Storefund and Rakuten team up to provide ‘instant payments’

Storfund has entered into a new collaboration with the French e-commerce market Rakuten to offer seamless and ‘immediate payment services’ to Rakuten customers.

Rakuten, one of the world’s longest-established e-commerce marketplaces, has sought new ways to give its merchants greater flexibility and control over payments. To remedy the challenge, they have now teamed up with fintech payments leader Storfund to deliver these services for sale to Rakuten France’s merchants.

Storfund’s solutions provide seamless payment options

London-based Storfund, which was launched in 2018, specializes in payment solutions for sellers. Before its establishment, the site faced challenges in the form of payment delays and reimbursement arrangements. These problems were particularly marked when online sales increased by 40% during the pandemic.

According to reports, Storfund is currently the only European provider of this service, and as a result has grown rapidly since its launch four years ago, expanding its presence to 20 countries and doubling the funding it provides each year.

In February 2021, the provider of payment solutions hit the headlines after the collaboration with the world’s largest online store, Amazon.

The new partnership with Rakuten will see the fintech open its service to the company’s large French base of more than 8,500 professional sellers.

Regarding the latest move and Storfund’s current market position, Chief Revenue Officer Oliver Whelan said: “The rise in e-commerce sales in recent years has shown that merchants can make big money and still have an empty bank account due to payment. delays. Now the economic headwinds have increased, the need for reliable cash flow has increased.”

Rakuten is under pressure to provide real-time payments

As one of the oldest e-commerce companies, Rakuten has been at the forefront of retail digitization. It built the world’s first B2B2C marketplace in 1997 and has pioneered innovative services, technologies and human support to help sellers grow their business online. The collaboration with Storfund means that Rakuten France will add cash flow to its toolkit of built-in services for sellers.

The new services will provide unrivaled reach in the e-commerce seller environment, consolidating its position as a leader in this area; tens of thousands of sellers globally now have access to their service on multiple marketplaces.

Storfund’s head of partnerships, Margaret-Anne Galvin, explained: “Storfund and Rakuten share the same values. Rakuten advocates a good e-commerce model that benefits everyone, sellers of all sizes and all consumers.”

She added, “Similarly, Storfund has a mantra of ‘win-win e-commerce’ by providing cash flow to help sellers grow, marketplaces grow as well.”