PAYMENTS
Bit.Store | May 31, 2022
Asia's leading SocialFi crypto investment platform, Bit.Store (STORE) has deepened its partnership with crypto payment provider Alchemy Pay (ACH). Further to the current credit card and paypal connections, Alchemy Pay will add popular alternative payment methods to Bit.Store including mobile wallets and domestic instant transfer services.
Furthermore, Alchemy Pay will provide Bit.Store with off-ramp capabilities, meaning their users can convert their crypto funds into over 100 local fiat currencies and have them deposited directly into their bank accounts.
These new capabilities once again highlight Alchemy Pay's impressive service within the industry and will elevate Bit.Store's app, which has already become very popular in Southeast Asia and Europe. In Indonesia, in particular, Bit.Store has become one of the top social cryptocurrency investment platforms for retail investors. The platform was launched in 2021 and has seen rapid growth. The number of users has grown 30% to 700k since the partners' first collaborated in November 2021.
With its simple and intuitive design, Bit.Store has positioned itself as a beginner-friendly investment service that allows everyday people to access crypto conveniently and securely. The simplicity of design and functionality overcomes the barrier to entry for many and the app outshines competition by cleverly leveraging social elements and exploring a new 'SocialFi' model.
Bit.Store educates inexperienced investors so they can make smarter investment decisions. It embraces the web3.0 era by allowing users to create decentralized communities for the sharing of information alongside experienced and professional investors. The app has multiple groups and forums for trading discussions, as well as up-to-date news and educational items.
It is a big step forward to offer the flexibility of Alchemy Pay's easy, secure payments to our users. Acceptance of mobile wallets are crucial, in particular, to our Asian users where so-called alternative payments are now becoming the dominant method. Additionally, the ability to pay-out from our platform via Alchemy Pay puts us way ahead of many of our competitors."
Bit.Store's co-founder, Carl Moss.
Our focus right now is on our ramps that are integrated onto crypto and web3 services. The ability to onboard users to platforms directly via global and local fiat payments, and then offer the chance to cash out again makes for a seamless, user-friendly experience. We are expecting to make a huge impact on the web3 movement with these ramps."
John Tan, CEO of Alchemy Pay.
About Bit.Store
Bit.Store (STORE) is a SocialFi investment platform designed with beginner investors in mind. The platform gives its users access to global digital currency markets quickly and easily by supporting different money transfer methods via cooperations with a wide network of regional payment providers. The app provides a variety of features, including social trading, following, and copy trading strategies published by seasoned experts in the space, and allows experts to monetize their contribution to the platform.
About Alchemy Pay
Founded in Singapore in 2018, Alchemy Pay (ACH) is a payment solutions provider that seamlessly connects fiat and crypto economies for global consumers, merchants, and developers. It provides merchants with convenient acceptance of crypto, enables easy onboarding to blockchain ecosystems, and makes web3 services highly accessible. Today, Alchemy Pay is supported in over 70 countries with 300 payment channels, has touchpoints with more than 2 million merchants through partnerships with industry leaders such as Binance, Shopify, NIUM, and QFPay. Alchemy Pay's token, ACH, is an ERC20 native to the Ethereum blockchain.
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PAYMENTS
Sphere | May 21, 2022
Sphere, a leading provider of end-to-end integrated healthcare payments and security software, today announced that it has launched a new payment solution for Independent Software Vendor (ISVs) that features integration with PAX terminals. PAX is the world's preferred payment terminal solutions provider and has delivered over 60 million terminals to more than 120 countries across the globe.
The new solution enables ISVs to integrate their core Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products with a secure cloud-based payment solution that accepts payments on PAX terminals for a wide range of payment methods and industry standards including Europay, MasterCard and Visa, (EMV), Near-Field Communications (NFC), Google Pay, and Apple Pay. This semi-integrated solution allows software vendors to integrate payments through a pre-certified, pre-integrated device that communicates directly with the gateway. Benefits include:
Reduced development costs
Easily add EMV, NFC without complex certifications
Faster time to market
Payment card industry security standards scope reduction
We are extremely excited to bring a solution to market that solves all of the challenges that ISV providers face when trying to enhance their core product to accept EMV, NFC, Apple Pay, and Google Pay transactions, With a simple integration, plug-and-play customer implementation, reducing PCI PA-DSS scope, all through a single application programming interface integration that works harmoniously with our eCommerce solutions, this is truly a significant evolutionary step in payments that will benefit any ISV provider."
Curtis Bauer, Chief Innovation Officer, Sphere.
