Matthias Leyendecker

Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder
Karlsruhe, Germany mlyndckr@gmail.com matthiasleyendecker.com LinkedIn

Executive Summary

Product and technology leader who builds platforms from scratch and transforms existing ones at scale. 15+ years across start-up, corporate, and investor-backed environments in US, UK, and EU markets. From enterprise sales through product leadership to co-founding a fintech company. Equally comfortable defining long-term platform architecture and closing enterprise deals. Deep domain expertise in payments, lending, BNPL, and fraud prevention.

Core Competencies

Professional Experience

Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder — Payla

2021-09 – present
Karlsruhe · Remote

Co-founded a B2B fintech company from zero to servicing enterprise clients across Europe.

  • Built a white-label BNPL platform, reaching market feature parity in 14 months with MVP live within 5
  • Achieved 2.4x average annual revenue growth, scaling with a fully distributed team across 12 European countries
  • Drove fundraising as product and technology co-founder, shaping the product narrative that secured investment rounds
  • Scaled cross-functional product, design, and engineering teams, introducing agile processes and maintaining 99.9% platform uptime
  • Deployed AI across operations: RAG-powered knowledge management and ML-based anomaly detection for fraud prevention
  • Secured key enterprise clients (Rossmann, Stripe, Payone) and enabled partner-led go-to-market strategies
  • Maintained enterprise customization ratio of < 5%, balancing scalability with client-specific needs
  • Led successful SOC 2 (Type I/II) and ISAE3402 (Type I/II) certifications

Group Product Manager — Unzer

2020-10 – 2021-08
Heidelberg · Hybrid

Acquired as part of Paysafe's BNPL division by Unzer, retained to lead product across both the legacy and acquired platforms through post-merger integration.

  • Owned product strategy for both BNPL platforms post-acquisition, serving as the bridge between the acquired team and the existing organization
  • Led platform consolidation, migrating clients to the leading platform within 12 months and delivering significant cost savings
  • Defined and launched a unified BNPL product portfolio for enterprise and SME clients under the Unzer brand

Head of Product — Paysafe Pay Later / payolution

2015-08 – 2020-10
Vienna · Hybrid

Scaled the product function and BNPL platform across 5 time zones, contributing to consistent company growth in a consolidating market.

  • Launched one of the first BNPL POS solutions in the DACH region in partnership with Decathlon, delivering an MVP within 2 months and driving 80% YOY growth
  • Led international expansion into the US, UK, and Netherlands, adapting regulatory frameworks, rebuilding onboarding and risk/fraud systems, and hiring local product and analytics teams
  • Built the product function from 2 to 7 people, establishing all discovery practices, frameworks, and processes from scratch
  • Owned full product lifecycle across multiple BNPL products, from pricing and positioning to go-to-market, delivering consistently through annual PE-driven strategy shifts

Account Manager — arvato Financial Solutions

2012-02 – 2015-07
Baden-Baden · Hybrid

First fintech role. Enterprise sales for payments and risk solutions, building the domain expertise that later led to a product career.

  • Integrated arvato's risk software into a major payment infrastructure provider (PAY.ON), opening an indirect sales channel that scaled to 200+ SME clients and multiple enterprise accounts
  • Won and managed enterprise accounts across e-commerce and fashion, using consultative, data-driven sales approaches
  • Built strategic partnerships and intermediary networks across national and international markets in e-commerce and fintech

Customer Retention & Sales Agent (part-time) — walter Services

2010-12 – 2012-01
Karlsruhe · On-site

Part-time engagement during a gap year travelling Australia, USA, Canada, and New Zealand.

Assistant to General Manager — Thyssen Krupp Xervon

2008-04 – 2010-10
Munich · On-site

Hands-on exposure to company operations, from capacity planning and financial reporting to team onboarding, building internal tooling to streamline resource allocation across project teams.

Education

B.A. Economics
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich — 2008

Certifications

Languages