The FinTech sector has undergone a massive transformation in the last couple years. Taking specifically digital payments into consideration, the need for physically visiting banks for our financial needs is now becoming an increasingly redundant requirement.
Flawless access and utmost convenience are the primary factors that make digital payment platforms our go-to option for all financial tasks. Undoubtedly, security is a pressing concern and companies across the world are competitively pacing towards providing customers with the most secure, easy and rewarding services.
In an interview with The Business Fame with Ken Kruszka the Founder & CEO of SnapCheck providing go-to-market strategy centers around enablement of our partners to better serve their customers and users.
1. Brief us about SnapCheck journey of rich experience – origin, inception, early issues, success stories, and major milestones, to name a few.
A Word from Our CEO
A couple years back, while running a business, I had a challenge. I wanted to pay the people who worked for me via electronic payments. I asked my employees how they would like to get paid, they all offered up different ways, but in the end the only answer that everyone agreed on was “Just give me a paper check!” I ended up blocking 4 days a month just to pay payroll by paper checks. I thought this just can’t be a problem only for me. So, I asked a few of my friends who are business owners and they told me they do exactly the same thing. I could not believe it. There had to be a better way.
So, we created the “paper check killer,” a concept that was validated and verified when we won Bank of the West’s North America Hackathon, followed by winning the BNP Paribas International Hackathon shortly thereafter. From these humble beginnings, we created a way to make any-to-any payments that are democratic and instantaneous as wells as a fully functional business suite with APIs to customize your offerings even further.
We also believe that every business is unique. No two are the same with respect to how they manage payments, time horizons, risk profiles, and personal values. Therefore our tools allow you to easily customize our APIs to your business needs. Although we provide a standard tool kit for business payment and management, you can easily build your own from scratch.
No matter if you’re a large enterprise looking for a simple, cost-effective platform to manage your payments or a small business owner looking for a tool that reflects your accounting needs, SnapCheck provides you with a platform and tools to achieve your unique goals.
– Ken Kruszka – Founder & CEO
Early validation came from winning the global competition conducted by Bank of the West and BNP Paribas. (https://www.bankofthewest.com/about-us/press-center/press-releases/2015/2015-12-04-international-hackathon-winners.html)
Here’s a quote from a senior exec at Bank of the West:
“We are impressed by the work that has already been done by this innovative group of entrepreneurs, and are excited to see how the projects evolve over the next six months,” said Andy Harmening, vice chairman for consumer banking, Bank of the West. “This international hackathon is a clear example of how both Bank of the West and BNP Paribas are pushing forward in the areas of innovation and finance with the goal of building a better experience for our customers – no matter where they live in the world.”
That was the first major validation point. From there, we’ve received critical acclaim from a number of sources.
Here’s a list of our major awards:
– Global Business Awards Best Digital Checking Solution
– API: World Best in Payments API
– BBVA Startup Walk of Fame
– RedHerring Top100 North America Winner
– Money2020 – Featured Startup
– Singapore FinTech Festival – Featured Startup
– FiNext Top 10 Companies in Finance
– Future of Money & Technology Startup Winner
– KPMG Top 20 Global FinTech Startup
– Bank Innovation Top Innovators to Watch
– CIO Review Top 20 Payments Tech Provider
– Celeriti Hack-the-Core Winner
– BNP Paribas International Hackathon Winner
2. Brief us about the CEO/Founder of SnapCheck.
Short Bio – Ken Kruszka
Ken is a FinTech and Payments pioneer, who holds the distinction of being the first person to send $1 around the world by mobile transfer. In addition to being an accomplished executive, leader, and entrepreneur, Ken also advises early-stage companies looking to establish product-market fit and accelerate growth on a global scale (mentoring for UnBank Ventures, INV Fintech, The Founder Institute, and Village Capital).
Ken leads SnapCheck in revolutionizing business-to-business payments: eliminating $50 Billion in costs, removing $20 Billion in fraud. Previously, as co-founder and CEO of m-Via, Ken grew the company into an industry-recognized leader in mobile financial services and brought the company to cash-flow positive before leading m-Via through an acquisition by Boom Financial. Ken is a Founding Member of the Faster Payments Council, as well as a member of the Federal Reserve’s Business Payments Coalition and the FedNow Community. Ken has recently been named a Top Innovator to Watch by Bank Innovation, a Top FinTech Innovator by Aspioneer, and a Leading Corporate Digital Transformation Innovator by Databird.
3. Kindly talk about the exclusive products or services offered by SnapCheck, How does it distinguish you from your competitors?
Problem
B2B payments are trapped in the dark ages (dominated by paper checks) and cost business over $70 Billion in costs and fraud annually.
Solution
SnapCheck’s revolutionary digital payments platform gives businesses a universally accepted digital payment form that cuts costs by 70% and fraud risk by an additional 90% over any other payment type, while providing greater payment visibility and control than any other payment form today. Through the simple and human-centric user experience of a digital check, coupled with our proprietary Smart Settlement technology, SnapCheck drives payments infrastructure modernization and payments digitization on a global scale.
