North Texas' Katapult Holdings Promotes Exec to New Position of President/Chief Growth Officer

Katapult Holdings, a Plano-based e-commerce company focused on financial technology, has promoted COO Derek Medlin to the newly created role of president and chief growth officer.

“Derek has been a terrific partner to me over the past seven years and I am excited to expand his role at this critical juncture in our growth cycle,” CEO Orlando Zayas said in a statement. “Over the past nearly two years we have grown gross originations by introducing innovative new features like Katapult Pay, strategically capitalizing on opportunities to deliver incremental sales growth to our merchant partners and giving our customers a product experience that they love and deserve. I believe Derek can help us meaningfully accelerate our progress on these fronts and create benefits for all our stakeholders.”

Zayas praised the “incredibly talented executive leadership team,” and added, “together, I believe we can drive Katapult to significant share gains in our $50 to $60 billion addressable market.”

In his new role, Medlin will lead the business development, marketing and operations teams at Katapult, with a focus on accelerating gross originations and revenue growth while continuing to drive operational efficiencies and productivity, the company said. One of his core responsibilities will be to help the Katapult team build new, and deepen existing, relationships with merchants and other strategic partners with the goal of demonstrating the incremental value of the innovative Katapult lease-to-own solution and expanding access to high quality solutions for non-prime consumers.

Building on growth trajectory

Medlin is transitioning to this position from his previous role as chief operating officer, which he has held since 2018.

As COO, Medlin helped the company expand its gross originations, which have grown for the past seven consecutive quarters, and revenue, which was more than $230 million over the last twelve months, as of the second quarter 2024. He spearheaded the company’s direct-to-consumer efforts, cost-effectively scaling global operations to support top-line growth and managing lifecycle planning, product strategy and merchant integrations.

Medlln was instrumental in the launch of the company’s Katapult app and Katapult Pay feature in late 2022, which represented 28% of the company’s gross originations in the second quarter of 2024, as well as the increase of Katapult’s customer NPS score and customer repeat purchase rate, which were 62 and 59.3%, respectively, in the second quarter of 2024.

Noting that he has spent the last two decades leading cross-functional teams spanning product, technology, operations, and more, Medlin said he’s excited to take on this new challenge.

“During my seven years at Katapult, I’ve had the opportunity to help lead our merchant go-to-market efforts as well as our direct-to-consumer strategy, including the launch of our mobile app and Katapult Pay feature, and I believe these experiences will allow me to help unlock even more transformative growth opportunities,” Medlin said in a statement.

Based on Katapult’s success to date, Medlin believes the company “is well positioned to build on its growth trajectory by expanding our brand reach with retailers and consumers alike. We intend to do this by enhancing our merchant offerings and continuing to elevate our customer shopping experience.”

Before joining Katapult, Medlin spent nearly 15 years in roles that spanned strategy, go-to-market, operations, finance and advisory responsibilities at companies including J.P. Morgan Chase, Elavon and Ernst & Young.

Katapult is a lease-to-own platform that integrates with omni-channel retailers and e-commerce platforms to power the purchasing of everyday durable goods for underserved U.S. non-prime consumers. Via its point-of-sale integrations and innovative, mobile app featuring Katapult PayTM, consumers who may be unable to access traditional financing can shop a growing network of merchant partners.