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Pierre Betouin

Application Security Gets Better With Pierre Betouin’s Sqreen

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Cybercrime is a big threat to any online company and individual as well. The possibility of leaking information, tampering with personal details, and fraud has increased over the years. In this scenario, it is hard for common people to believe which companies or web applications can provide proper security. Because it is not a good idea to take risks when it comes to very sensitive and vulnerable issues. Similarly, it is also the responsibility of a company to provide proper safety. The security systems should be updated regularly and it should be able to provide real-time defenses. An outdated security system is as good as not having one at all. So, Pierre Betouin launched Sqreen, a security platform in 2015. The platform can be installed for any web applications and it will detect anomalies and provide an automatic response. So, a company can just buy this software instead of going through the chaos of managing its own. It can save a lot of time as well along with better experience for both parties. Sqreen is based on the San Francisco Bay Area.

About Pierre Betouin

Pierre graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2006. While he was in college, he founded Challenge-SecuriTech (a security contest) and was also a Security Researcher at EADS. In 2006, he joined SAGEM Defense and Security and left the company in the same year.

In November 2006, Pierre joined Apple as a Software Security Engineer. After two years, he became Security Engineering Manager and left the company in 2015. Currently, he is the CEO of Sqreen.

How did it start?

Pierre has more than eight years of working experience at Apple. He was part of a team working for responsible for offensive security assessment and predicting external attacks. While he was managing the team, half of the work took place in Europe and the other half in the United States. So, his time at Apple allowed him to get exposed to two different kinds of work environments.

When he decided to open his security platform, Sqreen, he had a better picture. Pierre noticed that it is easy to hire engineers in Europe. Because people are very committed to working for a company as big as Apple. But, in the U.S. the competition was very tough due to Facebook and Google. So, Pierre decided to focus on engineering and create a great product before devoting time to marketing.

Expansion and Growth

When Pierre started the company, it was located in Paris. And, the entire team worked in one office. It was just the beginning and Pierre wanted to be more specific about proper communication. In 2016, the company raised $2.3 million in the seed round. The company invested it in making secure products to fight against illegal coding practices. In 2019, Sqreen raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Greylock Partners, along with participation from Y Combinator, Alven Capital, and Point Nine. Participating in the Y Combinator was one step forward for the company to launch more realistic products.

Currently, Sqreen provides an Application Security Management Platform to the companies. Some of the companies that use the product of Sqreen are ZipRecruiter, Le Monde, BlaBlaCar, etc. Apart from the in-house employees of the company, Sqreen also shows interest in hiring freelancers. And, Pierre also said that hiring freelancers doesn’t mean treating them differently. They are equally part of the company and get the same information as everyone.

The U.S. is the main market

From opening an office in Paris, it gradually expanded to the U.S. to get feedback. And, according to Pierre, the U.S. in the main focus now. He thinks that the engineers, the customers, and the marketplace is very energetic in America. So, it is easier to get feedback on any new product very easily and quickly. An energetic team is very important in making a great company.

Implementation of Machine Learning

It is important to bring the applications of machine learning in cybersecurity due to the volatile cyber-threats. It not only helps Sqreen to prevent potential cybercrime but also analyzes emerging technologies, enhances the capability of data analytics, and estimates the degree of potential failure. ML also includes the concept of AI and deep learning that was slowly introduced in the platform of Sqreen.

Intuit

How does Intuit explore the business in America with unique acquisition strategies

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The financial calculations are complex and need to perform appropriately. We can do such calculations or statistics manually, but being a human, chances of mistakes are there. While in business, the financial part is as important as production or service. Thus, if some flaws occur in the economics of that business, it will affect the business anonymously. Therefore, businesses rely on financial software and lessen the errors in it. In the world, there are many companies that develop such software. U.S.A based firm Intuit Inc. is one of the Software Companies that especially develop and sell financial software to accountants, small businesses, and individuals too. It is set up by two entrepreneurs Scott Cook and T. Proulx in 1983. With affordable service and acquisition strategy founders grew the business in the region of America. As per the recent data, Intuit has collected over 95% revenue from just America. Obviously, it is not easy to dominant any sector, but Intuit proved that if strategies are right anything is possible.    

How does Intuit Make it possible?