SnapCheck’s multi-award-winning platform includes easy to implement APIs and pre-built, drop-in Widgets that reduce partner integration time to hours instead of weeks. Compared to paper checks, SnapCheck is instant, less expensive (70%), reduces fraud (90%), and provide greater data and visibility into a business’ cash flow. Compared to ACH, SnapCheck provides an easier, more intuitive payment experience, with reduced fraud (95%), and greater security and peace of mind for both payor and recipient.
SnapCheck’s go-to-market strategy is not a direct model, but as an enabler for our partners to bring our unique and powerful Digital Checking Service to their users through our flexible API and whitelabel-ready Widgets.
Here’s a bit of our sales pitch to partners:
Company:
* Whitelabel-ready B2B Digital Checking-as-a-Service solution. Reference customers include BBVA.
* Founded in 2015 by digital payments pioneers. Part of RBC-sponsored EvoNexus FinTech Accelerator.
* Bank-friendly partnership model: whitelabel-ready platform, licensed on a per digital payment basis.
Partnership Proposal:
Bank/Partner can rapidly and profitably offer a Partner-branded Digital Checking service, that delivers the following outcomes simultaneously:
– Re-capture of revenue + profit that otherwise goes to proprietary digital payment platforms.
– Ability to capitalize $4+ per paper-check life-cycle cost-savings, by moving clients to digital.
– Rapid, viral acquisition of new clients, as payees + payors enroll in the Partner-branded service.
– Ability to monetize newly-digitized money-flow data, across the new Partner payments network.
SnapCheck Differences versus alternatives:
* Unlike other digital payment platforms (e.g. PayPal/Venmo, cards), which create on-boarding friction and tax the recipient up to 3%, SnapCheck’s API-based platform leverages existing client AP+AR processes, and existing bank infrastructure/rails. The delta between high client value, and low per-transaction bank cost (comparable to ACH), is a profit-generating opportunity for Partner.
* Unlike competing Digital Checking platforms, SnapCheck’s API-based platform was designed to allow Partner to immediately offer a Digital Checking Service that is Partner-branded, embedded within Partner’s online banking portal, and/or customizable to match Partner’s online banking interface (i.e. whitelabel-ready).
4. What is the vision and mission of SnapCheck?
SnapCheck is on a mission to eliminate paper checks and empower businesses to adopt digital payments.
SnapCheck helps businesses save time and money, eliminate fraud, gain visibility into cash flows, achieve better cash management… within existing back-office processes.
5. What is the present scenario of the Fintech industry? How are you contributing to making it better?
We live in the golden age of Fintech. In just the past few years, the amount of change in financial service has been astounding. For SnapCheck, we’re driving payments modernization and leading the transformation of business payments which have traditionally been stuck in the dark ages (conducted on paper checks), helping companies to embrace faster, more secure, more convenient digital payments.
We’re doing this not only with our multi-award winning digital payments platform, but also by leading the way in the guiding industry groups. SnapCheck is a founding member of the US Faster Payments Council, a member of the FedNow Pilot Community, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Business Payments Coalition.
6. What are the marketing strategies adopted by SnapCheck?
SnapCheck’s go-to-market strategy centers around enablement of our partners to better serve their customers and users. These partners are financial institutions, accounts payable automation providers, mass disbursements companies, bookkeepers and accountants, and more. Since we’re not specifically working directly with the end-user business, but through these partners, we shy away from mainstream marketing channels and focus on industry events and publications to establish these relationships.
7. How do you portray the future of SnapCheck in the next decade?
SnapCheck is leading the global transformation of business payments. In the next decade, SnapCheck will be the dominate world-wide business payments network converting the $100 Trillion dollars in business transactions that are today still conducted on paper check into fast, secure digital payments.
8. With respect to your distinctive products and services, how have you helped bring positive developments in the fintech industry?
Paper checks are a terrible scourge that still plagues the US and many parts of the world. In the US alone, businesses spend $50 Billion annually just to write and send paper checks. And that doesn’t account for the $10 Billion per year that businesses and banks lose due to fraud.
SnapCheck eliminates 70% of these costs and over 90% of that fraud due to our advanced and secure platform, making SnapCheck by far the most economical and the most fraud resistance payment mechanism available in the world today!
9. What advice would you give to the upcoming entrepreneurs and professionals?
My best advice for entrepreneurs, especially in the fintech industry, is to really know the industry. As the saying goes “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” So, it pays dividends to study the history of the industry that you’re trying to change. Our predecessors weren’t dumb people. They didn’t purposely make bad choices that would hinder future generations. They looked at the current landscape and tried to solve problems of the day in the best ways they could, with the best technologies available to them. So, I believe that it’s important to understand “how we got here” before we can really determine the best path forward.
10. What is the current industry scenario from your perspective?
We are living in the golden age of fintech. The banking and financial services industry, as well as businesses and consumers alike, have awoken to the fact that the old ways and the old technologies no longer work for the modern world. Now is the time for all of use to invent the future of banking and financial services. And, at SnapCheck, we’re doing our part by leading the way to payments modernization for businesses in the US and beyond.
