Kraken Hires Uber Exec Pranesh Anthapur as Chief People Officer to Drive Forward 2022 Expansion Plans

December 14, 2021 at 09:30 AM EST

Pranesh will spearhead Kraken’s ambitious plans to double headcount to over 5,000 in 2022 and beyond.

Kraken, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by euro trading volume, and one of the largest remote-first companies in the world, is delighted to announce that Pranesh Anthapur, a former VP at Uber, has joined the executive leadership team, where he will head the development and execution of Kraken’s global people strategy.

With more than two decades worth of experience structuring and scaling high-growth companies and building inclusive, mission-driven cultures, Pranesh will oversee Kraken’s continued expansion. He’ll use his invaluable experience as VP of Human Resources at Uber to ensure Kraken is fit for the future as we look to more than double our headcount in the next year across all target regions.

Kraken CEO and co-founder, Jesse Powell, said: “Pranesh’s experience leading and scaling diverse and inclusive global workforces to meet the demands and accelerating business needs of industry-disrupting companies is essential as we work to bring billions of people into the crypto ecosystem.”

2021 has been a record year for Kraken. Combined, spot and derivative trading volumes are 5x above where they were in 2020, and Kraken’s product suite has expanded significantly as investors find new ways to leverage their crypto wealth. Kraken’s headcount has already doubled to well over 2,300 people around the world. This includes the recent hire of Mike Davidson, former VP at Twitter, to head up Design at Kraken.

Kraken plans to double in size again by the end of 2022. Pranesh will spearhead this growth, ensuring Kraken scales effectively so it can continue providing a wide range of products and services for all types of investors engaging in the crypto asset-class.

Prior to Uber, Pranesh was Chief People Officer at cloud computing platform Nutanix, where he scaled the company from five hundred to well over three thousand employees around the world, building the People function from the ground up.

Pranesh has already made an impact since coming aboard last month. With new exciting positions opening up across Kraken, he has been instrumental in introducing frameworks that ensure Kraken not only hires people with the right talent and experience, but also those who demonstrate a mission-driven approach that puts our clients' needs at the heart of what they build.

“Crypto is on the verge of going mainstream and from a platform perspective, Kraken is perfectly positioned to tip the scales of mass adoption,” Pranesh said. “But to do that, we will need to grow as a company to meet our clients’ diverse and multifaceted needs. I can’t think of a more exciting challenge to take on, or a better team to tackle it with.”

Kraken is currently hiring for hundreds of roles across Product, Engineering, Marketing, Operations and more to build out our fully remote workforce. To find out more about all of our open roles, please visit our Careers page.

For more information about Kraken’s plans for 2022, please reach out to press@kraken.com. Pranesh Anthapur is available for interviews.

About Kraken

Kraken is the world’s largest global digital asset exchange based on euro volume and liquidity. Globally, Kraken’s client base trades nearly 90 digital assets and 7 different fiat currencies, including GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, JPY, CHF and AUD.

Kraken was founded in 2011 and was the first U.S. crypto firm to receive a state-chartered banking license, as well as one of the first exchanges to offer spot trading with margin, regulated derivatives and index services. Kraken is trusted by well over 7 million traders, institutions and authorities around the world and offers professional, round the clock online support.

Kraken is backed by investors including Tribe Capital, Hummingbird Ventures, Blockchain Capital and Digital Currency Group, among others. For more information about Kraken, please visit www.kraken.com.