Storefund & Rakuten partner to provide ‘immediate payments'

Storfund has forged a new partnership with the French e-commerce marketplace Rakuten to provide seamless and ‘immediate payment’ services to Rakuten customers.

Rakuten which is one of the world’s longest-established e-commerce marketplaces has been seeking new ways to provide its sellers with better flexibility and control over payments. To remedy the challenge, it has now joined forces with fintech payments leader Storfund to provide those services for sales to Rakuten France’s sellers.

Storfund solutions provide seamless payment options

London-based Storfund, which launched in 2018, specialises in marketplace payment solutions to sellers. Prior to its formation, the space faced challenges in the form of payment delays and refund facilitation. These issues were particularly marked when online sales increased by 40% during the pandemic. 

According to reports, Storfund is currently the only European provider of this service, and as a result, has grown rapidly since its launch four years ago, expanding its presence to 20 countries and doubling the funding it provides each year. 

In February 2021, the payment solutions provider hit the headlines following its partnership with the world's biggest online retail space, Amazon. 

The new partnership with Rakuten will see the fintech open its service to the company’s large French base of more than 8500 professional sellers.

Speaking about the latest move and Storfund’s current market position, Chief Revenue Officer Oliver Whelan said, “The surges in e-commerce sales over the past few years have shown that sellers can be making huge profits and still have an empty bank account due to payment delays. Now economic headwinds have intensified, the need for reliable cash flow has increased.”

Rakuten is under pressure to provide real-time payments 

As one of the oldest e-commerce businesses, Rakuten has been at the forefront of retail digitisation. It built the world's first B2B2C marketplace in 1997 and has pioneered innovative services, technologies, and human support to help sellers grow their businesses online. The partnership with Storfund means Rakuten France will add cash flow to its toolkit of embedded services for sellers.

The new services will provide unrivalled reach in the e-commerce seller community, and cements its position as the leader in this space; tens of thousands of sellers globally are now able to access its service across multiple marketplaces.

Storfund’s Head of Partnerships, Margaret-Anne Galvin, explained, “Storfund and Rakuten share the same values. Rakuten advocates a virtuous e-commerce model that benefits everyone, sellers of all sizes and all consumers.”

She added, “Similarly, Storfund has a mantra of 'win-win e-commerce' by providing cash flow to help sellers grow, marketplaces grow too.”