Since financial technology is now expanding globally, a great number of start-up and established businesses are proving that they could flow along with the innovating industry.
It started with intellectual e-commerce products and services that turned traditional financial markets into digital systems such as cryptocurrency wallets and foreign payment solutions. From there, it was revolutionized into platforms that could be operated digitally where one can pay from just a click on their gadgets.
It was really a big leap of innovation from how it was several decades ago, and it did not only allow the payment industry to grow, but also enabled e-businesses and online shopping to step on the spotlight. Further, technological advancement also opened new doors for start-up companies, small businesses, and customers.
Our team has listed the top ten financial technology payment applications to keep an eye on this 2022 as they venture into the innovative markets.
- Bolt – With a marketing line of “One-click checkout for everyone”, Bolt claims that their service provides fast, secure, and simple payment solutions. Their objective is to democratize the market and is now estimated to be 8.4 billion worth of U.S. dollars. With their one-click payment system, they aim to offer businesses a technological feature mirroring how Amazon was since the year 1997. Aside from this, the fintech company is also ensuring that payments are real and are accepted by incorporating the utilization of payments and fraud solutions. Since they are the very first checkout platform in the world, Bolt is sticking to their fast checkout customer experience and is connecting millions of consumers to business owners globally through single, cross-band network system.
- Billd – This is a payment solution that gives contractors access to funds with terms that mirror their repayment cycle. Their headquarters is located in Texas, United States of America and is known to be a financial company that focuses on construction sectors. Billd is partnering up with both regional and national vendors around United States to provide short-term financial solutions to contractors through projects. Since the service is just short-term, they allow contractors to have one hundred twenty days (120) as payment term for commercial construction materials and enables the contractors to have the flexibility for the payment. The financial technology company’s co-founders, Chris Doyle and Jesse Weissburg, acknowledged the challenges of contractors when it comes to lack of capital for their business. Through Billd, this pain the contractors are experiencing while purchasing materials can be removed and can be utilized to expand their businesses.
- Affirm – Pay at your own pace: No hidden fees, not even late fees – this is the Affirm signature line. It was launched a decade ago, and has a headquarters in San Francisco, California. This United States – based financial technology firm is publicly traded, meaning, it is a corporation whose shareholders have a claim to part of the company’s assets and profits. Affirm is focusing on financial lending which allows their customers to pay in installments. Even though the committee is out on the assessment of the fintech company’s current worth, there are still estimates that their value is ranging from USD 1 billion to USD 10 billion. This placed Affirm in a remarkable spot, and is even leading with regard to the virtual payment market. Further, they are enabling their clients to acquire microloans at the point-of-sale (POS) with the suppliers or vendors they are in partnered with. The company’s objective on this is to offer lending services that could be alternative to credit cards because of its transparency and speedy transactions.
- SpotOn – Whether one needs a simple and user-friendly mobile payment technology, or a fully integrated restaurant management system, this company will work with you. SpotOn offers customization of tools based on your business needs and is known to be the “partner who listens”. They launched five years ago, and is currently worth USD 3.5 billion. They are proud that they are offering the main objective and without bias digital review web sites. SpotOn is available for free on iPhone and Android gadgets, where clients are allowed to check in at any events and earn rewards called “spots”. These “spots” can then be converted to prizes in addition to their current incentives.
- Checkout.com – Payments for the digital economy: Checkout.com aims to grow your business with the help of their flexible payment platform and local expertise. They are now valued at US 40 billion dollars, being considered as one of the leading payment platforms in the world. Checkout.com is standing its ground as a vendor who provides services for international electronic commerce partners. They are also considered as a business with fair-pricing products when set side by side with its competitors. The developers of this platform also integrated electronic-based payment system, as well as analytics, and close monitoring of fraud in just a single and smooth solution. Checkout.com is based in London, United Kingdom and is processing payments for large companies, which includes Pizza Hut, Hennes & Mauritz AB or H&M Group, and Farfetch, and financial technology companies like Coinbase, Klarna, and Revolut.
- AeroPay – An expert in moving money through modern bank-to-bank transfers, AeroPay is a payment platform created to offer businesses with cheaper and faster payment settlements, and strengthened security features. It also utilizes settlement process that are patented to allow “smart bank transfers” connecting businesses and their respective clients (C2B) or other businesses (B2B).