Sphere provides an end-to-end payments platform that provides software vendors with broad payment acceptance functionality, merchant services, elite-level security, and expert support throughout the payments lifecycle. PAX terminals feature modern, intuitive design, as well as a developer-friendly Android-based system that allows for rapid, simple integration and implementation.
SaaS providers need a simple, convenient method of integrating payment-acceptance functionality into their core offerings, Through PAX's partnership with Sphere, ISVs now have a cloud-based option to accept payments via the industry's widest portfolio of innovative and secure payment devices."
Heather Mlachnik, Senior Vice President of Acquiring and ISO Sales, PAX.
About Sphere
Sphere is a cloud-based, vertically integrated software and payments technology company serving a variety of complex end markets with an established market leading presence in the healthcare and non-profit sectors. Sphere was formed in 2017 after a few strategic acquisitions, and today offers benefits to our partners and customers via three key sub-brand companies that have been established for over 20 years.
Sphere is trusted by more than a third of the 100 largest health systems in the US and thousands of independent medical providers across the country to facilitate and drive secure payments by having our software solutions highly integrated into our clients' workflows, patient billing systems, and electronic health records. Our integrated software and payments suite helps organizations increase payment collection while delivering best in class security, compliance instruments, and a single payment stack standardized for reporting and reconciliation. Sphere also provides fundraising software solutions and tools to 8,000 nonprofits in the US and Canada and maintains key integrations in high growth verticals like insurance, parking and transportation.
About PAX
PAX Technology, Inc. is one of the largest electronic payment solution providers in the world, supplying value-added payment solutions since 2001. As a leading global manufacturer of payment solutions, we are committed to delivering innovative, high-quality, and secure payment solutions to businesses, large and small, worldwide, with payment terminals built on security and optimized for performance.
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PAYMENTS
Payveris | June 18, 2022
Modern money movement leader Payveris, a division of Paymentus, today launched Loan Payments®, a cutting-edge loan and debt repayment service with the widest array of real-time payment methods and channels available on the market. Loan Payments® is designed to help financial institutions meet rising consumer demand for payment methods and channels that are speedy, convenient and secure — all while reducing operational overhead, fostering better customer engagement and loyalty.
An Aite-Novarica Group survey from 2021 found that 89% of consumers want more real-time payment options from their digital banking experience. As consumers enjoy more payment choices, speed and convenience in just about every other aspect of their financial lives, they expect the same from their loan payment servicers — and aren't satisfied by the status quo from financial institutions. In fact, a recent J.D Power study found that non-bank loan servicers saw a 17% increase in customer satisfaction, while banks only saw a 4% increase.
When financial institutions make it complicated to accept and receive payments through coupon books or legacy loan payment systems, borrowers are less likely to consider them for their next loan, Providing choice, speed and autonomy is no longer a bonus, but a baseline expectation for consumers. Financial institutions must seriously rethink their loan payment experience and meet customers where they are, and Loan Payments® can help them get there. Whether that's an auto loan, a personal loan, or a mortgage, the days of consumers using a coupon book have passed."
Payveris Chief Innovation Officer Marcell King.
With Loan Payments®, financial institutions can deliver a true omni-channel experience that matches what consumers have come to expect from shopping or paying bills. Payment methods supported by Loan Payments® include cash, debit card and e-check/ACH. Loan Payments® also empowers consumers to choose their preferred payment channel, whether it's online, mobile, text, PayPal app, Amazon Alexa, Walmart, or directly at their bank or credit union. In addition to more convenience and flexibility, Loan Payments® gives financial institutions' customers more control over how they automate and schedule payments, and the ability to spread their payments across multiple methods at once.
WSECU, a Payveris customer since 2020, is one of the first financial institutions with plans to roll out Loan Payments®. "Our first priority is to improve the loan payment experience for members, making it easier and providing them more options, Payveris is helping us do that, and that alone is a big win. But there is also more we gain, including the operational efficiencies that come from no longer managing disparate processes. Now, everything is centralized into one payment processing system, regardless of which option best meets the needs of an individual member."
Melissa Wolff, Vice President, Operations Support and Payment Services at WSECU.
Financial institutions also stand to gain another avenue in which they can drive customer engagement and loyalty.
Loan Payments® was first developed by Payveris' parent company Paymentus, recognized by Aite-Novarica as the "Best in Class" industry leader for Biller Direct EPPP solutions. The solution is powered by the Instant Payment Network®, the only integrated ecosystem of real-time digital bill presentment, payment, and money movement capabilities in the market. The Instant Payment Network® is currently trusted by numerous Fortune 500 companies, with more than 10 million consumers relying on it to make payments.
