The Future of Alternative Payments

Research was conducted to figure out where exactly card-based e-commerce and alternative payments were going around the world. Whether it was trying to figure out if (when?) alternative payments will eclipse card-based e-commerce or whether new innovations would decrease or increase, the results of the study painted an interesting picture for the future. 

The research was conducted by Bain Capital and Advent projects that e-commerce transactions will grow at an annualized rate of14 percent from 2010 to 2015 rising from USD $942 billion. In addition to this, there is something that is somewhat staggering: Alternative payments are actually behind card based e-commerce. But not to worry about such numbers, alternative payments are expected to pass card based e-commerce by 2015. 

BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 05: A patient pays a quarterly consultion fee while handing over her Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK) health insurance card on September 5, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. ( Getty Images)

The US and UK have the highest amount of e-commerce penetration rates at 77 and 60 percent respectively. In Netherlands, e-commerce growth is underpinned by an electric payment called iDEAL. iDEAL allows people to make bank transfers without entering their credit or debit information online. WorldPay estimates that there are as many as 230 alternative payments providers. 

Some believe that there can be an AP provider which can challenge the established e-commerce players. They also predict that there will be growth a 50 percent a year annually in China and Poland. Among the developed nations, Japan is expected to have a growth of 20 percent. And with the growth of other nations, prepaid may take off in ways that would turn society into more a plastic card carrying world than it ever was before. 

About the Author

Adam Wells studies English at Pace University.

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TxVia Raises $15.5M with Bain Capital Ventures

According to a Press Release, TxVia, Inc., a pioneer in prepaid card processing technology, today announced it has raised $15.5 million in Series C financing, led by new investor, Bain Capital Ventures. Also participating were all current institutional investors, including Espírito Santo Ventures, High Peaks Venture Partners and Village Ventures. New York City Investment Fund joined as a new co-investor.

The funding follows important milestones for TxVia, including successful large-scale client deployments of the company’s groundbreaking platform-as-a-service (PaaS) delivery model for prepaid card processing. Today, TxVia has more than five million reloadable and nonreloadable cards on file in both B2B and B2C prepaid applications.

What do you think of the investment by Bain Capital to TxVia? What other companies will this influence within the prepaid card arena?

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