Amaryllis’s 2018 Resolution: A Year Of Growth

New products, partners, and certifications will pave the path to growth for startup Amaryllis in 2018. CEO Mark Bishopp said it will be a “year of getting the word out” through tour stops, virtual CEO talks, and collaborations with some of the biggest names in acquiring and business sponsorship.

The new products include a full-service underwriting management system and instant payout for rideshare and similar businesses.

Bishopp said that many payment facilitators (PayFacs) already have some form of underwriting at the time of onboarding, but some come to Amaryllis after walking away from more expensive underwriting options, while others have built a custom solution that is too costly or difficult to maintain.

Either way, said Bishopp, PayFacs must have a KYC system as the merchant of record so that they can represent to acquiring banks how they approved the sub-merchants beneath them. Amaryllis’s ability to provide those services for them could be just the encouragement these PayFacs need to sunset some of their old onboarding modules.

As for the instant payouts, Bishopp admits they’ve become a bit of a buzzword, but that doesn’t mean the need isn’t real. Taxi drivers, he said, manage their business day-to-day. They need to fill up on gas as they go. Amaryllis teamed up with banks to fill that need, which Bishopp said has become table stakes in the sharing economy space.

New acquiring partners white-labeling the solution have yet to be formally announced, but Bishopp said that the pilot was completed in December, with official news coming in March.

New certifications are being completed with Vantiv and First Data, two of the world leaders in connecting marketplaces with acquiring banks to sponsor their business. By certifying with these giants, Bishopp said that Amaryllis moves into proximity with the majority of the market share of third party processing.”

Finally, Bishopp said the company will be on the touring circuit through March, with stops at Transact 2018, Venture Summit West, and MRC Vegas. That’s in addition to the startup’s appearance on Citi Research’s FinTech startup spotlight podcast and its new six-part CEO chat series addressing the hype versus reality of payment processing with third parties.

Next month’s CEO chat topic will be risk and compliance.