About Payveris
Payveris, a division of Paymentus, is the creator of the MoveMoney℠ Platform, an Open API, cloud-based platform that enables more than 265+ financial institutions to control, simplify, and extend more engaging intelligent digital payment and money movement capabilities to their users through any application or device while significantly reducing operating costs and future-proofing their IT investment.
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CORE BANKING
Rev, Searchlight Capital and Netspend | August 08, 2022
Rêv Worldwide, Inc., an international fintech company, and Global Payments, a leading worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions, announced that Rêv, in partnership with funds advised by Searchlight Capital Partners, L.P., has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Netspend consumer business from Global Payments in an all cash transaction valued at $1 billion. The acquisition brings back Netspend’s founders, Roy and Bertrand Sosa, who also founded Rêv. The Sosa brothers look to leverage the strategic assets of the two entities to build a global, high growth company that delivers on a mission of financial empowerment and product innovation.
For Searchlight, this transaction represents another exciting partnership with dynamic fintech entrepreneurs while also being able to support growth and innovation for consumer financial services to underserved markets. With this sale, Global Payments delivers on its commitment to divest itself from Netspend’s consumer business, allowing the company to focus on its core B2B operations and growth opportunities with Rêv as a partner.
Since the Sosas founded Netspend in 1999, the company’s consumer business has developed into a clear industry leader in the prepaid and debit card space serving millions of customers nationwide, processing hundreds of billions of dollars of cardholder purchases, and established the largest retail partner network with over 130,000 locations nationwide where consumers can load their prepaid and debit card products. Netspend’s consumer products are also available online via direct-to-consumer mobile and web channels.
“We’ve gone full circle, launching programs with partners around the globe in our journey to provide innovative financial services to underserved mass markets. We are very excited by the opportunity to partner with the Netspend consumer team and Searchlight as we deliver new products, expand into new markets and add more value to customers across the world,”
- Roy Sosa, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rêv
Christopher Cruz, Partner, Searchlight, added “The characteristics of this investment are rare to find. Combining an industry leading operation in Netspend’s consumer business with modern platform technology and digitally native solutions from Rêv unlocks great growth potential by meeting the needs of a significant and sizable market. We look forward to partnering with Roy, Bertrand, and the Rêv team as they continue their mission to financially empower underserved consumers through fintech innovation.”
According to a recent industry report, the global market for Prepaid Cards, estimated at US$1.6 Trillion in the year 2020, is projected to reach US$2.7 Trillion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 9.6% over the analysis period.
Leveraging its proprietary multi-currency payments and loyalty product platform, Rêv provides mobile-first payment solutions and offers banking-as-a-service capabilities for partners around the world, such as Etihad Airways, Itaú Private Bank, LATAM Airlines; as well as direct-to-consumer branded products owned and managed by Rêv, such as the recently launched X World Wallet currently available in the U.S.
For Bertrand Sosa, President of Rêv, “The market opportunity for Netspend’s consumer business has always been massive, as evidenced by the history of growth the company has experienced. Now we have a chance to expand upon it globally by leveraging unique synergies we bring along with our entrepreneurial spirit.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023 subject to relevant regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions.
Jefferies LLC is serving as lead financial advisor, and Nomura Securities International, Inc. is serving as financial advisor to Rêv. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is representing Searchlight, Gunderson Dettmer is advising Rêv.
Evercore is serving as financial advisor to Global Payments, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is representing Global Payments in the transaction.
About Rêv
Rêv is a fintech company, founded by prepaid debit industry pioneers Roy and Bertrand Sosa, dedicated to delivering innovative payment experiences to consumers worldwide. Its solutions are powered by the company’s proprietary multi-currency and multi-language payments processing platform. With vast experience pioneering a number of payment industry firsts, Rêv is focused on the international banking & travel sectors. Rêv has partnered with companies across the globe to launch products in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
About Searchlight
Searchlight is a global private investment firm with over $10 billion in assets under management and offices in New York, London and Toronto. Searchlight seeks to invest in businesses where its long-term capital and strategic support accelerate value creation for all stakeholders.
About Netspend
Netspend is a leading provider of payments and financial solutions for consumers and businesses. From prepaid and debit card solutions to digital account and money movement services, Netspend has a broad suite of products and technologies that deliver exceptional experiences for its customers and business partners.
About Global Payments
Global Payments Inc. is a leading payments technology company delivering innovative software and services to customers globally. Our technologies, services and team member expertise allow us to provide a broad range of solutions that enable our customers to operate their businesses more efficiently across a variety of channels around the world.
Headquartered in Georgia with approximately 25,000 team members worldwide, Global Payments is a Fortune 500® company and a member of the S&P 500 with worldwide reach spanning over 170 countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
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