Using technology to grow in Japan
Using technology to grow in Japan
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WRIT TEN BY
SOPHIE CHAPM AN PRODUCED BY
A LE X PAGE
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AS PAIDY BUILDS ITS STATUS IN JAPAN, THE PAYMENT COMPANY’S CTO TALKS TO BUSINESS CHIEF ABOUT ITS DIGITAL DISRUPTION JOURNEY
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he Japanese startup was founded in 2008, but despite having been present in the nation’s fintech industry for over 10 years,
Paidy’s expansion became most prominent in the past few years. “Definitely over the last three years we have seen tremendous growth – consumer growth, merchant network growth, and growth in 04
our consumer spaces, such as active users on the platform,” reveals Houston Ross, Chief Technology Officer at Paidy. Since 2017, the company has expanded by more than 200%, and is now currently one of the largest online payment businesses in Japan. The firm offers cardless payments using only an email address and phone number – the accessible, frictionless payment method does not require a credit card nor application. “To summarise, we take the risk out of online transactions. The Japanese use the term “mendokusai” which means troublesome. So, we remove the mendokusai in terms of facilitating payments online,” states Houston. As well as being a technology-driven business, Paidy’s values centre around its workforce. “Paidy’s main core values are discovery, diversity and inclusion,” Houston says. The firm employs around
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“ The government has said that by 2020, 40% of all transactions should be online. Now that’s an opportunity to acknowledge” — Houston Ross Chief Technology Officer, Paidy
120 members of staff of 28 different nationalities. “So, diversity is really important to us, in terms of how we operate in trying to collectivise that diversity and then funnel it into the innovation that we use to power our company. I think that’s one of our core values,” Ross continues. With its diverse workforce, the company is able to introduce a range of new ideas and cutting-edge concepts. The business claims to be at the pinnacle of technology-adoption, which allows it to simplify
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Japan’s payment options. In order to
to encapsulate an experience right now
remove complexities and mendokusai
focused on the payments. And of
from purchasing, the payment network
course, the technology that we utilize
has adopted artificial intelligence (AI)
underpins that.” As the company’s CTO,
and machine learning. “I think at the
Houston is ensuring Paidy’s relation-
core of what we’re doing, we’re talking
ship with technology continues to
about financial risk management. So,
develop. “I’m responsible for engineer-
our ability to process that data and
ing, products, Infosec and operations,”
analyze it daily at the transactional level
notes Houston. When joining the
is key to our business,” says Houston.
company last year, having previously
“For us, digital transformation is the
worked at Nationale Nederlanden and
engine that underpins our ability to
AXA Life Insurance, the CTO decided
remove that mendokusai. We’re trying
to isolate his firm’s security function. w w w.pa id y. com
Make Every Customer Interaction Count Create innovative & delightful customer experiences with programmable communications. www.nexmo.com | sales@nexmo.com |
“When I arrived at Paidy, security was
factor to our technology operations as
a part of our engineering operations.
well our consumers and invoices. We
One of the first things I did was pull it
run our business in the cloud on AWS
away from engineering and set it on
Stack, and there are other services like
its own course,” claims Houston.
Circle-CI that we’re leveraging as well
There are several risks to consider within the fintech industry, with the P2P platform addressing operational risk,
because they’re on our continuous integration.” The network is becoming increasingly
cyber risk, and risks within underlying
popular in Japan as it is revolutionising
technology. As the business grows,
the industry and targeting both the mass
Paidy is adopting partnerships with
market and business. “The relationship
companies such as Nexmo and AWS.
between users and merchants is critical
“We work with partners like Nexmo,
to every interaction, and everyone
which targets SMS messaging – a key
involved is having to build trust.In that
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Houston Ross Houston Ross recently joined Paidy as the firm’s Chief Technology Officer. Prior to October last year, Houston was positioned as the Chief Operations Officer for Czech Republic and Slovakia at Nationale Nederlanden, as well as being a Board Member. The innovation-focused executive has also worked for NN’s Life Insurance Company as the Vice President, Chief Operations Officer, and Chief Information Officer, as well as AXA Life Insurance Japan as the Chief Technology Officer. Houston graduated from Barrington University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science and the University of Liverpool in 2007 with a Master of Business Administration degree. w w w.pa id y. com
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2008
Year founded
100+
Approximate number of employees
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“Diversity is really important to us, in terms of how we operate in trying to collectivise that diversity and then funnel it into the innovation that we use to power our company” 12
— Houston Ross Chief Technology Officer, Paidy
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we want to introduce additional new products for our company,” Houston says. With opportunities on the horizon, such as the Olympics being held in Japan in 2020, Paidy aims to take advantage of its surroundings. “The government has said that by 2020, 40% of all transactions should be online. Now that’s an opportunity to acknowledge,” continues Houston. The biggest challenge for Houston within his role is enabling the business’s growth: “With the scaling on a vertical side and the scaling on a horizontal side, on one hand you’re trying to build a foundation where you can grow, and space, Paidy says ‘look, we take the
the other is adding additional revenue
risk.’ The merchant is assured they will
and value streams to that ecosystem.
be paid by the consumer, as we accept
My personal challenge is how do you do
the consumer risk and trust that they
both at the same time whilst continuing
pay us,” explains Houston. “Then we
to expand.”
make it a whole lot more seamless, we make it frictionless, and we remove mendokusai for the merchant as well as for the consumer.” “Our primary goal is around growth, from both a vertical and horizontal perspective. The vertical perspective is to expand from 2mn Paidy consumers to 5mn in 2019. As for horizontal growth, w w w.pa id y. com
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Paidy Inc. WeWork Nogizaka 3F, 1-24-3, Minamiaoyama Minato-ku, 107-0062 –Japan T +81 3 45 30 81 18 | www.paidy.com