Rapyd’s Enterprise Evolution: Transitioning from SMB to Global Tech Clients

Building for enterprise means perfecting the basics first. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Arik Shtilman revealed how Rapyd evolved from serving mom-and-pop shops to processing billions for tech giants like Google and Uber.

Starting with Fundamentals

The journey began with small merchants and basic payment needs. Arik recalls those early days: “We always got in and we sold, but we got 10% out of the 100%.” This initial foothold proved crucial, but Rapyd recognized they were leaving significant value on the table.

The Infrastructure Investment

Moving upmarket required substantial infrastructure development. Today, Rapyd operates in “106 countries across the globe. We directly regulated at around 55 countries,” Arik notes. “Just to give you some numbers, we have about 100 bank accounts just for the company itself.”

Brand Evolution

Scaling to enterprise meant rethinking their approach to brand building. “A brand is not a logo,” Arik emphasizes. “A lot of times people think that brand is my logo, brand is the color, brand is the website. No. A brand is a lot of different parameters… it’s how you talk about the company, it’s how you present the company, it’s how people interact with the company.”

The Customer Wallet Strategy

Rather than pursuing new logos, Rapyd focused on expanding their share of existing customer relationships. A key insight came from analyzing customer needs: “With that last piece, you can get to 50, 70%, because you can get more.” This realization led to expanding their service offering, including adding card acquiring capabilities.

Unconventional Enterprise Marketing

To attract enterprise talent, Rapyd took unconventional approaches. When they needed to hire 300 engineers in six months, they hosted a massive party featuring David Guetta and Tiesto. “It cost us money,” Arik admits. “But what happened very quickly is that everybody knew about the company… We were able to recruit the 300 engineers in six months with a cost of average cost of recruitment of around $2,000 instead of like $35,000.”

Managing the Enterprise Sales Cycle

For founders navigating their own upmarket transition, Arik emphasizes the importance of early brand investment: “Invest money in brand awareness and building a brand as early as possible… when you go and pitch a new SaaS product to a company that never heard your name, by definition, you’re going to fail and you have a small chance to succeed.”

Today, Rapyd serves “around 215,000 clients globally. Some of them are the most famous ones, like Google, Uber, all the way to small startups or mom and pop shop that might use us.” This range demonstrates how maintaining SMB relationships while growing enterprise accounts can create a robust business model.

The future looks even bigger. “No, it’s not massive at all. It’s very small comparing to where it needs to be,” Arik insists, drawing parallels to cloud computing’s evolution. The lesson? Sometimes serving small customers exceptionally well creates the foundation for enterprise success.