Realising the vision

Teya wanted to make starting a business easier by creating services that help small businesses thrive. Their goal was to build a single platform that reduces daily operational tasks for owners, making it simpler for customers to manage their businesses.

One important aspect of Teya’s business is securely and efficiently managing the movement and storage of funds for merchants in their business accounts. Partnering with Modulr was essential to successfully delivering this critical service.

“When we started this project, we knew there were two sides to building our service. The first was tracking inflows and outflows against the balance of merchant funds – creating a ledger, tracking card expenditure, monitoring, and recording transactions and similar related tasks – and the other was the actual movement of funds. We were well equipped to build the former, but the latter was something very new to us. With Modulr, we got instant access to a full suite of services, enabling us to offer a business account that could be used to make and receive payments.” – Carl Hirschson, Product Manager.

Unlocking revenue and customer lifetime value 

Using Modulr's embedded payment technology, Teya offers a business account that is a fundamental part of the ecosystem they are creating for small businesses. This ecosystem will help small businesses thrive – in turn driving revenues and strong retention for Teya. 

"We understand that by bundling services, we create more value for small business owners. By delivering a business account linked to acquiring, we will see network effects come into play with reduced customer churn and a positive indirect revenue impact on our acquiring business." - Carl Hirschson, Product Manager.

Further indirect revenue is unlocked by the new insights that the business account offers Teya on their merchants’ needs.

“Across acquiring and the business account products, we have a unique view into the financial activities and needs of our merchants. This unlocks additional products such as providing growth capital to merchants at very competitive rates. Growth capital adds to the network effect of our offering which ultimately drives growth for both our merchants and us.” – Siddhartha Ram, Director of Product Management. 

A partner with a shared goal for financial services  

Teya has a very clear idea of what it wants to achieve not only for its own business but for financial services as a whole. In the past, the company sometimes felt it was working against its providers. In Modulr, Teya found a partner committed to the same vision and willing to put in the work to make it happen.

“The customer service has been a particular highlight for me. We see that our success together is a priority for Modulr, which is incomparable to what we had before. When you’re launching a new product, unexpected issues and timeline changes inevitably come up – Modulr has always been accommodating and approached this with a problem-solving mindset. It’s been phenomenal.”

We’re all on a journey to improve financial services and it feels like we’re innovating and growing together, which is a really nice partnership to be in.” – Carl Hirschson Product Manager. 

Why Teya came to Modulr 

Teya’s mission is to enable small businesses to thrive, using technology to alleviate the stresses of starting a business as much as possible. The company believed the best way to do this was to provide small businesses with a service that addressed all accounting, payment, and banking needs in one place. This lifecycle experience was something that was missing from the market, with some small business owners using over 30 different partners to operate. As such, Teya built a platform which serviced many of those needs – but it needed full business account functionality.

So, Teya began a process of discovery and due diligence.

“Our discovery and due diligence process was extensive, and Modulr had been highly recommended to us due to the quality of its service, its flexibility, and its speed of integration. When we spoke to Modulr, it was clear there was a cultural alignment as well. We were able to embed payments with Modulr in as little as two to three months, which was over twice as fast as the integration with our previous provider.” – Siddhartha Ram, Director of Product Management.

And what next?

Teya has achieved its initial aim of creating a financial hub for merchants, but also sees the collaboration as a means, not an end. Additional financial services via API will always be available to them, while Modulr’s licencing network also opens the door to the rest of the world.

“Our business account has been in a closed pilot phase, but as of March 2024 we are launching to more customers in the UK. As for the future, we like that with Modulr we’re not bound to the UK. We’re looking forward to exploring the idea of European expansion, knowing that we can leverage our close relationship with Modulr along the way.” – Siddhartha Ram, Director of Product Management.

Through its embedded payments network and services, Modulr empowers businesses like Teya to offer better payment services to merchants, while enjoying operational and revenue gains themselves Find more information here or get in touch today to speak to one of our team.