How frequently do you use cash to make transactions? The odds are, barely. Many Australians now feel comfortable leaving their home without a wallet, and one in three use digital wallets on their phones to make payments every week. Australians are departing from the cash society and businesses need to keep up. That’s where fintech company, Novatti Group (ASX: NOV), comes in.

Launching merchant services in Australia last year, Novatti is set to make its mark in New Zealand in 2023, having been granted corresponding merchant acquiring licenses in the country. These licenses allow people and businesses to make transactions using their Visa and Mastercard—the primary banking vendors in Australia, making up over 90 per cent of credit card transactions in the country. Now, it will enable New Zealand merchants to do the same and more.

The Novatti payment platform is  convenient, quick, simple and doesn’t require shifting an entire business to a major bank with associated banking fees. The Company offers a seamless omni-channel payment gateway, merging online, face-to-face and in-app payments into a streamlined system. 

Today, the best businesses are those that can simplify the customer experience where they have their desired payment option without excessive fees or having to stand around waiting for terminals to reboot. With Novatti, merchants will be able to offer a mix of traditional payment methods such as credit cards and direct debits, along with alternative mobile payments such as Alipay and WeChat Pay. 

Additionally, Novatti’s omni-channel payment platform may soon enable customers to spend their crypto easily with their payment method PayxCrypto (patent pending). Once fully integrated, customers will be able to spend using crypto and merchants can receive the money in fiat currency as Novatti connects currencies to exchanges. Merchants can also offer customers the ability to split a payment into multiple wallets and reduce the stress of causing a huge dent in one wallet. 

Kian Jackson, General Manager of Merchant Acquiring at Novatti said, “We are excited to be able to offer New Zealand merchants our unified commerce solution which we believe will solve many of the business pain points around not being able to offer customers split payments and a diverse range of payment methods.”

The Company also considers customers’ privacy needs that might deter them from using online payment gateways. It offers Novatti PayProtect, a chargeback guarantee that reduces the chances of fraud. 

Jackson added, “We see a lot of parallels between the New Zealand and Australian markets from consumers’ overwhelming preference for digital payments through to the acceleration in fintech innovation. This expansion is an opportunity to offer complementary  services  to  our  existing global customers with a presence in New Zealand while also capitalising on the existing business developments in New Zealand through Novatti’s other offerings.”

Moreover, the Company allows businesses to establish their own payment brand identity. It is a Principal Visa Issuer in Australia and Associate Member in New Zealand, offering end-to-end solutions for companies seeking to issue white-label physical and digital Visa prepaid and debit cards.

The expansion of merchant services into New Zealand follows strong momentum established in Australia by Novatti which has more than 800 merchant partners that contribute to Novatti’s growing revenue as a customer-focused alternative to major banks. 

This was reflected in Novatti’s FY22 revenue when the fintech company reported $32.5 million in revenue which represented a 97% increase on the previous year as the world accelerated its transition towards a cashless economy.