Kriya Payments is now available in 42 countries.
This means buyers worldwide can “take advantage of flexible payment terms, feeling more secure about their cash flow.”
General Manager, Martina Trifonova, has commented on the thinking behind the decision was, what the team learned in the process and what’s next.
As noted in a blog post, Kriya (formerly MarketFinance) strive to adapt their offering to the needs of the community.
Their team “saw a lot of demand from B2B platforms who were based in one jurisdiction but sold internationally.”
They knew they had “to expand the product to meet this need and be able to accelerate our growth through enabling and powering the growth of our merchants internationally.”
After all, Kriya is Sanskrit for “being in the state of flow – they couldn’t remain static while our customers told us to move.”
As noted in the update:
“As of early 2023, we support B2B eCommerce businesses in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, Netherlands and Belgium. Kriya Payments is currently available in four currencies: Sterling, US Dollars, Euros and Australian Dollars.”
But their reach is even wider when it comes to buyers’ locations. Kriya Payments is “available in 42 countries, with more countries coming soon on our roadmap.”
Introducing more geographies and currencies allowed Kriya to support more merchants, as they’re able “to meet their varying needs more efficiently and remain a trusted partner throughout their growth journey.”
The firm has several marketplaces launching in the near future from different European destinations.
As mentioned in the update:
“But benefits didn’t stop with new customers – we helped our existing customers to expand and sell to non-UK buyers. With many jurisdictions, the merchant has to set up a legal entity in the country to open bank accounts and be able to commence operations. Otherwise, buyers would have to bear the cost of large international bank transfer fees. A less than ideal option considering many businesses work with tight margins.”
The firm added:
“When working with Kriya merchants can avoid the headache and unpredictable costs. We set everything up, avoiding bank transfer fees and minimising resources needed to deploy in new geographies. What’s more, since we support multiple currencies we help merchants reduce costs associated with foreign exchange. And this means we grow with our customers – we’re able to add more locations depending on the demand and support merchants on their growth journey.”
The firm’s growing international footprint posed quite the challenge to their Operations team and the results are “a testament to their hard work.”
As noted in a blog post, any expansion “comes with its own nuances.”
Offering B2B buy now pay later globally is “a complex process, mainly due to differing regulations in various jurisdictions.”
Data availability and reliability “varies between geographies which means a thorough investigation and analysis was needed to gain comfort with our due diligence and risk decisions.”
Each country came with their own standards, they had “to understand how ‘things are done’. This included local payment methods, comfort and knowledge around embedded finance, and other cultural nuances.”
As noted in the announcement:
“Global presence is a key competitive advantage when dealing with B2B eCommerce platforms. They prefer to deal with a single provider across all jurisdictions. Integrating with multiple vendors is costly, resource intensive and can be a logistical challenge.”
The announcement also mentioned that merchants expect “to be able to offer seamless payment methods and terms to their buyers irrespective of their location.”
A consistent positive experience is key “to building trust between different sides of the platform and cultivating an active community.”
Working with Kriya Payments “makes it that much easier for a merchant to start selling abroad without taking on any credit risk and reducing the possibility of fraud.”
Kriya is “a fintech with over a decade of experience handling payments from non-UK debtors for our Invoice Finance product.”
Those learnings “were crucial in the speed with which we were able to evaluate new geographies.”
As mentioned in a blog post:
“We also can’t underestimate the importance of working with experienced and reputable partners. We secured flexible funding from Viola Credit which is key in expanding our geographic coverage. We also strengthened our payment capabilities by optimizing payments flow through key partnerships. We are always on the lookout for synergies with companies in the space and are excited where the journey will take us.”
The firm added:
“Our team keeps working on expanding our reach in line with customer demand and opportunity size. We look to become a ‘one stop shop’ partner for merchants no matter their size or location. And our Operations team is really excited by the challenge of adding more currencies and countries.”