OnBuy Appoints James Watts as CFO – Getting Ready for Significant Expansion

UK-based marketplace OnBuy.com announced it has appointed James Watts as its Chief Financial Officer which fills another important executive-level position as the company appears to be embarking on new funding rounds.

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James Watts joins OnBuy.com with 12 years of experience from roles at Deloitte, WPP Group and most recently, Richmond Group. With his experience across a variety of sectors including technology and digital media in both emerging and developed markets across 25 countries, Watts brings the expertise to help OnBuy.com manage growth domestically and internationally.

“I’m looking forward to welcoming James to the team. His experience in managing multi-million-pound assets, driving efficiencies, and building and leading financial teams will be invaluable to OnBuy. With our growth showing no signs of slowing as we continually achieve over 600% year on year growth, James will be fundamental in OnBuy’s worldwide scale-up over the next three years.”

Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnBuy

In previous roles, OnBuy.com says Watts built a new finance function from scratch to allow for rapid international growth, delivered multi-million-pound cost savings and led financial and commercial due diligence on funding rounds. All of these experiences will be valuable to OnBuy.com’s success as it executes its growth plans.

“I’m pleased to be joining OnBuy at such a critical moment for its success. With new investment just around the corner and its global expansion well underway, the next few years will be exciting and challenging for the marketplace and I’m looking forward to being a part of the journey.”

“Having grown up in the county, working with a Dorset-based business that has huge global opportunity is a definite bonus. Dorset is home to a number of exceptional businesses, and I believe that OnBuy has the ability to put the county on the map worldwide.”

James Watts, CFO of OnBuy

OnBuy.com Preparing for Significant Growth

Watts is the second major executive hire by OnBuy.com in recent weeks. He joins the company after it hired ex-eBay director Mark Lister to fill the role of Chief Commercial Officer, another significant role for its expansion plans.

According to Crunchbase, OnBuy.com has raised £9.3 million ($12.8M) in funding to date. However, to power its growth strategy, it seems it will need to raise more money.

The addition of a CFO experienced to manage this undertaking along with other C-Level hires is a sign OnBuy.com has reached a critical moment in its business life to fulfill the vision of OnBuy.com founder and CEO Cas Paton.

In a recent interview, Cas Paton said that among other growth opportunities, OnBuy.com is focused on expanding into the U.S. and Canada this year. The company also plans to release an IOS and Android app in 2021, further placing the emerging marketplace on par with others.

Juggling the continued growth of its domestic UK operations while also seeking international expansion will be a challenge. It appears Paton is surrounding himself with executives that can help him manage the opportunities to expand his seller- and buyer-friendly marketplace in the UK and beyond.

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