Key Takeaways

  • Account-to-account (A2A) payment provider Dwolla announced on Wednesday the appointment of Daniel Quezada as its new Chief Financial Officer. Quezada previously held senior finance roles at retail giant Walmart and fast-food chain Burger King's parent company, and most recently served as head of finance at software company 8base, where he drove the scaling of finance and operations functions.
  • Dwolla CEO Dave Glaser said Quezada's experience will help the company grow. "His experience in financial strategy and operations will be a tremendous asset as we scale," Glaser said in the announcement.
  • In response to an emailed question about how he can help Dwolla compete in the market, Quezada said that as a smaller player in the market, a multi-dimensional strategic approach is needed. He will ensure the company directs financial resources toward innovation and platform optimization, including "investing in technology to differentiate, focusing on niche markets, and strengthening existing partnerships with industry giants like Visa, Mastercard, and Plaid. This collaborative approach allows us to leverage their mature networks and expertise to complement our own strengths."

Deep Dive

The appointment comes less than two years after Dwolla hired fintech and payments veteran Lawrence Herman as its head of finance. CFO Dive previously reported that the Des Moines, Iowa-based company hired Herman as CFO in 2024.

According to his LinkedIn profile, after serving as CFO at Dwolla for one year, Herman has served as head of finance at Cents, a management system company for laundromats and dry cleaners, since September 2024. During the transition period before Quezada's arrival, Dwolla's existing senior management "assumed CFO responsibilities to ensure continuity and stability while we conducted a comprehensive search for the right person to lead our financial strategy," according to an emailed statement describing the transition period received by CFO Dive.

Dwolla's new finance chief takes office amid intensifying competition in the A2A payments space, with rivals often being industry giants. Earlier this year, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said the largest U.S. card network still plans to launch its A2A service in the U.K. this year, before rolling it out to the rest of Europe and beyond. CFO Dive's sister publication Payments Dive reported on this.

The service, also known as "pay-by-bank," has gained popularity because merchants can avoid card interchange fees. Despite concerns about the "irreversibility" of bank-to-bank transfers and fraud risks, according to the latest research from market research and consulting firm Juniper Research, global A2A transaction value is expected to grow from $1.7 trillion in 2024 to $5.7 trillion by 2029, an increase of 230%, driven by anti-fraud solutions that have boosted consumer trust.

Quezada revealed that Dwolla processed $67 billion in transactions in 2024, serving more than 20 million users, up from $50 billion in 2023. The platform supports a large number of individual consumer users but focuses on facilitating B2B money movement.

Quezada, 53, worked at Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas, for five years, with his tenure ending in 2018; subsequently, he concluded another stint at Walmart in April 2022, serving as director of corporate financial planning and analysis and cost transformation for over a year. According to his profile, during this period he drove "tens of millions" of dollars in selling, general, and administrative expense reductions. At Dwolla, he said he will also evaluate spending to ensure investments are "efficient and contribute to long-term value creation."