Recent data reveals that 92% of SMB merchants, such as newsagents, restaurants, hairdressers and plumbers have been with the same payment provider for more than a year. It also shows that 66% of merchants don’t know the fees that they are paying to these providers. Reportedly, SMB merchants are often paying 2-3 times the market rate for their payments.
Statement’s launch and pre-seed investment
Resolving this issue, London fintech Statement offers a new platform, which helps small businesses compare card payment providers. In a recent development, the company has launched in the UK with £1.5 million in pre-seed funding from global VC investor Northzone, which backed US crypto wallet company Magic and UK fintech Wagestream.
Statement’s platform has been launched ahead of a regulation change from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) on July 6, which addresses market failure in SMB payments.
“We all use our cards without a second thought, but accepting card payments has been frustrating for small business owners for far too long.” said Ed Hardy, CEO of Statement. “90% of contracts are still signed through telesales or field sales making it hard to quickly search the market. We’re building the technology to create a more transparent payment industry where businesses can compare and board to their chosen provider online, cutting the process of finding the right provider from days down to minutes.”
Compares payments providers
Founded at Entrepreneur First in 2023 by Ed Hardy (CEO, ex Worldpay), and Olivia Stannah (CTO, ex Citymapper), Statement intends to drive a behaviour change from acquiring payments services. It is a price comparison tool that allows merchants accepting payments in person to find the right provider for them and switch in minutes – a process that takes days currently. This comparison tool can save a convenience store over £5,400 annually by switching them in minutes – a process that takes days currently.
Once businesses upload their most recent merchant statement to Statement’s online platform, its technology automatically pulls the required information to provide a tailored recommendation for payment providers. Merchants are shown a comparison tool, comparing key metrics that are most important to their business and spending needs such as settlement time, contract length, and monthly charges.
