01/23/18
ALPHARETTA, GA. — BluePenguin announced today its closure of a $2.5 million initial funding round for the purposes of entering the massively underserved B2B virtual payments category. Founder Steve Boyer, a prepaid industry expert and originator of the first electronic gift card, will serve as Chairman and CEO.
The B2B payables market has tremendous opportunity with less than half of one percent of the volume potential currently penetrated by virtual payment cards, and nearly half of all business-to-business payments still occurring by check. BluePenguin estimates that there are fewer than 50,000 firms in the US that use modern payments technology in their accounting departments.
“The incumbents occupying this category largely use their direct sales and bank channel organizations to market to larger commercial clients, leaving mid-sized and smaller companies underserved. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce states that there are about 30 million businesses in the U.S., but incumbent B2B payments companies typically market to larger companies such as those on the Fortune Global 2000,” said Boyer. “BluePenguin’s strategy is to use this initial investment to address this huge gap.”
BluePenguin believes that the drivers of the current revolution in payment products serving the business front office, point of sale, and end consumer – open platforms, modern APIs, and integrated payments – can also revolutionize payments for underserved commercial customer. However, it requires fresh technology and a new approach.
“When forming BluePenguin, we found licensing one of the main incumbent platforms that grew out of the fleet card industry just wouldn’t provide an extensible solution that would support our service model,” Boyer continued. “By building our own platform based on modern design and integration standards, we will be able to democratize commercial payments and bring moden payments technology to millions of underserved business customers.”
Boyer has been involved in several successful startups and has a history of disruption in payments. In 1992, he was part of the team that invented, commercialized and delivered the first Gift Card, creating a start-up inside the fledgling First Data Corporation known as ValueLink, which grew to become First Data’s principal gift card platform. Since that time he has held executive positions at Galileo, Wirecard and HOPS International.
About BluePenguin Payments
BluePenguin launched in 2018 with the goal to democratize the massive B2B payments market, which has historically been dominated by legacy systems that are difficult to integrate and slow to adapt. Thanks to BluePenguin’s agile and proprietary platform, the company is bringing the power of B2B virtual payments to underserved customers through their own technologies and trusted business relationships. BluePenguin is located in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Media Contact:
Len Winter
Director of Partnership Marketing
+1 (404) 445-5537