Aaron Holmes, founder and CEO of Kani Payments, has been recognised as a One to Watch in the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme for 2025, featured in The Times.
Now in its eighth year, the programme is run by LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, in partnership with The Times, and celebrates the UK’s most inspiring entrepreneurs driving growth, creating jobs and shaping the future of British business.
Out of nearly 700 nominations received this year, Aaron was selected as one of just 17 Ones to Watch—leaders who are making significant progress and scaling their businesses with vision, resilience and impact.
“This is a personal honour, but it also reflects the strength of the team behind Kani. I’ve worked in payments for over two decades, and I’ve never been more excited about the opportunities in front of us or more grateful to be solving real problems for our clients every day.”
Aaron Holmes, CEO & Founder, Kani Payments
With more than 20 years in the payments industry, Aaron played a leading role in launching the UK’s first contactless cards in 2008. In 2018, he founded Kani Payments to tackle the operational challenges around reconciliation, reporting and payments data quality—the very same issues he experienced first-hand while scaling fintech and financial services businesses.
Today, Kani helps clients across the payments ecosystem (from issuers and acquirers to schemes and fintechs) transform fragmented transaction data into clear, audit-ready reporting and insights.
This recognition comes at a time of rapid growth for Kani, as it continues to expand its platform, team and customer base across Europe and beyond.
“This year’s Ones to Watch are leaders who excel in their fields, create a positive impact on their customers and employees, and stand out for their potential to reach even greater success in the years ahead.”
John Garner, Managing Partner at LDC
As Kani continues to grow, the company remains focused on delivering best-in-class automated reconciliation solutions to the payments sector. Its platform transforms complex transaction data into accurate, audit-ready outputs—helping clients streamline operations, improve data quality and stay ahead of compliance demands.
