Practice — Payments
Payments
Mike Oscar introduces mid-market and enterprise merchants to the right payment platforms. We qualify each prospect against the commercial fit, structure the introduction with our partner platform's commercial team, and remain involved through commercial discussions where useful. The merchant contracts directly with the platform.
We do not process payments, hold merchant funds, or act as an acquirer.
Enterprise
Unified commerce for serious merchants.
The strongest commercial case for an enterprise unified commerce platform — one system handling card-present, ecommerce, in-app, and recurring across every market — is where one or more of the following is true:
- Annualised processed volume above USD 10 million, with growth.
- Multiple acquiring relationships today across geographies, with reconciliation and reporting fragmentation.
- Cross-border or multi-currency exposure where authorisation rates materially affect revenue.
- Omnichannel operations where the same customer transacts online and in-store.
- A platform or marketplace model that requires split payments, sub-merchant management, or payouts at scale.
For merchants that fit this profile we run a short qualification — typically one call, occasionally a follow-up with finance — and structure a warm introduction to the right platform team in the relevant region. We share the technical and commercial detail the platform will need before the merchant's time is taken up.
Typical sectors we work with in the region: airlines and travel, retail and grocery, hospitality groups, large F&B, education, financial services, and digital platforms.
SME
The enterprise answer is not always the right one.
For merchants under roughly USD 1 million in annualised volume, the integration effort and pricing structure of an enterprise platform often favour simpler providers. We will say so.
Where an enterprise platform does fit an SME — typically a fast-growing business with multi-channel or cross-border needs that will outgrow a basic processor inside twelve months — we make the introduction on the same basis as our enterprise work.
Where it does not fit, we will say which providers we believe make more sense for the specific situation. We do not earn referral economics outside our agreed partner relationships and we are explicit about that.
Qualification
What we need from a prospect.
Before we make an introduction, we will ask for:
- Current annualised processing volume (approximate) and growth trajectory.
- Sales channels (ecommerce, point-of-sale, mobile app, marketplace, recurring).
- Current payment providers and contract end dates.
- Geographic footprint of the customer base.
- The commercial or operational problem the merchant is trying to solve — auth rates, reporting, cross-border, omnichannel, dispute volume, integration consolidation.
The more specific the answer, the better the introduction.
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Tell us about the merchant.
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