Toronto, Ontario, March 25, 2021 – Payfare Inc. (“Payfare” or the “Company”) (TSX:PAY) a financial technology company powering digital banking and instant payout solutions for the global gig economy wishes to welcome its new directors to the Payfare board (the “Board”). 

On March 8, 2021 the Company held an Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders and at that time elected and ratified the composition of its Board.  Payfare would like to take this opportunity to welcome the following new directors, and to thank its incumbent directors on their re-election.

The new directors are as follows:

• Kelly Graziadei brings 20 years of leadership experience in tech companies including AltaVista, Yahoo and Facebook. Ms. Graziadei joined Facebook in 2010 and built and led its Mid-Market Sales & Account Management team in North America growing it to $1 billion in revenue and 150 people nationwide in a few short years. Later during her tenure at Facebook, she led Monetization Product Marketing for the Direct Response Ads & Commerce business globally, focused on inbound product strategy and global go-to market, growing the business to $15 billion.  After Facebook, she became an Entrepreneur in Residence at Foundation Capital and Angel Investor. In 2018, Ms. Graziadei became a founding partner of f7 Ventures. She has made over 20 investments in pre-seed & seed stage companies. Ms. Graziadei holds or has held board positions with Pacific Community Ventures, the University of Colorado and Flockjay. She is a certified coach and has served as a mentor for First Round Capital and Sequoia Capital.


• Matt Swann is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Booking.com. Mr. Swann leads Booking.com’s full stack technology strategy to support the company’s continued growth as a global technology leader in travel and experiences, working to create a seamless end-to-end experience for travelers. Mr. Swann joined Booking.com from event and ticketing marketplace StubHub, where he also served as CTO, leading the company’s technology strategy to drive growth and innovation for the business. Mr. Swann previously served as Chief Information Officer at Citibank, where he set the technical vision and strategy for one of the world’s largest financial institutions, as well as Vice President and Global Payments Chief at Amazon, where he and his teams delivered a mobile commerce system that enabled hundreds of millions of customers to buy and sell on the platform. Mr. Swann holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University and recently relocated to Amsterdam.


• Dmitry Shevelenko is currently the Co-Founder & President of Tortoise. He previously was Director of Business Development at Uber where he led Driver Partnerships and the company’s expansion into new mobility, including the JUMP acquisition and Uber Transit. He was also an adviser to various mobility and future of work startups: Skip, SpotHero, Cargo, Superpedestrian, Remix, and Codi. Earlier in his career, Mr. Shevelenko was a product and operations leader at Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pulse News during their growth years. He is a graduate of Columbia University and lives in San Francisco.

Re-elected to the board were Paul Haber, independent director, Keith McKenzie, Co-Founder, and Marco Margiotta, CEO. Upon reconstituting the Board, the directors appointed Mr. Margiotta to serve as Chairperson of the Board.

The Company thanks each of the new and incumbent directors for their support of Payfare. Further information on each new and incumbent director can also be found in Payfare’s final prospectus dated March 15, 2021 which may be found under Payfare’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

“We are pleased to welcome Kelly, Matt and Dmitry to Payfare’s board of directors. Their depth of knowledge and experience in helping grow some of the world’s most innovative and leading technology companies lays a strong foundation for Payfare’s continued expansion,” said Marco Margiotta, CEO & Chairman of Payfare.  “With the completion of our IPO, the addition of these global leaders with a proven track-record to our board brings new expertise we can leverage to scale and deliver value to our clients, cardholders and shareholders.” 

“To be joining the Board at this momentous time in Payfare’s history is exciting,” said Kelly Graziadei.  “I’ve witnessed first-hand the power of technology, combined with intelligent leadership, to propel humanity forward.  It’s an honor to bring my experience to the Payfare team as they advance their mission of driving financial inclusion by providing instant access to earnings for gig workers.”

No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale or any acceptance of an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Forward-Looking Information
This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflects Payfare’s current expectations regarding future events. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Payfare’s control, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks include the factors discussed under “Risk Factors” in Payfare’s final prospectus dated March 15, 2021. Payfare does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.