It’s a very common fact, the success of any business depends on the base of foundation and strategies to explore the business. After setting Intuit in 1983, founders build Quicken, the first product of the company. That time, Microsoft also launched Microsoft Money to compete Quicken. But Intuit changed the game with its next move. Intuit offered a rebate coupon of 15 US dollars; one can redeem this code on Intuit’s software purchase. In fact, no software company had offered such coupons in history. Thus, Intuit attracted many retailers and it won the trust of retailers and marked its beginning as financial software providers.

However, Microsoft was in competition mode with Intuit since the firm launched Quicken. So in return, Intuit started QuickBooks, a web-based product and solution. As well, focus on its other product TurboTax. Thereafter, the company went public in 1993 as well, changed the strategies to become dominant in this sector.

Further exploration of Intuit with an Acquisition strategy

The company acquired San Diego based Software Company called Chipsoft that primarily was a developer of tax-preparation software. After that, the market capitalization of Intuit raised noticeably. It crossed the line of 2 Billion Us dollars. Around this time, Intuit invested in many other financial software firms including Excite, Lacerete, etc. Intuit jumped into an online bill payment service after becoming a partner with CheckFree. Moreover, Intuit continued this strategy to build a stronger network in America. Recently, in 2020, the firm showed interest to acquire Credit Karma.

Backstory of foundation

The story starts with the idea of two entrepreneurs Scott and Tom. Scott cook realized that personal computers are very powerful. Also, he knew the fact that paper-pen based accounting can be replaced using a computer-based algorithm. With this idea, he started searching for a programmer to convert this idea into reality and that’s how he met Tom Proulx. After that, in 1983 they set up Intuit as a small company in Palo Alto in California.

The person behind Intuit’s foundation- Scott David Cook

He is the founder of Intuit Inc as well, Scott is serving as director of the company since 1983. Also, he served as chairman of the firm for five years (1993-1998) and also served as a CEO (1983-1994). Apart from that, he is Protect & Gamble and eBay’s director.

Scott attended the University of Southern California to graduating in economics and mathematics. Furthermore, he pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School.

What services are offered by Intuit?

Basically, the company develops and sells financial software to businesses, accountants, and persons. This software includes tax-preparation software, accounting, and other financial software. TurboTax and QuickBooks are the two most popular products in the company. The first one deals with tax preparation and the second is suitable for accounting programs of small businesses.

Current products

Other than TurboTax and QuickBooks online, the company has enabled a web-based financial service called Mint.com. As well, ProConnect, EasyAcct, etc products are active to provide tax solutions. The firm also started Credit Karma to access credit scores and monitoring.

Awards and recognition

The subsidiaries of intuit known as Intuit Canada was listed as one of Alberta’s Top Employers in 2008. Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald announced this award. Recently, Intuit ranked at 11 numbers in the Fortune List of the Top 100 Companies to Work For in 2020.

Skrill

How Skrill remained the most popular E-wallet even after going through a chain of acquisition

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How easy it has become to transfer money with a single click? Today, there are many platforms for money transfer using the internet as the technology is growing and people are preferring to go cashless after so many digital campaigns that are running worldwide. Therefore, E-wallet has become a thing now. This is a recent revolution because of the easy and smooth transaction process. When the 21st century started, there was nothing like electronic money transfer. In the year 2001, Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann founded the first electronic money license MoneyBookers, which eventually named Skrill by. Let’s know more about this journey.

From MoneyBookers to Skrill

Moneybookers were established in the United Kingdom by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann in 2001. They gained an electronic money license from the Financial Services Authority, the first one in history. It had almost 2 million registered users in the first year as it gained popularity among users and they started trusting the company. 

Later, the founders sold their company Investcorp in 2007 for £105 million. After 2 years, it was on sale for £365 million. Then is 2011, it was announced that it will be rebranded, and its name changed to Skrill by new business owners. The rebranding was going by 2013. The company started growing faster as the number of users was increasing from all ranges of businesses. Merchants started adapting this transfer methodology. Large businesses like Facebook, eBay, and Skype also started using this service for purchases. Later, it was acquired by Australian prepaid payment giant Paysafecard in February 2013. In August of the same year, CVC Capital partners purchased the Skrill for €600 million.

Acquisition by Optimal Payments

New Jersey Division of gaming enforcement aka NJDGE approved Skrill as the only wallet for internet gambling. This happened in 2014. Soon in 2015, Optimal Payments which the parent company of Skrill’s competitor Neteller officially sent an acquisition proposal of €1.1 billion to Skill Group. As per the reports, the third quarter of 2015 approved the proposal. Skrill group acquired Ukash, a UK based competitor of Paysafecard in April 2015.

