Welcome to The Engine Room @ payabl., a series dedicated to showcasing the incredible talent behind our success. We're pulling back the curtain to introduce you to the dedicated team members who build, secure, and refine our world-class solutions. Learn about their challenges, triumphs, and what it truly means to make it fun while fostering a culture where teamwork flows first and every individual's potential is ignited.
Next up in the series: Nikolett Palinkas, Group Chief Growth Officer.
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Ask Nikolett Palinkas to define the job, and the answer isn't a list of departments or responsibilities. It’s a clear overview of her role: "my job is to make sure we bring the right business, keep it, and make it grow."
As Group Chief Growth Officer, Nikolett owns the commercial growth of payabl.'s acquiring business, which covers sales, client relations, partnerships and merchant operations. It's a wide remit, and one that could be reduced to a new-business number. Nikolett resists that approach. "My responsibility is not simply to bring new business to payabl., but to make sure we grow sustainably, retain our clients, develop strong partnerships and maximise the opportunities within our existing portfolio."
The distinction between growth as acquisition and growth as a sustained relationship is a pillar of everything Nikolett says about the role.
Staying close to the ground
Nikolett sits on payabl.'s leadership team, but her day-to-day work with clients hasn't stopped. She ensures this is used as the source material to form top-level strategies.
"You cannot build a successful growth strategy without understanding what is happening on the ground," Nikolett says. At payabl., the Heads of Department get the freedom to make decisions and run their own teams without someone checking every move, and Nikolett has no interest in stepping back from the work itself. "I still want to be one of them, speaking to clients, negotiating with partners, solving problems and being involved in commercial opportunities. It's something I genuinely enjoy, and I believe it also makes me a better leader."
It's a leadership style built on two things. "I don't believe in micromanagement. I believe in trust, accountability and working together." She sets the direction, supports the team and makes clear what's in the way, all while showing up every day.
Departments built around understanding
The clearest evidence of that philosophy is the most recent one. Nikolett has spent the past period restructuring the Business Growth department, creating clearer ownership across sales, client relations, partnerships and merchant operations. The logic behind it goes beyond an org chart. "As the company grows, the way we operate needs to evolve as well," Nikolett explains. "Growth is not just about bringing in new clients, but also about truly understanding the clients we already have."
That means sitting with merchants' actual day-to-day payment problems, including the ones payabl. doesn't yet have an answer for. "Sometimes the right solution doesn't exist yet, and that's exactly why these conversations are so important."
Those conversations feed directly into Product and Technology, so new tools get built against real friction and tangible pain points. "This is the direction I want our Business Growth team to follow: not just selling payment solutions, but understanding our clients' businesses, anticipating their needs and growing together with them."
Speed, risk, and finding solutions
As an industry, payments doesn't reward hesitation. "Opportunities don't wait, and neither do our competitors," Nikolett says. But payabl. operates inside a regulated industry, and speed can't come at the cost of compliance or risk management.
The way Nikolett resolves that tension is methodical and well-conceived. "I always ask: what is the commercial opportunity? What is the risk? And what can we do to make it work?" It's a deliberately practical question, and one that shapes how the team is expected to operate. "I believe our job as leaders is to find solutions, not simply explain why something cannot be done."
That mindset, Nikolett argues, is where payabl. separates itself. "We are not afraid of complex business models or challenging markets. We take the time to understand our clients, their businesses and what they actually need." She also describes an edge payabl. has over the rest of the market: “we are large enough to offer serious financial infrastructure but still agile enough to make decisions and adapt quickly”.
This is a combination Nikolett calls "a real competitive advantage," and it's hard to disagree once you see how the team is run.
One company, same goal
Growth at payabl. was never going to sit in one department, and Nikolett is direct about why. "Sales can bring an opportunity, but without Product, Risk, Compliance, Operations, IT and Marketing working together, that opportunity will never turn into actual revenue."
This collaboration shows up in new product development, market entry, onboarding a complex merchant, or improving an existing client's experience, all running through multiple teams at once. "I always remind my team that we are one company, and ultimately we all work towards the same goal."
