Afterpay founding executives join Ovanti to guide staged BNPL relaunch
Ovanti (ASX: OVT) has appointed two founding Afterpay executives, William “Billy” Parry and Derrick Ongchin, to its Advisory Board effective 20 July 2026 to guide the staged relaunch of its Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) businesses IOUPAY and myIOU.
The initial focus is Malaysia and the broader Asian market, with a subsequent rollout planned for the US and integration into Ovanti’s wider fintech and SuperApp strategy. Both executives helped build Afterpay through its defining international growth phase, a business subsequently acquired by Block, Inc for approximately US$29 billion (A$39 billion).
The broader SuperApp strategy took shape in March 2026 when Ovanti retired the Flote brand and announced a pivot toward a multi-service global financial platform modelled on Revolut, targeting US, Asian and European markets with payments, digital banking and additional financial services in a single application.
The appointments bring marquee fintech talent to a sector Ovanti, then operating as IOUpay Limited, previously ran in Southeast Asia before discontinuing the service in 2023.
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The appointments: who Parry and Ongchin are
Parry and Ongchin operated on different but interdependent sides of Afterpay’s scale-up. Parry led merchant acquisition and commercial execution, while Ongchin focused on product, credit, risk, identity and regulatory capability. They join as Strategic Board Advisers, not as Board Directors.
Billy Parry, commercial and merchant acquisition
Parry joined Afterpay in September 2016 as one of its earliest commercial employees, at a time when the organisation had fewer than 20 employees. He served as Head of Sales, SMB, Australia and New Zealand, helping build the company’s small-business merchant acquisition capability.
In August 2018, shortly after Afterpay’s US launch, he joined the early North American commercial team as Head of Sales, SMB & Mid-Market, leading merchant sales across a market significantly larger than Australia and New Zealand.
Derrick Ongchin, product, risk and identity
Ongchin joined Afterpay in July 2018 as its first United States product hire, going on to lead product work across credit, risk, identity, merchant onboarding and regulatory requirements in North America. Following Block’s acquisition, he continued in product leadership at Block, including risk product.
Before Afterpay, he held senior product roles at Uber and Google, working on risk, identity, trust and safety systems. He is a named inventor on an active United States patent assigned to Uber relating to object verification. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, a Master of Science from the MIT School of Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.
Chairman & Global CEO Commentary
“Ovanti has real operating history in Malaysian BNPL and was market leader and innovator in the Southeast Asian region at the time in 2020-2022. The former platform generated transactions, revenue, merchant distribution and tens of thousands of activated consumer accounts. This re-launch will apply those lessons with stronger governance, responsible risk management and firm performance gates. Billy and Derrick bring complementary expertise from Afterpay’s defining growth phase. As one of Afterpay’s first 20 employees, Billy helped build merchant sales in Australia, New Zealand and North America; Derrick was Afterpay’s first United States product hire across credit, risk, identity and regulation. Together with Ovanti’s regional infrastructure, they give us a credible, execution-led pathway back into Asian consumer payments,” said Daler Fayziev, Chairman of the Board and Global Chief Executive Officer of Ovanti Ltd.
Together, the two advisers provide coverage across the full BNPL operating model:
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Customer proposition and merchant acquisition
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Onboarding and credit decisioning
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Identity, fraud and payments
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Regulation, data and scale
What is BNPL and why the sector matters now
According to the announcement, the BNPL space has since emerged as a growing, increasingly profitable fintech segment. US transaction volumes have grown at approximately 20% annually since 2021 to an estimated US$70 billion in 2025.
Asia-Pacific is forecast to be the world’s largest and fastest-growing BNPL market, projected to reach US$259 billion in 2026 and expand to more than US$450 billion by 2031, driven by rising e-commerce adoption, digital wallets and super-app ecosystems across China, India and Southeast Asia.
Ovanti’s Southeast Asian operating history
The relaunch represents a return to a live business Ovanti previously ran. The former IOUpay business launched myIOU in Malaysia on 15 June 2021, during highly restrictive COVID-19 movement-control conditions, and built measurable commercial traction before the service was narrowed and discontinued.
| Metric | H1 (to 31 Dec 2021) | FY22 (to 30 Jun 2022) | To 31 Dec 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Transaction Value | A$12.65m | A$29.09m | — |
| Net Transaction Revenue | A$1.10m | A$1.99m | — |
| Income margin | 8.7% | 6.8% | — |
| Activated consumer accounts | — | 33,871 | 58,198 |
| System-active outlets | — | 2,390 | 2,984 |
In September 2022, IOUpay announced a marketing collaboration with Bank Simpanan Nasional, a Government of Malaysia-owned bank with more than 6.5 million cardmembers and approximately 390 branches, to promote myIOU across the parties’ networks.
Ovanti has been transparent that the former myIOU service was narrowed in March 2023 and subsequently discontinued after the newly appointed Board determined its scale and income were insufficient to sustain the then balance-sheet-funded operating model. The company states that these historical results do not constitute a forecast.
The relaunch strategy: applying lessons with discipline
The relaunch is not intended to recreate the former business unchanged. Ovanti plans to apply the operating lessons from that period within a more modern product, governance and risk framework aligned with its current technology platform.
The company intends to leverage the institutional technology capabilities of its wholly owned operating businesses, including iSentric and Datamorph, which have longstanding experience in mobile banking, authentication, digital payments and API connectivity across Asia.
Malaysia is planned to be the initial focus market, with expansion into selected Asian jurisdictions to be considered as product, licensing, funding, credit, regulatory and distribution milestones are achieved. Final product configuration, consumer terms, branding, launch timing and the funding model remain subject to detailed design and Board approval.
Parry and Ongchin will work with the Board and management on a disciplined execution framework covering:
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Product and customer proposition (a transparent, mobile-first instalment product)
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Credit, fraud and identity architecture
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Merchant distribution and go-to-market
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Payments and operating infrastructure
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Regulatory and governance readiness
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Controlled pilot with performance gates before scale
The investment case
The appointments represent a significant endorsement of Ovanti’s relaunch strategy from executives who helped build one of the most successful BNPL businesses globally. Combined with the company’s existing regional infrastructure through iSentric and Datamorph, this provides what the Board describes as a differentiated foundation compared with a cold start.
Historical market recognition offers context. In February 2021, the company secured a A$50 million placement within 48 hours, priced at A$0.50 per share. On 15 February 2021, its shares traded to an intraday high of A$0.85, implying a market capitalisation of approximately A$384 million at that time.
The Board acknowledges that market conditions and valuations have changed materially since that period. The present objective is to rebuild operating relevance through measurable performance, disciplined execution and sustainable unit economics, positioning the company on an execution-led pathway back into Asian consumer payments.
For investors exploring the capital markets dimension of the company’s strategy, our detailed coverage of Ovanti’s NASDAQ listing ambitions walks through the Miluna SPAC termination, the US$300 million-plus valuation target, and the execution risks that accompany a micro-cap fintech pursuing a major US exchange listing.
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