xpate CEO Mike Shafro: Multi-fit Payment Solution Is a Key to Help Business Success in New Markets

xpate CEO Mike Shafro shared his opinion with Fazzaco on why payment solution are important for merchants and how they achieved success in the tough 2020.

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Fazzaco: Could you please make a brief introduction about yourself and your company? 

Mike Shafro: With a decade of experience in the financial sector, I founded xpate with the belief that global payments should be seamless and leave a positive impression on the user.

xpate is a payments platform that prioritises simplicity, speed, and user experience. We’re committed to simplifying the processing of payments, particularly in relation to cross-border payments, which are shaping the future of our business and others.

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Fazzaco: What is your biggest advantage compared with other payment solution providers ? 

Mike Shafro: xpate offers businesses a single multi-fit solution that unites all of the desired payment methods to cover an extensive range of demands that otherwise require onboarding and integration with multiple partners. 

Consumer appetite for cross-border ecommerce is creating opportunities for merchants to reach new markets and customers that are simply too good to miss. It’s crucial that cross-border merchants looking to enter new markets, regions and territories analyse payment data to optimise conversions and ensure the entire customer experience is as seamless and easy as possible.

But it can be hard to know where to start, especially if you don’t have the benefit of expertise to understand the metrics. xpate helps businesses find success and growth in whichever new market they go into by providing a seamless cross-border payment experience. We announced the opening of two new fintech hubs in London and Singapore in 2020 to offer our clients and their customers the truly global service they require.

We’ve also expanded our Visa and Mastercard offering into new regions, including Canada and India. And significantly, xpate was approved for Mastercard Principal Membership, which was such a pivotal moment for us. There is no bigger name in the fintech space than Mastercard and so to be a part of its principality programme so early in our journey is testament to the hard work and talent of our unstoppable team.

This means we are now working directly with Mastercard to enhance the xpate Stacks platform, offer innovative solutions to new clients, bolster our merchant acquiring portfolio, and take advantage of an extended range of products and services to strengthen xpate’s offering in the market.

Ultimately, xpate has entered the payments industry at a unique point in history when cash is on its way out and alternative forms of payments are increasing exponentially. This is exactly the kind of payments revolution xpate is designed for and that’s why we’ve seen such significant growth in such a short space of time. 

Fazzaco: How do you deal with the post-covid challenges? 

Mike Shafro: The last 12 months have undeniably been a challenging time for so many businesses. 2020 was a year of significant growth for xpate, including our employee headcount rising from 15 to 90 – a sixfold increase in the space of year. But we also faced our own challenges. Finding the right people when you’re expanding so rapidly is not easy.

We’ve been fortunate to attract talent to xpate who not only offer unrivalled expertise and experience across the financial sector, but understand how important our people culture is to our business. We’re particularly proud to have such a diverse team, with 60% of xpate’s employees being female. 

The foundations of any successful business, I believe, are built on its people. There is a lot to be said for surrounding yourself with people who are equally experienced and passionate about what they do, which I urge any entrepreneur to do.

After such a strong initial two years in business, we are incredibly ambitious for the future and have plenty more in store for our customers to be announced throughout 2021. In fact, we are on the cusp of launching two new products. With the launch of these exciting new products on the horizon, we have much to look forward to.