Revolut announces merchant acquiring solution for businesses

Revolut has extended its business product offering by offering a merchant acquiring platform from which businesses can accept online card payments.

Revolut’s chief executive Nik Storonsky announced that merchant acquiring unit will allow businesses in 13 European countries to accept card payments online directly into their account.

The product makes Revolut a direct competitor to Stripe and Ayden in what is now a high growth market.

Revolut Business Acquire will form part of the bank’s business starter pack which it claims provides firms with a solution to help them manage everything in one place without the need to alternate between acquiring and banking platforms.

It comes as businesses shift to social media platforms amid the pandemic and use Instagram, Facebook or TikTok as their new storefronts. Revolut claims its new acquiring solution will alleviate the burden of payments by enabling businesses to send secure payment links to customers.

“Companies across Europe know that it’s now essential to their success to be able to do business online,” said Storonsky at this year’s Web Summit. “That’s why we introduced a new secure way to accept payments through websites and we have enabled customers without an online presence to get paid fast through secure payment links. Our mission is to democratise acceptance and we are already on the way.”

The push on new products comes as Revolut more than tripled its losses from 2018 in its annual report in August. Although the neobank saw a rise in its customer base during the first lockdown, it saw a decline in interchange revenue, which makes up over 60% of its income.

Business customers will pay lower fees for the new acquiring service, with a 1.3% fee for UK and EEA consumer cards and 2.8% for all other cards.