7 Min
Aevi bedeutet Aufbau eines offenen Ökosystems, um den Kunden Auswahl, Flexibilität und strategischen Wert zu bieten
Laut Slogan unterstützt die Firma Aevi jeden bei der Entwicklung von DO more.
Aus diesem Grund haben sie ein OPEN ECOSYSTEM entwickelt, das Apps, Bezahldienste und eine Auswahl von Zahlungsgeräten verschiedener Hersteller kombiniert, die Acquirer näher an ihre Händler und Händler näher an ihre Konsumenten bringen.
Acquirer wählen aus einem Marktplatz mit hochwertigen Apps und Services schnell differenzierte, innovative SmartPOS-Lösungen unter ihren eigenen Marken.
Aevi’s zentralisierte Zahlung als Serviceplattform soll Hindernisse beseitigen und den Acquirern helfen, die komplexe Zahlungslandschaft durch eine einzige Integration und den Zugriff auf eine umfassende Reihe von Cloud-basierten Back-Office-Reporting-Tools für verbesserte Kontrolle und Flexibilität zu vereinfachen.
Acquirer, App Solution Partner und Hardware Vendors, sollen auf ihre Vision eines offenen, kollaborativen Zahlungs-Ökosystems aufbauen, das frei von Geräteherstellern, Währungen, Grenzen oder Vorschriften ist.
Ziel ist es offene Lösungen zu entwickeln, die Mehrwert liefern und die Bedürfnisse der heutigen Verbraucher besser erfüllen.
Doch wer könnte eine Lösung besser beschreiben als die Macher selbst. Deswegen haben wir Peter Spee von Aevi zum Interview geladen und sprechen mit ihm über Unternehmen und Produkt.
The company
Just introduce yourself.
- Name
Peter Spee
- What are you doing?
VP Strategy & Corporate Development
- Where is your company located?
AEVI is a global company. We are headquartered in Paderborn in Germany, and have operations and offices in London (UK) and Prague (CZ) and a sales force in many other countries such as in the US.
- How long has the company existed?
The company officially launched in October 2015. It was originally the cashless payment unit of former Wincor Nixdorf (now Diebold Nixdorf). Shareholders: Diebold Nixdorf and HPE Growth Capital
- Why are you in the market?
We help to embrace collaboration and adopt open solutions that have the power to deliver more value and better meet the needs of today’s consumer at the point of sale.
We want to bring banks and acquirers closer to their merchants (SMBs), and merchants closer to their consumers.
The Product
What can you say about the product/solution?
- What is your product/solution?
We provide an open and collaborative ecosystem of value-added apps and services, payment solutions, and a selection of multi-vendor, AEVI-enabled payment devices.
Selecting from a marketplace of high-quality apps and services, Acquirers can quickly create differentiated, innovative SmartPOS solutions under their own brands.
Our centralized payments as a service platform eliminates obstacles, and helps Acquirers simplify the complex payment landscape with a single integration and access to a comprehensive suite of cloud-based, back office reporting tools for enhanced control and flexibility.
- Why are you doing this?
We are providing this collaborative ecosystem to enable merchant banks and acquirer to tailor solutions for their SMB customers that are flexible and relevant to their specific needs, with the ability to deploy new solutions faster.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the payments landscape is fragmented and merchants nowadays need more than a payment terminal. Historically, merchant acquirers have only been providing merchants with a payment only, because this was the only thing available. Now SMBs have access to a whole new set of cloud-based business solutions that helps them run their business more efficiently. This includes things like stock management, employee management, loyalty, and point-of-sale solutions. For the most part, these solutions are provided by individual solution providers and are not integrated with one another. This fragmentation is a challenge for merchant acquirers, as revenue opportunities are chipped away, and for merchants, as they have an array of solutions available and little guidance on what really suits their businesses.
Secondly, we believe there is no such thing as one size fits all. Small and medium size businesses have different needs based on a host of factors, including the industry they operate in and their size. It is difficult for a merchant acquirer to cater for all types of merchants if they select a single provider. We have created the opportunity for merchant acquirers to join a community that provides access to a selection of solutions and hardware provider that work seamlessly with one another, so they can create differentiated solutions.
- Who is it for?
Our solution is for merchant banks and acquirers who believe collaboration will provide the solutions of the future for SMBs.
- What is the benefit for the user?
Access to an open, centralized payment platform and an apps-and-services ecosystem enables service providers to focus on creating market-oriented business solutions tailored to their SMB customers. The benefit is that they can differentiate, not just on price, but at a whole new level with the apps and devices they choose and how they bundle their offers. With these tailored solutions, SMEs have access to high-quality solutions that help them run their businesses more efficiently so they can focus on what matters the most: their consumers.
