Fintech Friday: Rapyd

Arik Shtilman, CEO of Rapyd, discussed his company’s important early realization and their future ambitions in the payments world with Boris Plantier.

What led to the creation of Rapyd?

The company was founded in 2016 as Cashdash, a B2C e-wallet that would allow a consumer to withdraw from an ATM in any country without a bank account.

We initially launched in the UK. That launch required integrations with seven different payment systems. Each had its own unique architecture, requiring bespoke development from our engineering team. Add to that the need to have a country-specific e-money license and our efforts to meet the necessary regulatory requirements kept us buried in red tape. This was all for a single country - something that just wasn’t scalable.

We quickly realized that there were no all-in-one platforms that a business can use to offer all the payment methods they need in each local market. All the companies were one-trick-ponies. We went to company A for credit card collections and company B for disbursements. Then we’d have to find banks for foreign exchange and go to regulators for licenses. That’s when other businesses started asking if they could borrow our capabilities since we’d already completed all the integrations.

It was a barrier to innovation that we ourselves were surprised to see. It quickly became clear that there was a greater opportunity staring us in the face. In 2017, we pivoted. Instead of a B2C wallet provider, we became a B2B fintech-as-a-service platform. Rapyd could allow companies to expand while focusing on their core business instead of building new payments infrastructure. The moment we identified that need, the pipeline started to fill.

Since then, Rapyd has secured USD $180 million in funding from investors like Stripe, General Catalyst, Oak HC/FT, Tiger Global, Durable Capital and others. We scaled very quickly. Today we employ around 170 people in over 100 countries providing all the services businesses need to pay and be paid.

Could you present Rapyd's offer?

Rapyd is a global fintech-as-a-service platform that allows our customers to build any fintech application and scale it globally. We operate in more than 100 countries, providing collection, disbursement, wallets, and issuing with one connection and one contract. Our customers are global players in the ecommerce, online marketplace, gig economy and B2B sectors.

Our platform provides the full stack of fintech services including payment services, identity verification, know your customer (KYC) capabilities, local licensing and regulation management, and settlement and reconciliation. Our clients access whichever capabilities they need via our API, SDK or customizable front-end. They can then plug into the Rapyd Global Payment Network and provide a payment or commerce experience unique to the local market they are operating in as we support over 900 payment methods.

Rapyd’s approach is very unique in that we are doing for fintech what the cloud did for IT. By bundling and managing these core services, our clients can focus on and invest in their business rather than worrying about building infrastructure.  So, we’ve built the first truly global payment solution for any business that needs to accept or pay money to their buyers or sellers, move money around the world, or create new fintech services for their users. With Rapyd, digital sellers in Latin America can accept cash. Online shoppers in Asia can pay with their favorite e-wallet. And businesses can make payouts to companies and individuals anywhere in the world.

What’s next For Rapyd?

We are continuing our global expansion and growth, further building out our network to support more countries and payment methods. We are also continuing to add new capabilities to our platform as the number of use cases we support across some key vertical markets including marketplaces, gig economy platforms, ecommerce, digital goods, electronic gaming and B2B applications continues to expand. We are well capitalized so we are also looking at making some key acquisitions that enhance our platform capabilities and market reach.