Maria Hedengren joins Readly as CEO

iZettle ex-CFO set to pilot Readly through next growth phase

The Board of Readly International today announce that Maria Hedengren, previously CFO at iZettle, is joining Readly as CEO. Senior executive Maria brings more than 20 years of experience from global finance and business management.

At iZettle, Maria was instrumental in the $2.2bn sale to PayPal and in gearing up the company for expansion. Formerly serving as CFO of the publicly listed NetEnt AB (publ), a platform and games provider to some of the world’s largest casino and sports betting operators, Hedengren has led both private and public technology companies and has a proven track record of scaling companies internationally.

Maria Hedengren will start as CEO on April 24th and current CEO Jörgen Gullbrandson, who is moving on to pursue new opportunities, will leave the company.

"We are delighted that Maria, with her significant experience in scaling technology companies internationally has agreed to join Readly. Her expertise will help guide the company through this next important development phase of our business,” said Per Hellberg, Chairman of Readly.  “The Board and I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jörgen for his many contributions to the success of Readly. Since joining the company, initially as CFO, Jörgen has played an important role in the continuing development of Readly and we wish him the very best for the future.”

Readly’s pathway to growth has been swift. In March 2019 Readly was ranked in the top 200 overall and the second fastest growing company in Sweden in the ‘Financial Times 1000 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe’, which measured growth between 2014-2017. 2018 saw over 55% revenue growth, launches in Switzerland and the Netherlands and further strengthening of the content portfolio, which now includes over 4000 titles.

"From a professional perspective, I have always been driven to create the very best conditions for continuous revenue growth. I'm very impressed by Readly's growth so far, and I love the product. As we look ahead, Readly is well positioned to increase its market share and I am thrilled to join the Readly team on their growth journey. To be trusted with the position as CEO of a company that has created such a great product for its users, and for the industry as a whole, is truly exciting,” added Maria Hedengren.