Cloud-based payment processing is reshaping how acquirers and commerce platforms connect to card schemes and manage cross-border flows, but local regulations, networks and support requirements still demand a market-by-market approach.
In this interview, Silverflow chief commercial officer Nigel Thacker explains the company’s preference for organic growth, the complexities of US interchange and PIN-debit networks, and its plans to deploy local cloud instances in India and Indonesia.
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EPI: Could you give a brief overview of Silverflow’s offerings and business model, alongside your current merchant scale and annual processing volumes?
Nigel: At Silverflow, we have built a modern acquiring-processing platform that is available to the market. We are not an acquirer, so there is no competitive conflict for an acquirer using our platform.
We designed and developed it on AWS (Amazon Web Services), which provides significant advantages in scale. We started in Europe. We have two card-scheme endpoints in Europe, in Schiphol and Frankfurt. One of the key things we wanted to prove was that the platform was genuinely geo-portable.
We then launched the platform in Oregon and Ohio in the US, covering the West and East Coasts through AWS. We have Cloud Connect into the card schemes in the US, so we do not operate data centres there.
We intend to expand into other territories, including the Far East, Australasia, potentially the Middle East, and Latin America, with additional instances of the platform.
We currently have 55 acquirers on the platform, with some still in integration. Our customers range from large traditional banks.
We also serve payment companies. Finally, we serve commerce platforms—large global businesses such as Spotify or Uber.
In Asia-Pacific, we have four customers. We have four customers in the US and North America. We also have one customer in India’s GIFT City. We process cross-border transactions there. At this stage, we do not need to be locally deployed in India, but we will eventually.
Our main focus now is expansion in the US and Asia-Pacific, while continuing the work we are doing in Europe.
EPI: You just raised a $40m Series B. Will those funds focus mostly on product development, or global expansion and hiring?
Nigel: Yes, all of those areas. The key priority is increasing our development resources. We do all development in-house, and that is a key principle for us: do it yourself and retain control. All our engineers are based at our headquarters in Amsterdam.
The funding was raised to support expansion. We have recently hired a second person in the US, and that team will expand rapidly. We already have staff in Asia-Pacific, and we need to expand there as well.
Within the next 12 months, we also expect to expand our infrastructure by adding further instances of our platform on AWS in other parts of the world. In some markets, we may need to deploy locally because of data-sovereignty and data-localisation requirements—India and Indonesia, for example.
It is not difficult to do from a software perspective, but it has a cost. AWS does not provide it for free. That is where the funding will be focused.
EPI: Will any of these funds support new products, and what is the status of products currently in development?
Nigel: I would classify that as development. We are piloting a new direct-terminal-to-host solution.
We have developed a duplicate endpoint for charges coming into our platform and designed it to support millions of individual terminals connecting directly to the host.
We have also developed an SDK that enables customers to get up and running quickly. We are terminal-agnostic, although we would need to develop SDKs for different terminal types.
There is no need for a terminal gateway in this solution because the terminals connect directly to the host.
EPI: With offices open in Amsterdam and New York, what is your exact headcount target for reaching your 120-employee goal?
Nigel: We have already reached that target. We now have more than 120 employees.
The next step is likely to be establishing on-the-ground support centres. At present, our Amsterdam-based technical team provides 24/7 support, but if there is an issue during the night, someone needs to wake up.
We need to establish local support centres in Asia-Pacific and the US.
We have an account-management structure with a commercial side, as well as technical account management covering deployment and go-live support. We would need that infrastructure in both Singapore and either New York or the West Coast.
EPI: What specific daily run-rate or volume milestone do you want to hit over the next year?
Nigel: Our target is to double in size year on year, although that becomes more difficult as the company grows.
Two and a half to three years ago, when we were still in the initial testing, deployment, and go-live stage, we processed around 300 transactions a day. Today, we process around 3 million transactions a day. That figure continues to rise month on month as we bring on more customers.
EPI: Which region accounts for the highest transaction volume?
Nigel: Europe remains the largest market, although Asia-Pacific is now a fairly close second. That is largely due to the types of customers we have in the region.
The US is a complex market because of interchange classification, the variety of transaction types that must be supported, and local PIN-debit networks. It is therefore a lengthy rollout process.
However, we now have a large US retail bank—a top-10 US bank—as a customer, and we are at the beginning of the rollout phase. I would expect North America to catch up quickly during 2027.
EPI: What operational milestones define readiness for the next stage, and do you anticipate another funding round prior to an IPO?
Nigel: We do not know yet. Nothing is currently planned.
As a general objective, if we continue to double year on year, it may be two or three years before we consider the next steps. If we become cash-flow positive during that period—as we expect to—the question of whether to raise additional capital changes.
EPI: Beyond North America, which specific Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern markets are you prioritising for expansion?
Nigel: In Asia, we are live for e-commerce in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and a few other markets. We will continue to expand across the region.
Some markets are more difficult. To penetrate Indonesia, for example, we would need to establish an AWS instance there, although that is not out of the question.
The Middle East is interesting but complex. We are working on a partnership plan that should make entry into those markets easier. There are many local card schemes and local switching requirements.
Latin America is probably relatively high on our list of potential next markets.
We do not develop products and then hope they will sell. We develop when there is a known customer or market requirement.
EPI: Following your new tool for in-store card readers, what percentage of your volume do you expect to come from physical stores versus online?
Nigel: We already have a reasonable point-of-sale (POS) footprint, although POS was previously a small share of total volumes. We were probably around 5% POS and 95% e-commerce.
That is growing. We are now closer to 15% POS, and it has increased rapidly over the past 12 months. We expect it to grow even more quickly with the successful rollout of our new direct-to-host terminal solution.
Industry-wide, the split is still roughly 70% in-store and 30% online. We have a long way to go in growing our POS business, and that is where much of the volume remains.
I would like to double the POS share in the next 12 months, to around 30% POS and 70% e-commerce. We could potentially reach a 50:50 balance during 2028.
We are rolling out several large customers, including major banks with significant POS estates. That will drive the increase in our POS share.
EPI: Are you looking to expand purely through organic growth, or is an acquisition strategy currently on the table?
Nigel: No. It is not something we have focused on so far.
As I mentioned, one of our key principles is that we do all development ourselves, in-house. We are focused on growing organically rather than through acquisitions.
In my view, it is difficult to find a payments company that has grown through acquisition and ultimately become a single, unified entity. Acquisition has benefits, but it also has downsides.
EPI: Regarding your Asian expansion, what is your timeline and infrastructure roadmap for a full domestic launch in India?
Nigel: Our first customer in India was Glomo Pay. As I mentioned, it is located in GIFT City, which gives it greater operational flexibility.
The transaction volumes we process there are non-domestic, which is why we can currently support them without being locally deployed.
We expect to enter the Indian market fully within the next couple of years. We would need to be local, but that should not be a problem. As far as I am aware, AWS has two Mumbai regions, so establishing an instance is relatively straightforward. India is a large and fast-growing market, and we will not ignore it.
