Exclusive: Figure hires former Flow, Blockchain.com exec
Figure CFO Macrina Kgil/Courtesy of Figure
Figure Technology Solutions, the home equity lending startup, has hired former Blockchain.com and Flow finance executive Macrina Kgil, the company tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: This comes as a wave of startups prepare to go public in the next two years, with Figure also on the watchlist after filing confidentially in August.
Background: Kgil was most recently at Andreessen Horowitz-backed Flow, the real estate startup founded by former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann that has netted $350 million in funding.
- She led finance for Blockchain.com from late 2018 to 2022.
- Taking a company public is also not new to her; Kgil was CFO of consumer lending business SpringLeaf, now known as OneMain Holdings (NYSE: OMF), when it went public in 2013, selling some $358 million worth of shares at the time.
- Kgil says she joined Figure, which uses blockchain in its technology, out of a desire to be back in that and the consumer finance space.
Context: The hiring is just the latest shift at Figure, which has undergone major changes in the last two years.
- Last valued at $3.2 billion, Figure launched a SPAC in 2021, but the vehicle was delisted roughly a year later. A series of senior level exits followed, including then CFO Sean Sievers and President Asiff Hirji.
- In March, the company spun off its lending division under the umbrella of Figure Technology Solutions — separating from the digital asset division that is still led by Mike Cagney.
- In April, Figure named former Brex COO Michael Tannenbaum as its CEO, and a month after that Nicole Beaulieu was promoted from VP of engineering to CTO. (Former CTO Matt Conroy moved to Figure Markets.)
- In August, Ronald Chillemi joined as its chief legal officer.
By the numbers: Figure Technologies says it expects to close out 2024 with 80% growth in revenue, and EBITDA up 150%. The company is profitable on a net income and EBITDA basis, and it recently surpassed $1.5 billion quarterly originations.
- The company has not released hard financials, but its lending business hit $900 million in origination in the second quarter of 2023, and posted $2.7 million in adjusted profit, according to Bloomberg.
- It also posted $83.5 million in revenue for the first half of 2023.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Macrina Kgil was a finance executive at Flow (not its CFO).
