Remitr debuts SMB accounts to speed global payments

Canada-facing business payments platform Remitr has launched Global Business Accounts (GBA) to help small Canadian businesses make cross border transactions. GBA, free to Remitr customers, can hold transactions in U.S. dollars, British pounds sterling and euros, and transfer money to more than 150 countries, said Kanchan Kumar, chief executive at Remitr. [caption id="attachment_185598" align="alignright" width="300"] Image via Remitr[/caption] “With the GBA, small businesses can export their products and services across borders and get paid in less than a day as compared to three to five business days with a traditional bank,” Kumar said. Account holders can hold funds in their accounts and wait for a desirable foreign exchange rate before converting the money for deposit. Unlike other foreign exchanges that charge a percentage of the transaction, Remitr charges a $5 flat fee on every currency conversion transaction, Kumar said. And whereas traditional banks usually charge 6% for every international transaction, Remitr charges a flat $5 fee for cross-border transfers with an FX spread never exceeding 1%, he said. The GBA had been in Remitr’s pipeline since December 2019, and was set to be released later this year, but the pandemic fast-tracked the company’s technological road map, Kumar said. “The new post-pandemic environment means that more and more small businesses have become global, they have to become online,” Kumar said. “So we figured that this would be the right time to launch our GBA, to help businesses get online quicker and transact internationally with ease.” The GBA, which is free to open, is being offered to all Canadian small businesses. Kumar expects the platform to grow exponentially by the end of this year . The four-year-old company’s current customers number in the thousands, according to Kumar. Remitr is headquartered in Toronto with an entity registered in Palo Alto. “We piloted the GBA with tens of our clients, like Tweepsmap, a social media marketing platform, and the response has been positive,” Kumar said. “We already have plenty more customers in the pipeline who are interested in our platform.” Remitr is entering a growing market of digital banking solutions in Canada, though most focus on the consumer market. EQ Bank, Scotiabank’s Tangerine and Motusbank all offer online banking products, and Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify entered the space with the launch of its SMB checking account last month . EQ Bank allows customers to transfer money internationally through a partnership with TransferWise . See also: Shopify’s push into finance: Opportunity or threat to banks? Remitr is betting on its value proposition for businesses to receive payment in one currency and pay their vendors in a different currency without converting the payment to their home bank account. “This ease of making and receiving payment among different sets of currencies is what differentiates us from our competitors,” Kumar said. “We plan on adding more sets of currency on the GBA platform in the coming months, according to the demand of our customers.” Bank Innovation Build , which will take place Sep. 9-10 as a virtual experience, is a must-attend industry event for professionals overseeing financial technologies, product experiences and services. Register here .

Remitr debuts SMB accounts to speed global payments

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