Ribbon Takes ‘Simple’ Merchant Solution To P2P

In late January, Ribbon, which launched originally as a merchant payments tool provider, launched a peer-to-peer payment solution. Regardless of its target audience, however, the company’s tool represents “the simplest way of receiving money,” company founder Hany Rashwan noted in a recent podcast interview with Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster.

Collecting money online is difficult because it typically requires the sender to be part of the same network or platform as the recipient, Rashwan noted. (Jump To: 0:45) “We make it incredibly easy,” he said. “You can think of us as an online cash register where you can just send people to your page and easily charge a credit or debit card without requiring them to go through any hassles of signing up for an account, verifying their bank details, downloading an app, or whatever.”

Ribbon’s customers create their own online payments profiles, and they choose their own username. If an individual or merchant is owed money for a purchase or debt, for example, he would send his URL to that individual. The URL is formatted to note the merchant or recipient by name and the price owed. For example, in the case of a $35.23 debt, the recipient would request the funds by text or email via this format: ribbon.co/username/price.

While Ribbon can support smaller transactions, such as a friend paying back another friend $20 for a pizza, most of Ribbon’s customers are contractors with much bigger amounts, Rashwan said.

You can learn more about Ribbon at The Innovation Project 2014, March 19-20. Get on the list.

You can also hear Rashwan’s description of Ribbon’s solution, and what he hopes to get out of the Innovation Project expo, by clicking below to hear the full podcast.