Ottimate Appoints Andy Roberts as Chairman of Its Board of Directors
by The Ottimate Editorial Team
Industry veteran brings four decades of experience to rapidly growing hospitality software and payments company
Ottimate (formerly Plate IQ), the leading hospitality accounts payable (AP) automation and B2B payments platform, today announced the appointment of Andy Roberts as chairman of the board of directors, effective immediately. Roberts will be responsible for advising and guiding Ottimate’s expansion across verticals such as restaurants, hotels, distribution, grocery, and country clubs.
Roberts brings over 40 years of leadership experience in growing and scaling B2B payments companies. Most recently, he was CEO of digital claims payment processing giant VPay, which was acquired in December 2020, and was honored as 2020 CEO of the Year for mid-sized companies by The Dallas Morning News. Prior to VPay, Roberts was president and CEO of Fleet One, a provider of fuel cards and fleet management information services, which was later acquired by Wright Express. FTV Capital, a leading growth equity investment firm, was an investor in both VPay and Fleet One and is happy to welcome Roberts to Ottimate, which is FTV Capital’s latest investment in AP automation and B2B payments.
“Andy brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the board in important areas, particularly in the area of B2B digital payments,” said Barrett Boston, CEO of Ottimate. “His leadership track record and strong network relationships will also be very valuable to us. Andy’s experience will be instrumental as we execute on our vertically-focused strategy to expand (Ottimate’s) footprint in the B2B payments space.”
“Companies win when they position their customers to be successful. You do that by building cutting-edge technology that helps companies automate manual workflows and help their employees become more efficient,” said Roberts. “I’m excited to be joining (Ottimate’s) board because I see the powerful impact of deploying purpose-built artificial intelligence for invoice automation and B2B payments. The current labor shortage isn’t going away anytime soon and companies are quickly realizing that manual workflows are no longer a cost-effective way to manage their accounts payables. (Ottimate) is incredibly well-positioned to help companies leverage their employees’ time better.”
“We’ve worked alongside Andy and witnessed his exceptional leadership at two of our prior portfolio companies, and we’re thrilled to work with him again as he joins (Ottimate’s) board as chairman,” said Robert Anderson, board member at Ottimate and partner at FTV Capital. “With businesses shifting to digital payments, (Ottimate) is poised to benefit from Andy’s rich expertise and experience in scaling vertically-holistic payments companies that add differentiated value for their customers.”
Prior to VPay and Fleet One, Roberts was the CEO and president of Alliance Data Systems, Harmonic Systems Inc., and Diamond Shamrock (now Valero). Roberts started his career as an information technologist with General Motors and wrote a significant amount of software in multiple languages and on multiple technology platforms. He received his education from the University of Texas, Austin and the University of Michigan, Flint.
Ottimate’s board of directors is comprised of Roberts, Boston and Anderson, as well as Ottimate co-founders, Bhavuk Kaul and Ram Jayaraman, and FTV Capital Vice President, Gary Weber.
About Ottimate (Formerly Plate IQ)
Ottimate is AP automation AI that provides a more innovative way for AP managers, approvers, controllers, and CFOs to work through the entire invoice lifecycle. With mature deep learning capabilities powered by AI, Ottimate learns your business and AP process down to the line item, supporting a custom approval and payment workflow. Ottimate eliminates over 90% of the manual accounting process and provides insights into invoices and spending, helping finance professionals uncover opportunities for growth. This means more strategic business decisions for CFOs and a better day-to-day for the entire team. Don’t just automate AP. Ottimate it. To learn more, visit ottimate.com.
About FTV Capital
FTV Capital is a sector-focused growth equity investment firm that has raised $6.2 billion to invest in high-growth companies offering a range of innovative solutions in three sectors: enterprise technology and services, financial services, and payments and transaction processing. FTV’s experienced team leverages its domain expertise and proven track record in each of these sectors to help motivated management teams accelerate growth. FTV also provides companies with access to its Global Partner Network®, a group of the world’s leading enterprises and executives who have helped FTV portfolio companies for two decades. Founded in 1998, FTV Capital has invested in more than 130 portfolio companies, including Derivative Path, Docupace, EBANX, LoanPro, Ottimate, Sysnet, Tango Card and Vagaro, and successfully exited/partially exited companies including Enfusion (NYSE: ENFN), Globant (NYSE: GLOB), InvestCloud (recapitalized), MedSynergies (acquired by Optum), Strata Fund Solutions (acquired by Alter Domus), VPay (acquired by Optum) and WorldFirst (acquired by Ant Financial). FTV has offices in San Francisco, New York and Connecticut. For more information, please visit www.ftvcapital.com and follow the firm on LinkedIn.
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