Luca Merolla replaces Phil Adler as CEO of Oval Money / OvalX
Fintech company Oval Money is continuing to reshape its management team, appointing Luca Merolla as CEO.
Luca Merolla takes the helm for the brand’s two products. Oval is a clever app to save and invest money automatically, and OvalX (formerly ETX Capital) is a trading platform to access shares, currencies, stock indices, commodities and other financial markets.
Former CEO Philip Adler is stepping down from the position to pursue the role of Chief Business Development Officer within the company.
Luca Merolla is Managing Partner of Swiss fintech investment firm Guru Capital SA, which acquired control of ETX Capital in late 2020, later acquiring Italy-based Oval and then rebranding the combined businesses under the Oval brand. He was previously a Vice Director at Swissquote, leading the Forex division for the development of all the Forex projects and products at Swissquote.
Luca Merolla said:
“I’m excited to take this new position and I’m looking forward to a bright future, which will continue to be our major focus on investment in Oval Money’s technology, infrastructure and brand.”
The announcement comes as Oval Money’s UK entity Monecor London Ltd (representing the OvalX / ETX Capital CFDs brokerage business) presents its 2021 figures which show a total revenue of £24.2 million, down by 24% from £31.8 million for the prior year. The company said that results are driven by the company migrating its European business operation and clients to a European group entity as part of the Brexit group strategy.
Mr. Merolla added:
“In 2021, Oval Money increased its workforce by 30 percent as it sought to bolster the company’s technology, compliance, and risk departments.
Now, with full support from our shareholders, who have invested significant capital to drive the business’s strategic initiative, we can push through this continued phase of growth and development with the aim of transforming into a more diverse financial services company.”
Phil Adler noted:
“I have been very proud to lead our teams through ownership changes and the rebranding to OvalX. I am now incredibly excited to grow our existing business lines and to develop new revenue opportunities.”
With greater market expertise and a growing team of more than 250 people based in the UK, Italy and Cyprus, Oval Money said that it has built a solid foundation to realise its goal of becoming a standard of excellence across the UK and Europe.
OvalX has made a number of other Board and management changes in recent months, adding risk expert Maria Turner to its Board while former CEO John Wilson stepped off the Board. The company hired former IG executive Lawrence Jones and Amazon alum Elena Giardino to its marketing team.
Oval is currently available in Italy and will launch soon in the UK. OvalX is available in the UK and EU.