Press Release

XPP Appoints Payments Veteran Pieter Stal as CEO to Lead European Expansion
Leadership Transition Positions XPP for European Growth in Unattended and Embedded Payment Environments

Haarlem, the Netherlands (24 March 2026) — Ximedes Payment Products (XPP) names Pieter Stal as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 March 2026, marking the company's transition into its next phase of European growth. The appointment comes as XPP completes the integration of four specialised payment platforms and enters a new phase focused on scaling its payment infrastructure across European markets.

Stal brings deep, hands-on experience leading payments organisations across Europe. He previously served as CEO of European Merchant Services (a Fiserv company) and Deputy CEO at MultiSafepay. Most recently, he was Head of Commerce and Executive Board Member at CM Payments BV (CM.com), where he built and scaled CM Pay. He holds a Master of Law from Utrecht University and an MBA from Santa Clara University, and he completed the leadership transition programme at INSEAD.

"I’ve spent my career building and scaling payment businesses," says Pieter Stal, XPP’s CEO. "At XPP, my focus now is to scale that platform across Europe together with the team. Three forces are reshaping what organisations expect from payments: personalisation, embedded payment experiences, and omnichannel consistency, all delivered seamlessly and invisibly to the end user. XPP is built for exactly that."

XPP brings together KUARIO, Pecunda, Vayapay, and Ginger to serve key sectors, such as public transport, higher education, enterprise environments, and financial institutions, and has a strong presence in unattended and embedded payment environments where reliability and operational continuity are critical. Its products combine closed loop, card present, and online payment capabilities into a single infrastructure connecting devices, terminals, and digital payment flows.


Dedicated Leadership for KUARIO

Following the successful growth of KUARIO, XPP’s payment and management system for vending and semi-public environments, Tom van der Poel, XPP’s Founding Director, now fully focuses on scaling the platform, leading the further development of XPP’s position in unattended and embedded payment services. 

“Vending operators are under increasing pressure to simplify operations while protecting already tight margins," says Tom van der Poel, XPP’s Founding Director. "Managing devices, payments, reporting, and reconciliation across multiple providers adds unnecessary complexity. At the same time, the shift towards cashless and connected machines is accelerating rapidly. We see a clear opportunity for KUARIO to replace fragmented setups with a simpler infrastructure approach and scale that model internationally through strong industry collaborations."

“We’ve built a strong position with KUARIO in vending and unattended environments, with clear traction across multiple markets," continues van der Poel. "Our focus now is to build on that foundation, expanding our footprint across Europe together with key partners.”


XPP’s Next Chapter

With its product foundation established and a dedicated leadership structure in place, XPP enters its next phase with a clear ambition: to become Europe's leading payment infrastructure provider.

"We built XPP to bring proven payment technologies together under one roof," says René Hodde, Founder and CEO of XMDS Holding, the parent company of XPP. "With Pieter leading commercial expansion and Tom fully focused on KUARIO, we now have the structure to deliver on that ambition at European scale."

"The question for European organisations is no longer whether to modernise their payment environments, it's how to do it without disrupting operations that cannot afford to fail,” says Pieter Stal, XPP’s CEO. That's the problem XPP exists to solve, and we're now structured to solve it at scale."


About XPP

XPP, based in Haarlem, the Netherlands, is a leading payment infrastructure company specialising in unattended and embedded payment environments. It serves public transport, higher education, enterprise environments, and financial institutions through its portfolio of four specialised payment solutions, enabling organisations to deliver seamless, omnichannel, and increasingly embedded payment experiences.

• KUARIO is an all-in-one payment and management system for unattended services and staffed POS.

• Vayapay is a payment platform for transaction processing in transit and other high-volume, regulated environments.

• Ginger is an online payment technology platform for banks and payment service providers.

• Pecunda is a traditional payment solution for unattended services and POS.

Operating across northern and central Europe, including the Nordics, Baltics, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, and the UK, XPP supports clients including Norwegian rail operator Flytoget, LMU Munich, and national postal services across Switzerland and Austria, and it works with key partners, such as Silverflow, FARA, and Elavon. The platform reaches hundreds of thousands of users across thousands of connected devices.

For more information about XPP and its payment solutions, visit www.xpp.nl.

Media contact

Annika Kiestra, annika.kiestra@xmds.nl