through its efforts to make financial products available to 1 billion people across the globe, LenddoEFL has provided credit scoring and verification to 50+ financial institutions, helping them lend in excess of $2.5 billion to 8+ million people.