Well, Skrill is the most popular E-wallet as it has gone the number of acquisitions. It shows how much demand it had and still has. Its customers are in 200 countries and offer them the use of over 100 payment options and 40 currencies. Skrill is involved in Gambling, eCommerce, Forex trading and Crypto Exchange.  

Glimpse to Founder’s life

The Skrill had a journey of its own and so do the founders. They founded this e-wallet together but they had different paths once they sold it. Let’s have a look at their journey.

Benjamin Kullmann

He holds an LLB from the University of London. He has worked for the Skrill group from 2001 to 2013. He also contributed as a managing director having responsibility for portfolio management. With time, he turned into a non-executive board member to the growth of the business to over 30 million customers and over Euro 200 million in outstanding e-money float. He is a member of the investment council of mutual fund management firm Meritum Capital Managers GmbH in Frankfurt since 2011. 

Currently, he is associated with Spinoza Capital, which he co-founded. He has several high-level positions which made it easy for him to co-found companies and climb the business ladder.

Daniel Klein

Daniel Klein is a serial tech entrepreneur and investor. He cofounded Skrill with Benjamin and soon after they sold their business, he got busy with launching his one. He is currently the CEO of European mobile point-of-sales company SumUp which allows small merchants to accept card payments in 13 countries, including the UK, Germany, and Brazil. 

Bottom Line

Daniel and Benjamin cofounded MoneyBookers and got a huge response from customers because of the unique and easy service they were providing to their customers. They have proven a point that, if you ease your customer, your business is going to go up. Though Skrill went through a chain of acquisition, it remained one of the most popular E-wallets of all the time. New founders did not change Skrill’s name again so that they could retain the huge customer base the company already has.

2checkout

2CHECKOUT IS HELPING BUSINESSES GROW AND INCREASE THEIR REVENUE SINCE 2006

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After the internet became affordable, many software companies came up. But, with the increase in competition, every company needed some help to stay in the game. Companies with very little idea of how to drive traffic towards their website or about digital marketing faced many problems. Because, with the digital revolution, everything became more meaningful and prominent on the screen. A company to help other software companies grow their businesses was very important. Someone who can guide them and help them expand in the international market. Some members of GECAD Group decided to build a company to sell products that can help the other companies expand. In 2006, Alan Homewood founded 2Checkout in Ohio. The company has grown vastly over the years.

About Alan Homewood

Alan went to the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. He graduated in 1994. While he was pursuing his degree, he worked at LCI International for five years. In 1995, Alan started working as Oracle and other DB Consultants. He started working on the project of 2Checkout since 2000 and finally released it in 2006.

In 2013, Alan became the President of Entrepreneurs’ Organization who now serves as the Area Director of the same. Apart from being the Chairman of 2Checkout, he is currently the CEO of Yogi Surprise and Founding Board Member of Autism Living.

The founding story of 2Checkout

Before founding 2Checkout, Alan and other co-founders worked for a company called GECAD Group. The company built RAV Antivirus which came under the acquisition of Microsoft in 2003. GECAD Group was an international company that sold software products on a global level. But, the founders realized that it is very hard for a company to sell its products internationally on its own. This gave them the idea to establish a company that would help other software companies like GECAD to grow.

So, they started the company, Avangate in 2006. In 2013, Francisco Partners acquired Avangate which in turn acquired 2Checkout in 2017. 2Checkout has become an integral part of the company as it helps in a flexible payment system and broadens the market research. After the acquisition, the entire company was reintroduced under the brand name of 2Checkout. Through this platform, the company helps the clients grow in any market of any model.

The idea behind 2Checkout

Avangate which is now known as 2Checkout serves a good purpose for online businesses. When the founders were working to sell their products in GECAD, they faced many problems. But, they also noticed that there is a vast opportunity to sell their products outside their nation. Keeping this in mind, they created Avangate as a way to help communicate the merchant with the world.

What the company faces on a daily basis?

Currently, 2Checkout is the only digital platform that gives its customers the opportunity to outsource the entire business process. They are free to pick up the services they want and change it with the course of time. The company, today, serves more than 17,000 merchants meeting everyone’s needs. 2Checkout serves both small companies to large business tycoons as well. The company has expanded its service to more than 180 countries and territories.

