Singapore-based fintech Thune appoints Irina Chuchkina as new CMO

Chuchkina has 15 years of experience in the fintech industry.

Fintech and global cross-border payments leader, Thune, has appointed Irina Chuchkina as Chief Marketing Officer.

Chuchkina is an accomplished fintech marketing leader with over 15 years of experience building world-class brands at the intersection of payments and technology across Europe and Asia. She will lead Thunes’ global marketing strategy, laying the foundations of competitive brand positioning, looking at supporting top-line revenue growth, and overseeing key marketing initiatives.

Before joining Thunes, Chuchkina led global brand, communications, and social media marketing for Rapyd. She was also part of Southeast Asia super-app giant, Grab, where she helped to launch GrabPay, Grab’s mobile wallet, and GrabRewards, its loyalty platform. She also spent several years with Visa, where she was part of Visa’s Innovation Centre team and led its marketing and communications efforts across APAC. Chuchkina also serves as an executive committee member in the Singapore Fintech Association. 

Apart from Chuchkina, Thunes has also appointed Babul Balakrishnan as the new head of Customer Care.

Balakrishnan, also known as BK, has over two decades of experience across various industries with a focus on customer service and customer experience.

In his most recent role as AVP of Customer Experience Operations at StarHub, Singapore’s leading telco, Balakrishnan was responsible for back-office operations and a team of field service technicians, for the company’s consumer business. 

Prior to that, at DHL eCommerce, BK was the founding member of two incubation startups as well as the regional lead for Customer Experience. In his new role, Balakrishnan will work with the various business units to elevate customer care into the customer experience across Thunes’ partner network, which currently spans over 115 countries

These appointments follow the announcement of Thunes’ acquisition of Limonetik, a European Payment Methods Platform, which will be added to Thunes’ cross-border payments solutions in over 115 countries.