Braintree Inc. founder Bryan Johnson has turned over the reins to an executive from Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley venture fund that recently invested $34 million in the Chicago-based startup.
Bill Ready, a former president of payments-software provider iPay Technologies and an executive-in-residence at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Accel, has taken over as CEO, the company announced Wednesday
Mr. Johnson, 33, will remain chairman of the software company that helps companies process credit-card payments.
“I’ll be a very active chairman and will focus on long term vision and key strategic issues,” Mr. Johnson said.
It’s not uncommon for venture firms to bring in more experienced management teams to run fast-growing startups. Mr. Johnson founded Braintree in 2007 when he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Accel’s investment in June was the company’s first outside funding.
The company is expected to do about $10 million in revenue this year. Customers include Chicago-based software maker 37Signals and restaurant reservation service OpenTable Inc., based in San Francisco.
When it received funding last summer, Mr. Johnson said Braintree planned to double its headcount from about 32 employees this year.