Rapyd will collaborate with Visa to offer fintech and payment services where both firms see opportunities to help businesses expand their core offerings with more expansive local and cross-border market solutions. Additionally, Rapyd will join Visa's Fintech Fast Track programs as an enablement partner to drive its speed to market for Fintechs through a variety of Visa payment solutions. Rapyd has become a Visa issuer in the UK and plans to expand its issuing and acquiring footprint in other key regions over time.

Rapyd's unified cloud-based platform helps businesses quickly integrate Fintech and payment capabilities into any commerce application. eCommerce merchants, gig economy platforms, financial institutions, and technology providers are all looking to enable highly localized customer experiences around the world, a challenge Rapyd solves by delivering the full stack of fintech services through a single integration.

For instance, as part of this new relationship with Visa, Rapyd can instantly issue a virtual Visa card that can be utilized by a gig-economy worker in Latin America to purchase goods on behalf of the platform, or disburse funds to a worker on a Visa card in Asia-Pacific, all from a single integration on the Rapyd platform.

Sarel Tal, Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Rapyd noted, "As businesses look for global expansion opportunities they must contend with the complexity of integrating local and cross-border payment capabilities, including collections, disbursements, and card-based solutions. Now Rapyd can leverage Visa's offerings -- Visa Direct for real-time funds transfers, Visa Token Services for secure digital payments, and Visa's issuance capabilities - to enhance Rapyd's core issuing and acquiring services, unlocking simple, relevant payment experiences for these businesses globally."

Visa and Rapyd are particularly excited to work together in key European markets, which are poised for cross-border ecommerce growth. In 2018 cross-border ecommerce revenues reached € 137 billion in Europe, a 22.8% share of total online sales (EU16)1. Additionally, European cross-border marketplaces are set to grow by more than 50 percent increasing the need for innovative payment acceptance methods for customers and disbursement solutions for marketplace sellers2.

"Rapyd's platform helps fintechs, merchants and marketplaces stand up payment-related services quickly and easily across multiple markets," said Matt Dill, global head of strategic partnerships and venture, Visa. "We're excited about our collaboration with Rapyd, and the many benefits we can provide to our mutual partners worldwide."