Pismo
Ushering in a New Era of Payments Processing

Pismo is the first digital payments processor with a fully multi-cloud SaaS platform. But for the company’s founders, as personal as it gets, this is their second time as entrepreneurs of an innovative venture and continuation of their successful streak. It was way back in 1999, Richard Josua, Daniela Bonatti, Marcelo Parise, and Juliana Motta built Brazil’s first non-mainframe credit card processor. Starting out to challenge the large companies in the market, the company became the largest processor for retail credit cards in Brazil within a decade. Later in 2014, it was acquired by an equity firm, Riverwood Capital, and recently invested by VISA. Around that time, Daniela traveled to the US to visit fintech companies and came back with a revelation. “While new features are deployed for enhanced customer experience of financial solutions, underneath it still runs a very old legacy infrastructure. We needed to provide service that has a back-end solution matching the advanced technology deployed at the front-end,” says Ricardo Josua, co-founder and CEO of Pismo. Determined to disrupt the payment processing space once again, the original team reunited and incepted Pismo in 2015.

The payment industry heavily relies on monolith infrastructure and protocols used before even the internet or smartphones existed. “Through Pismo, we strive to provide a new sophisticated solution which is also transparent and bespoke such that our clients can have more granular relationship management with their end customers,” remarks Josua. Keeping in mind its mission, Pismo decided to build a new back-end solution that could launch innovative new age payment products and overhaul legacy back-ends. The company offers a complete processing platform that is separated into two layers. The core layer has several microservices that provide existing products such as universal transactions, ledgers, and account management solutions. Another set of microservices and APIs is orchestrated to connect to existing and potential future payment infrastructures and layers. “Our back-end solution allows integration of both legacy and emerging payment products in a single service mesh platform,” comments Josua.

Unlike the current solutions provided from different suites or providers, Pismo offers its multi-cloud PCI Compliant solutions running on the same AWS and GCP based infrastructure. Whether it’s a credit card processing solution, core banking, or merchant payment, all solutions run in the same infrastructure. The company primarily focuses on leading banks, fintechs, and retailers. Initially, Pismo planned to sell the products and platform to SMBs requiring bespoke solutions, but the first client turned out to be the largest banks in Latin America and has since then pivoted towards providing enterprise-level solutions. The company offers modern digital banking experience, including client acquisition and account management, internal transfers and P2P transactions, VISA and Mastercard credit and debit card processing, and enriched cash-in/cash-out operations. For marketplaces and sub-acquirers, Pismo helps manage sellers, decouple the customer-facing transaction from the settlement for each seller, manage disputes, provide prepayment or financing with unparalleled control.

Further, Pismo provides a set of payment apps that allows clients to use as functional prototypes to learn from and support tools to manage ecosystem or final products in the platform.

These white-label apps include digital banking and wallet, credit card app, seller dashboard, customer support, account and platform, disputes and adjustments panel, and WebPOS.

Our back-end solution allows integration of both legacy and emerging payment products in a single service mesh platform

What differentiates Pismo is its scalability and flexibility in terms of its solutions. For instance, when we purchase using a credit card, the information we get is limited. There will be the amount spent, where the transaction was done, or maybe the store name would be displayed depending on whether they have registered or not. But we don’t know what all items were bought and their details. Similarly, we purchase items from different vendors during online shopping. If one of the products has delivery issues, the transaction should be canceled, and the products returned. Pismo allows merchants to send a rich set of information to the customer by connecting them to QR codes or direct APIs with client details. And for online delivery, the company allows clients to approve or decline transactions as required. They can also hold the transaction until the product is received or before it is settled for marketplace seller. These functions are not possible through current legacy solutions, and Pismo has already implemented these for several million clients with its native microservices architecture.

Being a native cloud solution, during the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Pismo had no hassle to manage on-premise installations or monitor data centers as everything was secured in the cloud. Discussing the current trends, Josua highlights that while the legacy solutions are still being used, the current pandemic has accelerated the adaptation of digital methods in the payment industry. As transactions are not made in-person, secure transaction and identity verification have become more relevant. The confirmation procedures used in e-commerce is shifting to the banking industry, reshaping how transactions are done such that the customer experience is smarter and smoother. Pismo offers secure payment processing with services such as fraud prevention connectivity and dynamic authorization rules. A key feature is granular behavior management of the customer portfolio that allows the system to manage each customer’s specific needs. Utilizing extensive datasets, Pismo helps clients understand customer behavior, customize fees and discounts, and create individualized product experience. For instance, move the paying credit, set an installment plan for payment such that the debt is reduced, or waiver charges for specific clients.

With these ingenious services, Pismo is focused on innovation in the payment industry. The company aims to help financial institutions worldwide build a new generation of payment services and manage the existing products. Further, Pismo has started beachhead operations in the US and Europe. “We are operating in various countries across Latin America. We are an international platform helping enterprises and mid-sized companies around the world to navigate the journey towards the new era of payment processing,” concludes Josua.