Prepaid platforms are quickly transitioning into Payment-as-a-Service (PaaS) platforms, also sometimes called Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) that utilize prepaid, virtual cards, Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, OCT, and even ACH to accept, store, send, and spend funds for a wide range of use cases. Of the 46 prepaid suppliers (issuers, program managers & processors) Mercator studies, 18 have already made the switch.
As with Prepaid, these services are enabled by issuing banks that are primarily the same banks that supported prepaid. Rapyd has now entered the fray, making it 19 prepaid platforms that have made the transition although it has created a new name for its services. It claims to be a Fintech-as-a-Service (FaaS?). It is unclear how this is different than BaaS or PaaS:
“Israel-based Rapyd in January bagged $300 million in a Series D financing round led by Coatue.
The new financing comes just a month after the firm agreed a deal to acquire Icelandic payments company Valitor from Arion Bank for $100 million. The company in June also launched a venture arm to invest in early-stage fintech startups.
Arik Shtilman, co-founder and CEO of Rapyd, says: ‘We plan to use the funding to continue to build out our global fintech-as-a-service platform and invest in strengthening our network capabilities worldwide. We will continue to expand our presence across high-growth markets in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the US, and Latin America, where Rapyd’s platform can support businesses looking to grow internationally. We are doubling down on our channel partnerships strategy, strengthening our footprint across major high-growth markets, and exploring additional acquisitions that serve our strategic goals.’”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group
