Square, the digital payments start-up, announced on Monday that it has hired a former Yahoo executive to run its cash advance business, an increasingly crucial part of the company.
Jacqueline Reses will run Square Capital, a relatively new initiative for Square which offers cash advances to small businesses who process payments using Square’s services. Square has issued more than $225 million in cash advances since Capital debuted last year, according to public filings released last week. The filings indicated that Square could make its initial public offering to investors in the coming months.
“Jackie’s understanding of the financial services industry and her background in tech and investing make her the perfect fit to lead Square Capital, and I’m thrilled she is joining our leadership team,” Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Square, said in a statement.
Square Capital is still a small division inside of the company. Square still makes 95 percent of its revenue from processing credit and debit cards for small business owners. But Square has specifically earmarked Capital as a potential source for growth in the coming years, as the company seeks to diversify its business beyond payments processing. The appointment of Ms. Reses, who also previously served as a vice president at Goldman Sachs working on mergers and acquisitions and, most recently, was the chief development officer at Yahoo, underscores Capital’s importance to top leaders.
Ms. Reses’s departure also comes at particularly painful point for Yahoo. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s chief executive, is struggling to retain top talent in the midst of turning around the company’s core digital media business. At least 12 key executives have left over the past year according to Robert Peck, an Internet analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.