Lightspeed, provider of the one-stop commerce platform for merchants to simplify, scale, and create exceptional customer experiences, announced the appointment of Andrew Fraser as its Managing Director for APAC. Having served as the Senior Vice President of Lightspeed’s retail operation previously, Andrew Fraser will lead the consolidated function in the region.
What does the appointment mean for Lightspeed?
Reporting directly to JD Saint-Martin, President of Lightspeed Commerce Inc., Fraser will oversee a team of over 750 across Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. Fraser will be in charge of executing Lightspeed’s retail and hospitality go-to-market strategies in APAC.
Through product development, strategic integrations and building broader regional partnerships across the region, Fraser’s strategy will focus on building market share amongst larger, multiple-location retail and hospitality SMBs. Globally, Lightspeed will be guided by the same north star, however the go-to-market strategy will be unique in each market.
“To be given the opportunity to lead a talented team of genuinely good humans is a massive privilege. Our mission is to enable clients to simplify, scale, and create exceptional customer experiences. Having built a strong presence in smaller businesses, we’re focused now on more complex SMBs. There are a series of opportunities in the APAC region,” said Fraser.
“Lightspeed Payments, our embedded payments solution will be a significant focus, as will be extending and enhancing flagship products like Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant.”
“We’re thrilled to elevate Andrew, who has been a key contributor to the company’s success over a number of years, to Managing Director of APAC. Andrew’s unique skill set and an unrivalled understanding of the region will be pivotal for Lightspeed as we focus on our target market of complex SMBs, raising brand awareness, and continue to roll out our flagship retail and hospitality products globally,” commented JP Chauvet, CEO of Lightspeed Commerce Inc.
What does Fraser bring to Lightspeed in the role?
Fraser has 20 years of experience leading, building and scaling teams in the technology, infrastructure, and industrial sectors. Over the course of his career he has worked across the corporate, start-up and professional services spaces, in Asia Pacific (APAC), the United States and Africa; including at the likes of McKinsey, Telekom Malaysia and Vector Limited.
A former start-up founder and from a family of SMB owners, Fraser has walked in the shoes of Lightspeed’s clients; the empathy and perspectives which uniquely positions Lightspeed.
“Now more than ever, our technology plays such an important role in helping businesses thrive. We are uniquely positioned to do so for a number of reasons. Through both Vend and Kounta, our heritage as a business is built in Australia and New Zealand. But we are now built on the incredible foundation of a global NYSE-listed business, the combination of which enables Lightspeed to have immense impact for our customers,” Fraser continued.
“My childhood was spent in my dad’s deli in Auckland. The cash register has been replaced by the POS, but the same concept exists besides that: people who are passionate about what they do, building relationships with their customers. Many of the team used to work in the industries we serve – whether as baristas or on the retail shop floor – so we understand our customers, their pain points and where we can make their lives easier,” Fraser further added.
“Our customers haven’t enjoyed ‘normal’ for a long time. We’re here to help them streamline and enhance all the things they didn’t get into business to do – like manage inventory, analyse data, accept payments – giving them more time to do what they did get into business to do. Our success is their success, and the entire team and I are hugely driven to make Asia Pacific the best place in the world to start and scale a business,” Andrew Fraser concluded.
