Meta Loses its Fintech Head Amid Digital Wallet Launch

David Marcus, the head of Meta’s fintech unit, has announced his decision to resign from the tech giant after seven years.

Marcus joined Meta (then called Facebook) in 2014 and worked as the company’s President of Messaging Products before taking on his most recent role as the Head of F2 (Facebook Financial).

In his announcement on Twitter, Marcus revealed that his entrepreneurial urges pushed him to leave the company and said he looks forward to “having more free time in the months to come before I start building something new and exciting again.”

Marcus has previously founded three startups (Zong, Echovox, and GTN Telecom) all of which were later acquired. While at Meta, Marcus co-created Diem, a digital currency once called Libra that Meta has been trying to get off the ground since 2019.

Diem co-creators Morgan Beller and Kevin Weil left the company earlier this year for new projects. Beller departed in September 2020 for the venture capital industry, while Weil left in March to join an earth imagery startup called Planet.

Marcus left Meta shortly after it launched Novi, the company’s digital wallet designed to hold digital currencies that will now be led by Stephane Kasrie. Novi kicked off a pilot program in the US and Guatemala in October 2021, however it launched without Diem indicating that there may be larger issues behind the scenes.