- What requirements must the user bring?
Merchant acquirers don’t have any requirements – they can pick and choose from our solutions to suit their merchants, or we can work with them and advise how to tailor their proposition to their merchants. Once they have made their choices, we deliver the solution to their merchants and manage it for them.
- Where to use your solution?
All different merchant types from retail to hospitality, health and beauty and everything in between. Even the small car garage which wants to offer more than just accepting payments but wants to offer a loyalty solution or appointment booking for its customers.
The business model
Our business model is to be open and collaborative. This means instead of creating a proprietary solution and competing on price, the ecosystem we have created is based on collaboration and sharing revenue.
- How would you describe the use of AEVIs AppMarketplace in terms of your KPIs?
AEVI’s App marketplace is the key feature of our proposition. Our marketplace is HW agnostic and every App runs on every 3rd party AEVI-Enabled device. Our Goal so connect as many endpoints to our marketplace as possible to become the No. Ecosystem for B2B Apps, Services and Payments.
- Keyword App Store on the Terminal vs. smart cash register. Is not the terminal just an SME (KMU) Play? And will it turn to the big volume – what do you think?
Because of the number of SME’s, success in this market will lead to big numbers and yes , currently SMEs is a market that stands to benefit the most of moving from their existing – often not integrated or not well supported – software to smart terminals with the right mix of value added Apps and Services. Choice is the keyword of an App Store. It’s choice of choosing or being offered an affordable mix of cash register, staff planning tool, loyalty offer which is most appropriate which distinguishes the App Store from a smart cash register. However the use of an App Store on the Terminal is not restricted to SME’s. Also T1,T2 and other large corporations stand to gain in the adoption of Smart Terminals connected to a HW agnostic distribution platform in order to significantly reduce their costs and roll out innovative (Apps) solutions in their businesses without launching massive IT projects.
How do you describe your competition in Germany/Europe? How do you see the activities of American competitors, for example Poynt and Verifone?
It is always good to have competition – it ultimately means the ideas are worthwhile. We see ourselves being successful in Europe, as we have innovative acquirers rolling out already in both Europe and the Americas. Not to forget the Commonwealth Bank in Australia who has the solution installed with more than 100k merchants in Australia. Ultimately, we don’t see hardware providers as competitors, but rather as potential members of the community, as they can connect their solutions to AEVI and provide additional choice to merchant acquirers. Our recent announcement of a partnership with Worldpay in the Americas means we are working with third-party hardware vendors such as Verifone and PAXto enable their hardware into our app marketplace. We call this our AEVI-Enabled Devices, which are connected to our platform to provide even more choice to our banks and acquirers and developers just need to develop their app ones and we make sure it runs on all the device within the AEVI-Enabled Portfolio of 3rdParty devices, which can be payment device but also non-payment devices.
Ultimately, we don’t see hardware providers as competitors, but rather as potential members of the community, as they can connect their solutions to AEVI and provide additional choice to merchant acquirers. Our recent announcement of a partnership with Worldpay in the Americas means we are working with third-party hardware vendors such as Verifone and PAXto enable their hardware into our app marketplace. We call this our AEVI-Enabled Devices, which are connected to our platform to provide even more choice to our banks and acquirers and developers just need to develop their app ones and we make sure it runs on all the device within the AEVI-Enabled Portfolio of 3rdParty devices, which can be payment device but also non-payment devices.
- Where is the journey going with AEVI? Please describe your strategic orientation for the next 3-5 years?
That is easy. We want to be the No.1 Ecosystem in Payments. This means the platform with the most connected devices (payment to non-payment devices) to an ecosystem rich with value added Apps, Services and Payment Solutions attractive to Merchants and suited to their needs.
- It feels like smart POS terminals are not a reality. When is the breakthrough likely to happen in Smart POS?
SmartPOS is already a reality. It is common in Australia, and the tool is headed for mass adoption soon in Europe and America.
- What relevant showcases does AEVI participate in in Europe?
We are present at many trade shows, including Money20/20 Europe.
- To be successful, you need good partners and developers at your side. How do you find your partners and on what criteria do you choose them? (the app „Producers“) – How do you solve the classic chicken and egg problem?
We have a great selection of app partners already connected to our marketplace, and we are always looking for new and innovative solutions. All of our potential app partners and hardware vendors go through a staged process before their solutions are made available on the marketplace to ensure quality and security standards are met.
- How do you describe your business model? Does multi-staging still have the desired yield for AEVI, partners and app producers?
The business model is clearly defined: App revenue sharing and device connectivity fee.
We thank you for your openness and for the pleasant interview.
