No business wants to lose customers for failure to provide preferred payment services. Yet, with so many new methods emerging, it’s becoming both costly and time-consuming for companies to keep up with consumer expectation. Even if leaders could purchase new hardware each time a new method comes out, the security and integration challenges can prove impossible, potentially preventing successful transactions.
Thankfully, there is a smarter, more accessible solution. We spoke to Darren Shaw, Chief Product Officer at Miura, to discuss his more flexible vision of the payment future – including the potential role that AI might play – learning just how secure digital payment platforms like Miura Pay are turning things around.
So, Darren. What inspired the launch of Miura and how have things evolved since the business was founded?
It all started with a mission to simplify face-to-face payments. Traditional payment hardware is cumbersome, which – added to the fact that industry certification is required – is why it comes at such high cost.
We wanted to make something more accessible. Our solution is not tied to proprietary hardware, which means it’s completely flexible and can be used with all existing payment infrastructure, without the need for additional purchase. This makes the payment experience better for both merchants and buyers, where the latter benefit from much smoother, more secure, reliable transactions.
The difference we have made so far has seen Muira grow from a niche player to a globally recognised provider – supporting all kinds of businesses and industries, from retail and hospitality through to transportation.
What makes your solution different?
The major difference is that our platform operates as an API, which essentially makes us a software interface centred around core hardware components. This is what allows our partners to integrate any of our payment modules into their existing technologies, at no additional hardware cost.
The smartphone revolution really helped us with this. The team soon realised that we could use the powerful computing capacity of mobiles and tablets to eliminate embedded technology from our payment devices. So, rather than building with proprietary protocols, which are costly and time-consuming to develop, our software runs on any secure Android platform – something that enhances security and, more importantly, means any of our payment modules can be integrated easily into current setups.
This flexibility is a huge advantage for business. Because we are hardware agnostic, our partners are free to chose from a range of hardware providers and remain free from costly vendor lock-ins. So, really, the biggest advantage we bring is unifying all payment terminals into one single, simple, affordable integration – with one single point of contact so partners benefit from the unbeatable support of experienced management professionals under our Miura Assured Program.
That sounds great. But how do you tailor those services and support to businesses of all sizes?
Another major advantage of Miura Pay is that it’s scalable. So, startups can sign up to the service and expand the solution as their business grows – much like large enterprises can scale down if they have to, to assist with costs. Miura adapts to partner needs, whether that partner is a startup or SME in need of a lightweight mobile payment solution or a global acquirer searching for a simple, flexible, fully integrated enterprise payment system.
This is all possible thanks to the fact that we’re a cloud-based SaaS model – and the broad range of verticals we cater to, from retail and hospitality to transport and unattended payments, also helps. Regardless of industry, our flexible solutions are always easy to use, as all hardware and software services can be managed through a single-point platform – something that significantly reduces the complexity of operations.
That’s what we mean by democratising payment services. Miura Pay is for everyone – we’ve helped Fin-Tech firms to thrive with our flexible, agile payment platform whilst also helping more traditional companies to modernise their services. And this agility is exactly what the business world needs.
What’s the vision for Miura Pay for the future? How do you plan to grow and expand the business?
The goal is to become the leading global provider of face-to-face payment solutions. We already have strong presence across Europe, Asia and the Middle East and plan to move into the Americas as well by next year.
Because we operate on a hardware agnostic, open model, it’s easy for us to work across the payments landscape, allowing us to achieve our ambitions. No matter what new payment methods emerge, our solution allows users to integrate it – and the costs savings and service improvements that result will hopefully mean Miura Pay becomes the norm.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll rest on our laurels. We’ll continue to invest in technology that enhances the in-person payment experience as we grow, whether this means embracing more contactless solutions or AI-driven enhancements.
Speaking of continued developments, how do you see the digital payments industry evolving in the next few years?
Cashless payments are set to accelerate hugely, with global cash payments expected to decline by 40% this year. Digital wallets, credit cards and peer-to-peer payments are becoming increasingly common, so we no longer need to use physical cards or money.
This will also drive an increase in software-led payment experiences like SoftPOS and cloud-based payment processing, as we also see more alternative payment methods beginning to emerge, to cater to diverse consumer preferences.
All of this will come at huge disruption to traditional players, with things like open banking and real-time payments challenging things like legacy card schemes, completely reshaping the landscape.
What role does AI play in all of this? How do you foresee the digital payments industry growing?
Implemented correctly, AI will be a great thing for the payments industry, generally helping to drive innovation, automating and personalising key processes whilst enhancing security. AI-analytics can improve real-time fraud detection for example, as predictive monitoring significantly drives down risk. Meanwhile, decision-making at the point of sale will become much more dynamic, with AI tailoring the loyalty rewards, payment options and pricing offered to customers at the checkout, depending on their data.
We’ll also see AI-driven automation in things like accounts payable and receivable become smarter – something that will streamline back-end operations.
