Monetary transactions online precedes mobile phones and social networks. However, the ubiquitous nature of the function should not discount the innovation and opportunity that exists in the space. This might seem obvious to those steeped in “fintech” but it’s only been 25 years since Amazon launched an ecommerce revolution and only 20 years since Paypal democratized online payments.
When Vantiv announced it was acquiring Worldpay for over $10B in 2017, we were about three years into our journey at Rallybound. At the time, we were working with Vantiv as a credit card processor for a client. A month before the Worldpay announcement, Vantiv had approached us to discuss a PayFac partnership. It was a curious move from my side. Why was one of the largest payment processors in the world calling on our startup? The answer was in vertical payments.
Rallybound was making strides in the nonprofit payment space. A space where less than 10% of annual transactions ($290B) were handled online. While total individual giving has run roughly flat the last few years, the share of that philanthropy moving online continues to increase year over year. Vantiv was looking to capitalize on that trend.
Vantiv/World Pay combined would create an entity processing $1.5 trillion in payment volume. Vantiv recognized that there was tremendous opportunity in going deeper in vertical markets, including nonprofit donation payment portfolios. Fast forward to today, the speed of payment technology innovation, along with industry consolidation, shows no signs of slowing down. FIS announced the acquisition of Worldpay this past spring in a record-breaking $43 billion dollar deal . Even leading Fortune to declare the payment processing space “white-hot” in 2019. As further evidence that the future is vertical, FIS announced an acquisition of Eyefinity, a platform providing eye care practitioners with payment solutions, last month.