Growth starts with the people driving it
If there's a single thread tying Nikolett's career at payabl. together, it's this: the growth being built for merchants is the same growth Nikolett has lived personally.
Five years ago, Nikolett joined as Head of Operations, leading a small team. Today, she's Group Chief Growth Officer across an entire group-level function. It's the detail Nikolett returns to when asked what surprised her most about payabl.'s culture. "What I really appreciate about payabl. is that people are given the opportunity to grow beyond their original roles."
The way Nikolett explains it carries more warmth than a typical leadership line. "I always say that flowers only bloom in the right environment, and I genuinely believe that applies to people as well." It's a philosophy that describes the people Nikolett leads just as much as it describes her own trajectory. "The people driving growth here are ambitious, resilient and not afraid to take responsibility. There is a strong sense of ownership, and that's something I value enormously."
Fewer providers means less complexity
Looking at the bigger picture, Nikolett sees payabl. at an inflection point. "I think we are in a very interesting position because we are evolving from a payment acquirer into a much broader financial ecosystem." Through payabl., merchants get acquiring, business accounts, local payment methods, in-store solutions, card issuing and payouts together on one platform.
For merchants, this means fewer providers and more control, whether they're taking payments online or in-store, moving funds, or managing a payment. But Nikolett is careful not to let the product story define this. "Our biggest advantage is that we combine this growing product offering with a very personal, relationship-driven approach. We understand that behind every transaction there is a business, and behind every business there are people."
That instinct also shapes how Nikolett sees the industry's biggest obstacle, fragmentation. It means merchants are juggling multiple providers across acquiring, business accounts, payouts and alternative payment methods, all on top of different regulations, markets and currencies. "We want to simplify that experience by bringing more services together and making payments as seamless as possible," Nikolett says.
She’s considering the other side too, with finding "the right balance between innovation, commercial opportunity and regulatory requirements" a target the team has to keep pace with.
Building the person over five years
Nikolett didn't join payabl. for a title. "What attracted me to payabl. was the opportunity to build something and be part of a company with real ambition with the right people by my side." The potential was visible early, and five years on, Nikolett has seen it come to fruition.
The journey has taught her that the work is more than the bottom line. "Growth is not just about sales or revenue. It's about people, processes, relationships and having the courage to make decisions. You can have the best strategy in the world, but without the right people to execute it, it means very little."
The opportunities that came with that journey are ones Nikolett is candid about valuing. Taking responsibility for different parts of the business, building teams, shaping strategy, sitting in on group-level decisions. These are things that at a different company, she suggests, might have taken years longer, or never happened. "At payabl., if you have ambition, take ownership and deliver results, people recognise it and give you room to grow."
What's next
The next phase, as Nikolett frames it, is about scaling without losing shape or control. "Our focus is on scaling what we've built while continuing to expand our product offering and geographical reach." Nikolett is looking more broadly too, saying “we see significant opportunities in strengthening our partnerships, growing our presence in key markets and offering more integrated financial solutions to our merchants.”
She sums up future ambitions perfectly: “the next chapter is about becoming even more commercially ambitious while making sure we have the structure, technology and people to support that growth."
Her advice for anyone considering payabl.
Nikolett offers an honest pitch for where the company is heading. "If you are ambitious, willing to work hard and want to make a real impact, payabl. is a place where you can build an incredible career. It's a fast-moving environment, and expectations are high, but so are the opportunities.”
What Nikolett values most is the autonomy and trust given to the team. "You won't always have someone telling you exactly what to do, and that's actually one of the things I love about it. You are trusted to take ownership, bring ideas and make things happen." And the people around you, she adds, are something to be valued. "You will be surrounded by people who want to achieve something together."
Asked to sum up five years at payabl. in one line, Nikolett doesn't hesitate. "Five years of challenges, opportunities and incredible personal growth, building not only a business but also the person and leader I am today."
Nikolett's entire approach to growth, for merchants and for the team, traces back to that same idea: put people in the right environment, give them real ownership, and the growth takes care of itself.