Achievements 

The first biggest achievement of the company was in 2007 when it opened the first North American Sales office. 2Checkout reached out to the Russian market in 2008. In 2011, 2Checkout received funding from 3TS Cisco Growth Fund. After Francisco Partners acquired Avangate in 2013, the company received the CODIE’s Best eCommerce and Billing Solution Award.

In 2014, the company received many awards which include Deloitte Tech Fast500, The Golden Bridge, European Business Award, etc. Next year, the company opened another office in Atlanta thus expanding its reach. Recently, the company has launched the 2Checkout 2.0 Digital Commerce Platform.

Future goals

The new CEO of 2Checkout, Alex Hart has big plans for the company in the near future. Currently, the most challenging part of the business is thinking about what to pursue next. 2Checkout has a lot of innovative ideas for the future. But, it is tough to decide what ideas they are going to implement now and what can wait for the future. This is the reason, Alex thinks it is better to listen to its customers. Because, if the customers aren’t ready to adopt a change, then there is no point in making a change at all.

ProPay

ProPay Ultimate Payment Processing Platform for small to billion-dollar companies

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No matter what the size of any business is, money exchange is a part of it, though it can be manually or electronically. While choosing the medium for money exchange, any business searches for a platform that is reliable and easy to use.  When it comes to money, special care is needed. Thus, it is very obvious to rely on such a payment processing platform whose service feels safe. When any industry searches for money exchange setups, it demands some other factors. Such as flexibility, and versatility of the platform, and at most the robust process is considered.  In such a case, ProPay is a perfect platform that enables end-to-end payment solutions for all kinds of businesses. ProPay is active in this field for a long time and since then it is providing a service in the money exchange domain, that is easier, secure, and affordable.

About ProPay

It is an Orem-based financial firm, headquartered in Lehi, and belongs to TSYS as its fully own subsidiary. The firm is providing efficient payment solutions since 1997. Transfer of money, M-commerce, E-commerce, online payments, direct selling solutions, and reliability are main service areas covered by ProPay. Moreover, it is eminent in the payment business as one of the leading payment processors that provide services to various businesses. Regardless of size and type of business. That means, whether it is a billion-dollar firm, or any small organization, or small home-based business, ProPay meets the requirements of all of them.

A unique financial platform ProPay is based on its core values that are mostly related to promoting small size businesses by assisting them with robust payment processing.  As well, ProPay uses innovative technologies to improve the service as well as for risk management.

History

In 1997, ProPay is set up and in 3 years the firm started its first online virtual terminal. The company started Master Card, debit card program manager, and processor in 2003. Thereafter, in 2005, it launched a platform called SplitPay. ProPay shifts the focus on secure payment processing and adapted end-to-end encrypted processing. Later on, the firm enabled it’s best-known platform ProtectPay and ProFac.

Best platforms of ProtectPay- ProtectPay and ProFac Express

ProtectPay and ProFac Express are well-known platforms of ProPay. In fact, ProPay is one of the payment solution providers that provide ProtectPay. This platform offers software integrators, SaaS providers, and payment facilitators. Additionally, it comes with all other necessary tools for payment processing implementation.

While other platforms called ProFac Express to assist in underwriting, instant boarding, and processing solutions. No doubt, ProPay has vast experience in the financial industry that becomes helpful to provide more secure payment solutions for clients. ProPay is one of the firms that help them succeed with innovative payment processing solutions.

Awards and Achievements

Since its foundations, ProPay is rising continually along with helping other businesses to succeed. Today, ProPay’s name is taken as one of the trustworthy payment processors globally. The firm has also been honored with several awards that raised the bar of the company in the financial industry. In 2013, ProPay was recognized as Top Online Payment Service Provider. 2009 and 2010 was a memorable year for the company as it received several awards in these years. ProPay awarded as Electronic Transactions Association’s ISO of the Year, Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S., and ETA ISO of the Year in 2010. While in 2009, it named in 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America, Stoel Rives Utah Innovation Award winner, and awarded as Utah Genius Award.

In 2003, it honored as Direct Selling Association Partner of the Year.

The person behind ProPay’s revenue escalating policies- Gary Goodrich

Gary Goodrich steps into the shoes of ProPay’s CEO in 2000. ProPay was well-known for its strong products but several other factors lead to a shaky future of the company. In the year 2000, the company was facing problems related to high costs and little cash for its newly launched online merchant account. It leads to low revenue generation. After Gary became CEO of the company, he implemented the best policies for the company and put the ProPay on secure financial footing.

