Integrating with a payment API is an inevitable step for most, if not all, business-to-consumer platforms, particularly those seeking to accept credit card payments. However, platforms dealing with bills and invoices, rather than one-time charges, often encounter challenges as many payment APIs lack the comprehensive features required to support their workflows.
This challenge led Ralph Rogge to establish Crezco. Drawing on his experience working with numerous small businesses, Rogge identified that invoice payments presented an ongoing inconvenience, especially when compared to the seamless checkout experience of consumer card payments. Having previously worked at YouLend, a startup specializing in funding solutions for merchants and small- to medium-sized business owners, Rogge emphasized that businesses should focus on product development and sales, not on the complexities of setting up bill and invoice payments. Crezco aims to simplify these payments.
Does Crezco live up to its promise of making payments easier? It appears so. Crezco specializes in creating workflows for collecting bill payments, specifically through account-to-account bill collection workflows. These workflows facilitate direct payments from one account to another, bypassing transaction intermediaries like card networks, even for overseas payments.
Crezco provides businesses with automatic invoice reconciliation integrated into their existing accounting software. It also offers tools to generate payment links, collect recurring payments, and split payments across multiple accounts. Additionally, Crezco features a built-in fraud detection system and provides instant payment notifications via web and mobile.
Rogge emphasized that Crezco’s goal is not to replace card payments with a cheaper alternative but to replace manual bank transfers with a more convenient solution. He sees account-to-account and real-time payments as the future, with Crezco connecting international payment rails to a single API for partners and customers, simplifying both domestic and international transactions and saving time and money.
Crezco faces competition from notable players such as Intuit, Wise, Brite Payments, TrueLayer, Plaid, Melio, and Tink (recently acquired by Visa for $2 billion). Rogge believes Crezco’s fraud prevention technology, among other capabilities, sets it apart, utilizing open banking to analyze historic bank transactions for enhanced security.
Claiming over 10,000 active customers, Crezco aims to expand its user base significantly through a strategic partnership with Xero, a UK-based accounting tech firm. Crezco is set to replace Wise in a previous deal Xero had for embedded bill payment solutions.
Investors are showing confidence in Crezco’s trajectory, with MMC Ventures and 13books recently investing $12 million in its Series A round. This funding brings Crezco’s total raised to $18 million, with plans to utilize the proceeds to enhance its accounts-to-accounts product and increase its team size from 25 to 45.
Rogge highlights significant tailwinds in business-to-business payments, including the forced adoption of electronic invoicing, the global rise in the use of accounting software and business-to-business platforms, increasing adoption of accounts-to-accounts payments and open banking, and the continued growth of cross-border payments.