- Braintree – “Boost Revenue with a Global Payments Partner”: This is Braintree’s tagline with their objective to reach more buyers and drive higher conversion with the only payments platform that delivers PayPal, Venmo (in the United States), credit and debit cards, and popular digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay in a single, and seamless integration. To simply put it, they are a payments platform that accepts payment settlements through an application or their website. Braintree intends to be an alternative to the conventional system of having payments and merchants go through several vendors.
This platform is frequently seen to be in comparison with PayPal, however, the difference is that their objective is to have higher e-commerce businesses in volume wherein the demanded service is customized payment system. Contrasting to what others say when compared to PayPal, the latter firm was created as a simple and user-friendly application for merchants to use in e-commerce.
- Clover – This all-in-one point-of-sale (POS) platform was launched a decade ago with the objective to help businesses thrive by having a smarter, faster, and easier cloud-based system. They focus on four points:
- 3.1. Easier payments – Clover accepts any type of payments in a snap—from in-person swipe, chip, and tap, to online payments.
- 3.2. Tighter tracking – Whether one sells small products or memberships, all purchases are more secure and trackable.
- 3.3 Happier customers – Clover claims that they provide the best possible customer experience while building loyalty at the customers’ place of business and online.
- 3.4. More flexibility – Entrepreneurs can manage their business and make a sale from anywhere with Cloud’ dashboard, mobile app, and virtual terminal.
With these points, this third platform is focused on providing small entrepreneurs the opportunity to introduce themselves as official vendors by just downloading Clover’s application and then open an account through their mobile phones.
Clover’s headquarters is in Sunnyvale, California and the founders are Kelvin Zheng, Leonard Speiser, Mark Schulze and John Beatty, wherein Beatty is the current Chief Executive Officer of the financial technology company. On the other hand, the company’s owner is Fiserv, a top firm in the same industry, and has a forecasted market value of US 188 billion dollars in 3 years if they managed to continue their current growth rate.
- PayPal – One of the most recognized and well-established financial technology platform in the world, PayPal’s original founders are Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Max Levchin. It was in December of 1998, originally “Confinity”, an institution that was built to develop security software for gadgets. However, that security software business plan failed to be launched; hence, the founders resorted to virtual wallets.Two years after its establishment, in March of 2000, the company still struggled to thrive within the market. Confinity, then, had a merge with another payment platform hoping to be known – X.com which was headed by Elon Musk. It was Musk who became the Chief Executive Officer of the new company – PayPal. Afterwards, there were conflicts on the management side of the company because of leadership issues and that resulted for Thiel to resign from the new fintech company but returned as its chairman.Elon Musk carried on as the CEO of PayPal up until October, 2002, then it was bought in stock by eBay at US 1.5 billion dollars. Currently, PayPal’s value is at 130 billion US dollars and has the four marketing strategies below:
- 2.1. Shop for the best worldwide – PayPal is in partnership with approximately ten million online stores across more than 200 markets. Consumers can buy quality goods from international stores right from their homes. Once one spots a great deal, they can just click the PayPal button and buy with confidence.
- 2.2. Consumers purchases are protected – With their 24/7 transaction monitoring, anti-fraud technologies and Buyer Protection, consumers can shop with peace of mind.
- 2.3. Return shipping is on PayPal – When consumers change their mind about their purchases, they can simply ship the item back to the seller and get a refund of up to USD 20 on the return shipping cost through their Refunded Returns service.
- 2.4. Pay with preferred card – PayPal works with major banks in Philippines and overseas, hence; consumers can pay with their preferred credit or debit card and continue earning reward points.
- Stripe – Marketed as the “Payments infrastructure for the internet”, Stripe claims that millions of companies of all sizes — from startups to Fortune 500s — use their software and APIs to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online.It is an Irish-American financial and software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that was launched by Patrick and John Collison, brothers, twelve years ago (2010). Stripe has revolutionized the electronic commerce payment environment through virtual retailers with payment system that is cheaper, smoother, and more efficient.
Patrick, one of the brothers, was only a teenager then, 16, when he received the Young Scientist of the Year in 2005. It was in when he was 21 when Stripe had its launching in Patrick’s bedroom at their home. Now, the company has two headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States and is valued at US 95 billion dollars. Even though it is still awaiting to be confirmed, Stripe is now recognized in the world to have its IPO set this 2022.