Payments Veteran Bill Ready Joins Accel Partners as Executive in Residence

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Accel Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital and growth equity firm, today announced the addition of Bill Ready as an Executive in Residence.  Bill brings a wealth of leadership and executive experience from operating and advising high growth technology companies in the financial technology space.  Bill joins Accel from iPay Technologies, a division of Jack Henry and Associates, where he served as President, guiding the company through a period of rapid revenue and earnings growth and its eventual sale to Jack Henry for $300M.   Previously, Mr. Ready served as iPay's Chief Financial Officer and worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co., providing strategic advice to a number of leading enterprises with a specific emphasis in payments and financial technology.

At Accel, Bill will work closely with existing portfolio companies within payments and financial products – a core area of emphasis for the firm – while simultaneously working to identify new investment opportunities for the firm where he can serve in a senior leadership role.  Accel believes that the financial services ecosystem is undergoing massive transformation as companies leverage technology to allow traditionally underserved market segments – specifically SME/SMBs and certain consumer verticals – access to heretofore unavailable financial products and payment methodologies.  A diverse set of Accel portfolio companies are pioneering this new movement – OzForex, Yapstone, Brain Tree, Integral, Venmo, and Wonga, to name a few. 

"Bill will be a tremendous addition to Accel," commented Ryan Sweeney, Partner, Accel Partners.   "His experience and knowledge base overlap extremely well with our financial technology investing effort."  Accel Partner Todd MacLean added, "I've come to know firsthand that Bill is the kind of dynamic, thoughtful individual that resonates extremely well with other like-minded entrepreneurs.  I've found him to be the rare combination of an executive who can not only understand the goals toward which a company should aim but also then lead the team to achieve them.  We couldn't be more pleased to have him as part of the Accel team."

"In addition to working with Todd during our time at iPay, I have enjoyed getting to know the partnership at Accel over the last year," said Ready.  "I share their passion for striving to be first in identifying the big, new ideas that drive change.  Given the dramatic pace of innovation within the payments space, I am eager to combine my experience with Accel's global platform to find and support the entrepreneurs who will create tomorrow's market leaders."

Bill received an MBA with Honors from Harvard Business School and a BS in Business Administration in Computer Information Systems and Finance from the University of Louisville, where he graduated as valedictorian.  He is an advisor to several private companies and is actively involved in the non-profit sector as a committee member for the Roman Nomitch Fellowship.  

About Accel Partners

Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London, New Delhi and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.

Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, Atlassian, BBN, Brightcove, Check24, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, OPOWER, Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Quidsi (diapers.com), Rapt, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Responsys, Riverbed, SupportSoft, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wily Technology, XenSource and Zimbra. For more information, please visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com, or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/accel.

SOURCE Accel Partners