How the Partnership with Ripple Helped us Grow
and how we keep growing together
Two years ago (back in 2017), BeeTech was starting its operations, and as any new company, we had some obstacles to go through. Our main product Remessa Online was still in its early days, and struggling to grow in the expected pace.
In order to expand the service and achieve the goals the team had set for the product, some partnerships were needed, and that’s when I came in.
Becoming more competitive
I joined the team back than with this objective, to study the market, understand the latest technology available and establish partnerships in order to reach competitive advantages.
To achieve these, there were a few issues that needed to be tackled:
Lack of financial education
Since the average Brazilian does not have financial education and pretty much relies on the bank account manager for help, most FX customers still uses their traditional bank for cross border payments and remittances. We needed to spread the word and educate the clients about new FX fintechs and the advantages these bring.
Fees
Back in the day our fees (spread and bank fees) charged to the clients were very similar to traditional methods. We would charge 1.8% to 2.5% spread and deliver the money to the beneficiary in 72 hours. We needed to lower both the spread charged and delivery time in order to become more competitive and show the customers the real value of fintechs. This meant we needed to find a technology that would substitute the traditional SWIFT method used for cross border payments.
My job then was to look for technological alternatives that would allow us to substitute the use of SWIFT so we could become more competitive and offer clients a better experience.
I then remembered I had met one of Ripple’s founders back in London. Since I had no other contact points at the company I sent him an email and received positive feedback, he then directed me to an account manager, and this is how it all began.
The Partnership
Just like BeeTech was searching for partners in order to grow, so was Ripple. The company was looking to prove their business model and grow their network. Having payment providers using their network would prove their value to larger banks.
Needless to say, this painted the perfect scenario for a partnership — little did I know then that, more than having the same goals, BeeTech and Ripple shared some of the same values.
Ripple
Ripple is a settlement system and remittance network. The company’s main goal is to offer international financial transactions which are secure, fast, cheap and transparent. Through its RippleNet companies are able to join the network and use the blockchain based technology to reach trust and connect with payment providers and banks worldwide.
You can read more about it on our blog’s post.
First steps
In 2017 BeeTech’s team was composed of 30 driven and passionate people, 10 of these being developers, needless to say, this was a huge challenge. Each one of us was wearing many hats in order to make things work.
After we signed the agreement and joined RippleNet, it was time for the technological implementation. Having such a small team only three of our developers were assigned to the project, and had to work really hard to make the dream come true. Everyone was so dedicated, it was truly gratifying to see how our team was giving its best (the guys have never let us down and will raise to every challenge that is thrown at them — I admire every single one of you!).
Ripple sent a couple of people from their team down to Brazil to help us with the process. As the result, BeeTech became an internal success case for Ripple, as the fastest tech implementation over the RippleNet, we took three weeks to finish this process, which shows the commitment and dedication of the teams from both companies.
That was the first indicator both companies were on the same page, and the partnership would be one of a positive sum game.
After the kick off
As soon as the project was launched we worked with Ripple’s communication team in order to do a press release. We wanted everybody to know about the project we were so excited about. The release announcing the partnership was the first time BeeTech was ever featured on media outside Brazil, and we were so happy that more people could know about our company and its mission.
The first corridor we enabled over the RippleNet was the European one. We partnered with Nium, former InstaReM, for that project and got to see what it feels like to work with another fintech. All the adjustments needed were put in place fast and we were watching every single transaction sent across closely. We were so excited to scale up the partnership that getting things right and solving any minor issues was crucial from the beginning.
To this day we have three partners over the RippleNet and Nium remains our major one, supporting our payouts in Europe, UK, and Australia. Our next step is to launch the US corridor in the upcoming month. Once we enable the US corridor we will be covering all our main business markets over the RippleNet.
It is because of this partnership and the connection with players such as Nium that we were able to address the two issues I previously mentioned:
- The spread charged which used to range between 1.8% and 2.5% is now less than 1.3%.
- We used to charge a bank fee of 20USD, nowadays this is of just 2USD and for transactions higher than 500USD there is no bank fee.
- The transactions previously delivered in up to 4 business days now reaches the beneficiaries in 24 hours tops — and for some corridors we are able to pay in less than 2hours!!
- The onboarding process which used to take 2 to 5 business days now happens in only 5 minutes.
All this represents a major game change to our clients which are now able to have an even better, faster and cheaper service, achieving their financial goals with less friction.
BeeTech and Ripple have grown a lot together. As partners in a mutual relationship both parties feel the benefits of working together. The shared values and goals make this partnership work like no other.
Swell by Ripple
Ripple has an annual event called Swell. This event brings together the RippleNet members, Financial Institutions and Payment Providers from around the world to share what is unfolding in global payments today.
This year’s edition happened in Singapore on November 7th and 8th, and at least 175 companies attended the event. As a strategic partner BeeTech attended the event for the second year, it is always a great opportunity for us to meet our current partners, network and know what is trending in the sector.
Not only this event shows whats popping on the market, but they have awards as well — the Blockchain Innovation Awards — which is divided into three different categories:
- Visionary Award
- Connector Award
- Network Accelerator Award
We arrived at Swell with a magic feeling of ‘all our hard work is paid off’, business is growing fast, we are one of the most competitive companies in the market (and definitely the most competitive one in Brazil), what else could we ask for, right?
On the night of November 7th Ripple awarded BeeTech with the Network Accelerator Award. We felt so honoured, not just with the award itself, but with the speech that was made — being recognized for getting the job done is the best thing that could happen (thank you so much Gui for your kind words, they are stuck in our minds).
At the end of the day, this award might just be a nice statue for anyone else, but for me, it represents the efforts from all our team, it shows how our sweat and tears really pays off, how far we have come as people and as professionals, and how far we can still go.
Next steps
There is so much work to be done still. Currently we only use Ripple for payouts in other countries, but pretty soon we will be able to distribute payments in Brazil, helping other RippleNet members access the Brazilian market.
What we aim is to position ourselves as a major player in Latin America, and we are working hard to make it happen. We know that having the right mindset and the right partners is crucial for this mission, but we feel we are on the right track.
During Swell one of Ripple’s team members said to me “I feel like we are family”, and that is the best way to describe this partnership.
We are paving the way, changing the financial landscape. We are all on a mission, we are as tight as family, and I cannot wait for what the future holds.
Our hive is also growing and you can be part of this journey too, check out our career options:
#GoBee #VemPraBee
