As part of VibePay’s ambitious growth plans, and following an additional £1.25m in funding from its current investors, Kieran Bamber has been chosen to lead Commercial Partnerships, tasked with building VibePay’s partner network, and supporting brands in building a more engaged relationship with their Gen Z consumers.

 New API for business

The VibePay Payments API powers payments for brands - both via online checkouts and subscriptions; the latter being hugely popular amongst Gen Z and traditionally expensive to process.     

The API is built on open banking and is one piece of the wider Vibe ecosystem. This includes the Vibe Data API, giving brands unique transactional insights into their Gen Z customers, made possible through the Vibe Pay app, which gives Gen Z users an ‘activity feed for their life’. The data API gives businesses insights into the products and services Gen Z care about, and frequently transact with.  

The launch, which was planned for Q3 but brought forwards to help SMEs during the current uncertain environment, is intended to give businesses instant access to their funds, and improve cash flow, at a time when this is business-critical.

With that, VibePay is offering SME businesses 3 months free to trial the technology, and maximise its impact throughout the uncertainty of COVID-19. 

Further growth

The move comes as VibePay continues to forge consumer-centric technology, and place the success of its existing app into the hands of SMEs and brands alike.

Since launching in Beta in October 2019, the app has processed over £3m in requests and payments from customers - with this projected to reach £10m in the next quarter.

This recent funding takes VibePay’s total investment raised to £6.36m, with plans to boost this later in 2020 with a round of series A funding to support the business’ next stage of growth. 

European expansion

In addition, Vibe recently received approval from several other European countries, including Germany, France, Netherlands and Luxembourg, to start implementing banks into the Vibe Banking Gateway, the aggregation layer powering payments in the entire ecosystem. Vibe currently adheres to two open banking standards, the UK Open Banking standard and now the Berlin Standard.

Luke Massie, CEO and Founder at VibePay said: “Our USP is our understanding of our audience. We’re built for Generation Z, by Generation Z, and we know that many brands struggle to target that customer effectively. Plenty of businesses are spending more money than ever on advertising to Gen Z, and it can be a difficult demographic to engage with - add to that high payment fees for purchases, and the process of converting Gen Z into customers can be incredibly expensive.

"By launching our latest products, we’re not only helping brands sharpen up their payments processes and boost their cash flow, we’re helping them deliver what their target customers want. We’re not just another payments provider, we’re giving brands invaluable insights into who their customers are, where they shop and how they spend to offer tailored discounts, targeted offers, or related products and stay one step ahead. 

I’ve no doubt Kieran is the best person to help us build out our business offer, and can’t wait to see what he brings to the role, and the VibePay brand more broadly.”

Kieran Bamber, Head of Commercial Partnerships at VibePay said: “VibePay has a strong vision, and a genuinely exclusive proposition for businesses who are trying to engage with Gen Z. With experience in both consultancy, and business development, I’ve seen how this struggle can impact brands, and offering a totally new solution is a really exciting prospect. 

Our subscriptions API is particularly unique, with Generation Z embracing subscriptions culture more than any other age group. Being able to see, monitor, and permit standing orders through our app gives consumers more financial control, and businesses can make significant savings on those payments. It really is win win.”

Businesses who want to explore the option of VibePay for 3 months, free should register their interest at www.vibepay.com/business, a member of the sales team will then be in touch.