Under his policies, the company successfully acquired many private investors that raised the investment of the company. Also, he acted on all measures to increase the revenue generation of ProPay. In just two years, the firm became profitable and strengthens the value of the company in the financial industry.

Bottom Line

ProPay is adapting all required changes and improving the service with an innovative approach and the company is making progress. Presently, ProPay is reconnoitering the services to many other sectors. It is now offering the payment processing solution to accounting offices, small medicals, and other professional offices. The financial firm, ProPay is also admired for its fine work culture

Payoneer_logo

YUVAL TAL’S PAYONEER IS HELPING GROW FREELANCERS AROUND THE GLOBE

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Many companies have made our lives easier through digital payments. The online transaction has become a very common practice as it consumes less time and transfers money with few clicks. Today, some companies that are not primarily based in this sector are starting their money transfer platform as well. The biggest example of this is Flipkart and Amazon. But, amongst all the companies proving financial services, the service of providing working capital is very unique. Payoneer, an American-based company is a famous platform for digital payments which also provides working capital. Yuval Tal founded the company in 2005 and after a few years, it started rising making it a part of the unicorn club. The company’s headquarters are situated in New York. And, it currently has around 1400 employees.

About the founder

Yuval is a citizen of Israel born in 1965. He completed his schooling from Ramat HaSharon. Before he went to pursue his bachelor’s degree, Yuval served in the Israel military as a special operation commander. He completed his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering followed by his master’s in biomedical engineering from Tel Aviv University.

He graduated in the year 1995. But, while pursuing his bachelor’s he worked at cubital as an Engineer. He was also the Project Manager of Scitex America. In 1998, Yuval joined RADWARE RDWR: NASDAQ as the VP of Business Development. He worked there for one year and co-founded E4X. Yuval served as the CEO of the company for five years and then he co-founded Payoneer. Currently, Yuval is the President of the company.

The beginning of Payoneer

Yuval established Payoneer with $2 million seed funding. Yuval himself contributed a part of this money along with some investors. Another round of funding took place in 2007 and the company raised $4 million. Some of the investors of Payoneer include Carmel Ventures, Crossbar Capital, Wellington Management, Nyca Partners, etc.

Payoneer, from the first day, focuses on digital payment services which include e-wallet and prepaid MasterCard Debit Card. The company also facilitates cross-border B2B payments across 200 countries.

Growth

In 2011, Payoneer launched Local Money Transfers and within a year it was processing more than $500 million a year. One of the biggest advantages of the users of Payoneer was they all owned the MasterCard Debit Card. So, they easily bought traffic using this card without the chaos of back and forth money transfers. In 2012, many companies started using the platform of Payoneer like Neverblue and uShip. This year, Payoneer also ranked 34th among the 500 fastest-growing companies in North America. In December 2012, ClickBank partnered with Payoneer to expand in Latin America.

The company also showed interest in strengthening the community of freelancers. In 2013, the company led to the development of Freelancer Payments in South America. The same year, the company came into a joint partnership with Fiverr, a famous platform for freelancers. In September 2013, i-payout joined hands with Payoneer.

In 2014, the company raised $25 million in a funding round led by Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC. In April 2014, Lazaro Campos, ex-CEO of Swift joined the Advisory Board of Pioneer.

Success of Payoneer

From 2015, the company gradually started expanding its business to the Asian market. It tied up with Bank Asia to help the freelancers of Bangladesh receive payment swiftly. Payoneer did a case study where it found that the female freelancers in India receive 11% less money than males. So, the company focused more on the well-being of women freelancers to improve the work culture.

Payoneer partnered with PeoplePerHour and Teespring to expand globally. The company raised $50 million from another round of funding in August 2015. In March 2016, the company acquires Armor Payments to improve the cross-border trade. Later this year, Payoneer raised $180 million in a funding round led by TCV. BY this time, some of the biggest companies started using the platform of Payoneer for money transfer. Its biggest customers are Airbnb, Amazon, Google, and Upwork.

In 2017, Payoneer for the first time invested in the U.K. market thus opening a London office. Payoneer for the sixth consecutive year appeared in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500.

Present Day

In 2019, Payoneer entered into a joint partnership with Toptal to allow more efficient cross-border payments. It also acquired Optile, a German open payment orchestration company. In August 2019, a Payoneer’s report revealed that Pakistan is the best Asian market for revenue growth. In 2020, Payoneer made it to the list of Fintech 50 2020.