Sionic, a leader in real-time, bank-to-bank payments at the point of sale, today announced two senior leadership appointments: Shashi Varma, CTO and Head of Product and Joe Ciranni, EVP of Client Services. This strategic move supports the company’s ambitious growth plans amid surging demand for its Instant Bank Pay and Fraud Detection Service platforms.

“Shashi and Joe have a rare combination of deep industry expertise, technical leadership, and a proven track record of driving growth at scale,” said Sionic CEO and founder Ronald Herman. “Their leadership strengthens our capabilities, accelerates our roadmap, and positions Sionic to capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead.”

Varma spearheads product strategy, technology, and engineering for Sionic’s Instant Bank Pay platform, including instant payments, AI-powered fraud detection, and agentic commerce initiatives. He said, “Sionic has an opportunity to bring instant payments, intelligent risk, and emerging agentic experiences together on a platform that can fundamentally change how consumers, retailers, and financial institutions transact. I’m excited to lead the product and technology organization as we turn that vision into scalable capabilities that our customers and partners can build on.”

He spent more than two decades at Shift4, progressing from Director of IT, where he led the company’s shift to hybrid cloud and built an automated underwriting platform, to Vice President of Enterprise Architecture, overseeing architecture across onboarding, underwriting, CRM, billing, and integrations. He most recently founded Velocity Solutions, where he helps payments and fintech companies build the operational and technology capabilities needed to scale through growth and acquisition.

Ciranni oversees Sionic’s client success and account management teams, ensuring financial institutions, merchants, and enterprise partners receive full value from Instant Bank Pay and Sionic’s Fraud Detection Service. “Joining Sionic during this defining time for both the company and the instant payments industry is exciting,” he said. “I look forward to working with our customers and partners so they can derive maximum value from all our services and capabilities.”

He has 30 years of enterprise sales, customer success, and operational leadership experience, including two decades at Hewlett Packard followed by executive roles at Verint, NICE Ltd, eGain Corporation, and ServiceNow. Most recently, he was VP of Customer Experience at Talitrix.

About Sionic

Atlanta-based Sionic is a leader in faster digital payments, delivering real-time, bank-to-bank payments at the point of sale. Sionic’s market-first Instant Bank Pay service enables U.S. financial institutions participating in either real-time bank payment rails to offer their personal and business customers instant cash payments – whether online, mobile, or in-store. Sionic’s AI-based Fraud Detection Service (FDS) is the first to protect real-time, Account-to-Account (A2A) payments at the point of sale. Merchants accepting A2A payments bypass expensive card swipe fees and receive cash deposits within seconds. Consumers may also receive Perks from participating merchants when paying with their bank accounts using Apple® or Google® wallets.

To learn more, visit www.sionic.io, follow us on X, or connect on LinkedIn.

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