TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring US-based RocketPay, a global and cross-vertical payment technology platform.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
RocketPay is an authoritative source for information about global eCommerce, international merchant acquiring, multicurrency merchant IDs, and alternative payments. The company is managed by two industry executives with 54 years of collective experience in acquiring and processing.
We work with merchants directly and help them reach customers in new markets worldwide with secure, easy-to-integrate global payment solutions.
We work with acquirers, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to develop international marketing and sales strategies, and connect them to new partners to enhance their offerings.
RocketPay, through its partners has access to more than 32 currencies in over 100 countries, with a full menu of 45 country specific payment solutions. Our business is creating specific solutions for specific situations.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
RocketPay is privately funded.
What problem are you trying to solve?
We assist eCommerce businesses open new markets and gain new customers by working with them to develop and implement global payment strategies.
We talk to them about marketing, technology and treasury concerns surrounding multiple currencies and country-specific alternative payment types.
Describe the business, core products and services?
As mentioned above, RocketPay serves two primary groups. One is major online/card-not-present merchants, where we match them to the acquiring and processing partners best suited to address their unique international payments requirements.
The second are the various players in the payment processing chain, where we offer both strategic advice and hands-on assistance for things such as the drafting of business plans or sales training.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
We are currently engaged with several US, Canadian, and European merchant sales organizations, as well as several major merchants in various industries.
In many cases our partners and clients are the same entities, because they may provide payment services that can be useful to other clients, yet may also want to expand their offering with specific new payment options. We look for business in these regions as well as Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
The founders’ long experience in payments and international acquiring, as well as our relationships we have had with merchants over the years, convinced us there would be strong growth in international payments and that there was a need for the expertise and connections we bring to the table.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
We receive revenue from the processing volume on new international business. We are not a technology company at this time and prefer to leverage the technology of our partners, who see us as a new sales channel for them.
This keeps overhead low and does not put us in a competitive position with the various players we serve.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Our experience, relationships and trusted reputations in the payments industry
Weaknesses:
- We would like to attend more industry events and invest more in marketing
Opportunities:
- $963 billion in global eCommerce volume is projected for 2013!
Threats:
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?We heard from people at all stratas of merchant acquiring that international acquiring was too complex for most merchants and sales organizations, that it was primarily a high risk business, and that without our own technology at launch we would not have a differentiator.
Yes, it is complex, but our ability to manage that for our clients is very much our strength and a clear differentiator. We believe we have uncommon and valuable expertise.
We have found that while there is a great deal of high risk business, there are tens of thousands of stable, healthy, profitable merchants who wish to access new customers or lower the costs they already incur when selling outside their domestic market.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
A dozen new clients successfully launching their global payments sites.
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.