• Fast-growing payment startup Checkout.com has a new CISO in the form of Adrian Asher.
• The former Skype and JPMorgan employee is the payment startup’s third key executive hire this year.
• The $15 billion fintech is beefing up its security team as threat sophistication increases.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Payment company Checkout.com is beefing up its C-suite with a former Skype and JPMorgan security lead, as the $15 billion company looks to US expansion and an eventual listing.

Adrian Asher joins the $15 billion valued payments company as chief information security officer, having held similar positions at the London Stock Exchange Group, HSBC, and Barclays Capital, alongside a position at venture capital fund Accel Partners as an advisor.

Founded by college dropout Guillaume Pousaz in 2012, Checkout.com powers the payments process of major companies like public food delivery Deliveroo, fintech giant TransferWise, and Adidas.

The startup is one of Europe’s most valuable private companies, having raised $450 million at a $15 billion valuation in January, and draws comparisons to Stripe, currently the most highly valued US startup. 

Earlier this year, Checkout.com made two other big hires in the form of Ott Kaukver as chief technology officer and Nick Worswick as chief revenue officer. Kaukver was previously CTO at Twilio and led engineering at Skype, where he worked alongside new hire Asher.

“The opportunity at Checkout is massive and very similar to Skype in terms of growth and the need to work closely with customers which brings challenges from a security and tech perspective,” Asher said, adding that it was “enticing” work alongside his former colleague.

Enhancing the startup’s existing security staff is a key part of Asher’s role and comes at a time of increasing spend on cloud security by businesses globally. Information security spending and cloud security spending are both set to significantly increase in the coming years, according to Gartner.

“The threat landscape is ever evolving as new technology brings more opportunities for attacks and lowers barriers to entry for hackers,” Asher said.

CEO Pousaz has previously indicated without a timeline that Checkout.com’s long-term goal is to list, and that if he listed anywhere it would be the US.