Founded in 2018, Canadian startup tiptap has developed a simple solution that replaces cash and coin with touchless giving™ and touchless payments™.
Designed originally with charities and fundraising organizations in mind, tiptap's solution makes it easy for people to give at a time when cash use is decreasing. Instead, with a familiar tap-to-pay gesture, anyone can use their contactless EMV® bank card to donate a fixed amount at a mobile, wireless tiptap device.
"tiptap is easy and convenient to use, and can increase donations to a charity with an ROI of as much as 800 to 1,200 percent," says Chris Greenfield, CEO of tiptap.
Now tiptap's solution is finding wider applicability in commercial markets—anywhere that a simple tap-to-pay solution for small, fixed amounts delivers a great user experience. At festivals and other outdoor events. For entry to parks, trailheads and museums. On mass transit systems, for single or multiple journeys.
Behind the simple and often joyful front-end (reflecting a customer's brand or marketing campaign) lies a comprehensive reporting platform. So customers have the data, visibility and control they need for real-time tracking of whatever matters to their business—such as donations, sales, inventory, or transit system ridership.
Time to expand globally
Now tiptap is on course to realize its ambition of taking the solution global. But as Chris acknowledges, the payment technologies and industry regulations involved seemed daunting at first—especially when considering how to connect to multiple payment processors around the world.
"We wanted our customers to be able to continue working with their trusted payment processors, but were worried about the time and effort involved in establishing all of those individual connections," he says.
Fortunately, tiptap had a partnership with Visa, Inc., and shared Visa's vision for creating safer and easier digital payment experiences for the world. Visa recommended that tiptap use the flexible Cybersource payment platform to simplify connectivity to multiple processors.
"A single connection to Cybersource takes away the pain by giving us access to payment processors all over the world," says Chris. "The experienced Cybersource payment professionals have supported us brilliantly, with open communications and empathy for us as a startup."
On track for success
Once the integration with Cybersource is complete, tiptap will benefit from easier access to more processors, regional markets and customers than they would have had otherwise. "This will help to accelerate tiptap's reach and expansion by at least a few years, while reducing our expenses by around 500 percent," says Chris.
The Cybersource global network includes:
- 130+ acquirers and processors
- 160 countries and territories
- 50 funding currencies
Utilizing the Cybersource payment platform is a benefit appreciated by tiptap’s investors, and it complements tiptap’s mission of making digital payments simpler and accessible for all.
"As well as the impact of Cybersource and Visa believing in tiptap, investors know we have access to global markets faster and at lower cost than would otherwise be the case," says Chris.
Our relationship with Cybersource and Visa also helps to increase customers' trust in tiptap. Charities (many of which are large global organizations) are very PCI-DSS conscious, and savvy about protecting their donors' sensitive payment information. "This gives our customers confidence that our back-end system is world class, trusted, efficient and secure," he says.
tiptap's expansion will take off in the U.S. later in 2021, where a long list of charities and other merchants are already eager to roll out the solution. Next on the list will be Australia and New Zealand; followed by plans for Latin America, the Middle East, India, mainland Europe and the U.K. The company is exploring specific regional opportunities and use cases around faith-based giving, mass transit, museum entry, and hospitality.
"We intend to go global with Cybersource, connecting to payment processors through their platform wherever we can," says Chris. "With help from Cybersource, we expect business to balloon, and to have a million tiptap devices in use around the world by 2022."
Learn more about how Cybersource helps businesses like tiptap launch worldwide, seamless payment experiences with one modular platform.