Meet Richard Straver, the dynamic founder of OPP.
For us to better understand OPP and your business, can you describe a typical customer of yours and how you help them grow?
As a PSP (Payment Service Provider), focusing on providing great payment experiences on platforms and online marketplaces, we work with a broad range of customers. But one typical segment for us is classified marketplaces, such as eBay Kleinanzeigen, where people buy and sell products with each other and where the payments part plays a critical role in creating a smooth and secure user experience.
Another great example is Royal Flora Holland, the largest flower auction in the world, where we help them facilitate the payment journey between many businesses on a global scale.
Then we are also working with more specific verticals, like crowdfunding, leisure and franchise platforms. For these types of verticals, our job is partly about creating payment solutions that improve the consumer journey, but also about helping them being compliant with PSD2 regulations.
Today, you’re helping hundreds of marketplaces and platform providers in Europe to accept payments - What sets you apart from your competitors that makes you so successful in this space?
One thing that I think sets us apart from our competitors is our background. Because unlike many legacy players, we are web developers who have spent many many hours ourselves dealing with integrations of payment solutions within online platforms and marketplaces. These personal experiences made it easier for us to understand the challenges of our customers and be able to help them with smart functionalities that we know, first-hand, will simplify their lives. Think of seamless onboarding of merchants, multi splitting payments, holding funds in escrow and creating instant payouts for example. We provide everything in one solid and straightforward API.
Transactions through marketplaces and platforms make up for about one third of the European e-commerce volumes and are expected to increase to more than half in 2025 - which are the main drivers of this increase?
Simplicity is definitely one key factor that has driven the increase of marketplaces and online platforms in recent years. Leveraging an existing platform is usually less time consuming, less costly and more straightforward, than building your own webshop. Take Airbnb as an example, a marketplace that has revolutionized the renting of houses and apartments. Or Etsy, that connects local entrepreneurs and craftsmen with consumers from all over the world. Two great marketplaces that are dealing with large quantities of customers and merchants with a relatively low volume of sales. And I'm sure that we've only seen the beginning of this growth, especially as more and more niche players now begin to see the benefits and opportunities of these type of marketplaces.
In September this year, it was announced that Worldline acquirers a 40% stake in OPP – how will this integration benefit your customers, both in the short and long term?
Although we differ in size, we are both tech-driven organizations that leverage our experience, knowledge and innovation to accelerate our customers’ growth journeys. And for me, this cultural fit was the most important factor for us when deciding to join forces with Worldline.
Together, we can offer our customers new opportunities to scale in a fast-growing market, leveraging our strong assets together with Worldline’s global footprint and deep relationships with some of the world's largest companies.
Our teams have already started to work together on many exciting projects with huge opportunities, like the integration of C2C payments on eBay Kleinanzeigen. So for OPP, Worldline and our customers, this is a match made in heaven with great potential.
We are approaching the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 - what are your wishes for the new year?
The song of John Lennon and Joko Ono - Happy Xmas (War is Over) comes to mind.
Let’s all listen to that beautiful song and hope those wishes come true.
Read more about OPP’s offerings here.
Read the press release about Worldline’s acquisition of a 40% stake in OPP here.
