PayU, the fintech and e-payments business of Prosus, has announced that it has tied up with Amsterdam-based Silverflow, a cloud-based payments processing startup, to offer Payment Service Providers (PSPs) a new card acquiring process. This partnership comes after Silverflow’s recent €2.6M Seed funding (Oct 2020).
Anne Willem de Vries, co-founder, and CEO of Silverflow believes, “Today’s card payment infrastructure is based on 30 to 40-year old technology which hasn’t evolved with the payments landscape. Partnering with PayU, we have the potential to change this. PayU’s global connections and experience with Acquiring Licenses coupled with our cloud-native platform, we can make a demonstrable difference; reducing the time, money, and resource the current card processing technology requires.”
Aim of this partnership
According to a press release, “By combining Silverflow’s direct connection to the card networks with PayU’s acquiring capabilities, the move will revolutionise processing and settlement within the card acquiring process and drive innovation across the wider payments industry.”
By allowing direct access to card networks through a single API, Silverflow’s platform enables PSPs to instantly add new functionality, streamline quality data flows and significantly reduce costs. This means PSPs no longer have to connect to acquirers multiple times over, reducing the complexity and cost of managing a network of card processing solutions.
PayU’s compliance expertise and Acquiring Licences streamline the process further, saving valuable time and resources for PSPs.
Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) has encouraged many PSPs to look into improving their acquiring capabilities and becoming acquirers themselves to future-proof their businesses.
Mario Shiliashki, CEO of PayU says, “By combining Silverflow’s offering with our deep expertise and experience in the domain as well as our state of the art acquiring platform and its capabilities, the combined product is uniquely positioned in the market to enhance and even replace PSP legacy systems and make them more suitable to the needs of today’s data-driven world.”
What service does Silverflow offer?
Silverflow started in early 2019 with Robert Kraal and Anne Willem de Vries discussing the company’s core idea. The company’s founding team consists of co-founder and CEO Anne Willem de Vries, co-founder and CTO Paul Buying, and the co-founder and CBDO, Robert Kraal. Kraal previously joined Adyen back in 2010 as the COO and has over two decades of experience in the online payment segment. Similarly, De Vries also gained experience in card payments at Adyen, where he joined the cards acquiring team.
“After talking to Visa & Mastercard and several PSPs (payment service processors) we were convinced we were on the right track. However, we quickly realised that we needed a technical co-founder for a project like this. We were introduced to Paul Buying by one of my neighbours, with whom I was participating in a machine learning course for professionals,” said De Vries in an interview with Silicon Canals.
Its cloud-based platform provides direct access to the card networks for payment services providers, merchants, and acquirers. Silverflow’s product and scalable technology provides value, creates efficiencies, and drives new opportunities for all.
The company has raised a total of €3M till date. It is backed by Crane Venture Partners, INKEF Capital, and notable angel investors from Pay.On, First Data, Booking.com, and Adyen.
About PayU
PayU is a financial services provider in global growth markets. It claims to deliver innovative technology that enables billions of people and millions of merchants to buy and sell online. As an online payment service provider, it deploys more than 300 payment methods and PCI certified platforms to process approximately 1.2 million payments daily.
It also specialises in consumer and small business products that improve access to credit and banking services in markets that are underserved by traditional financial services providers.
PayU claims to be the biggest investors in the fintech space, with investments totalling $1B (approx €831M) to date. The company operates in areas including Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
Prosus, the owner of PayU, has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam, a secondary listing on the JSE Limited, and is majority-owned by Naspers.