Ankur Ghosh uses the example of the bamboo tree to explain the rapid progress of SSV Capital PLC in recent months as it hit a series of milestones that count down to a key inflexion point over the summer.
‘For the first three years there is no visible activity to show the plant is growing,’ Ghosh explains. ‘Then suddenly, in year four it shoots up to 80 feet tall.’
For SSV, a lot of ‘subterranean activity’ has taken place since its inception in 2020; work that has laid the groundwork for what’s happening in the here and now.
So, in recent months it has completed its listing on the JP Jenkins exchange; managed the soft roll-out of SSV SmartPay, its disruptive payment platform; and is ready to go live with its SSV Real Estate prop-tech offering and the SSV Funds operations.
SmartPay’s use of QR codes will reduce merchant card charges by up to 70%
‘The research and development, creating the strategies for these businesses, allowed us to go out and start raising money from July last year,’ says Ghosh.
‘We have been very disciplined in our approach; the team backing me, all very smart people, have been fantastic.’
The roll-out of SmartPay has been keenly awaited and could shake up the current infrastructure.
While contactless has been a boon for the consumer with almost 90 per cent of the population using it for transactions, it is a far from optimal solution for merchants, who pay fees of up to 3 per cent on every transaction.
SmartPay’s use of QR codes will reduce these charges by up to 70 per cent, as it leverages the new UK Open Banking framework to sidestep the traditional APIs developed by Visa, MasterCard et al.
The exact uptake in the soft launch is confidential. However, according to Ghosh, hundreds of early adopters are now using the SSV SmartPay in the soft launch phase, generating ‘hundreds of thousands of transactions’.
Smartphone apps, meanwhile, started to appear in the Apple and Google stores late last month early this month as part of the roll-out.
July this year should see things accelerate. ‘We are talking about a full-scale promotional launch, where pretty much we are trying to adopt about maybe between five and ten thousand merchants and thereby one million or two million transactions,’ Ghosh explains.
‘Now how these transactions will help the merchants by reducing their very significant transaction fees and increasing cash flow.’
The initial plan is to forge partnerships with existing payment solution providers, thereby serving as a conduit for business development.
This approach allows SmartPay to gain a foothold in a broad array of merchant categories without the necessity of a large, dedicated sales force.
With up to 10,000 merchants, SSV will have captured only a small portion of the UK market. Longer-term, the vision is far more ambitious – capturing 5 per cent ‘and beyond’ of the market, which would roughly equate to over 50,000 merchants.
This would create a business with material revenues.
Outside the payments ‘vertical’, there is plenty of activity. SSV Real Estate, its prop-tech business, is gearing up for launch.
It aims to democratise the way people invest in high-yielding commercial property, offering a range of tools designed to diversify an investor’s portfolio, reduce associated risks, and potentially increase earning potential.
And with everything that SSV does, there is a sustainability twist to its methodology.
‘We will adhere to strict ‘people, planet and prosperity’ guidelines,’ says the SSV CEO. ‘We are going to invest in commercial projects not only here in the UK, but also in India and expanding to Australia and America.’
SSV Funds will see the launch of its first fund in Luxembourg ‘within quarter-one’, which like prop-tech will have sustainability at its heart.
So, progress has been considerable of late – but reflects the cautious approach to developing the strategy that is now being rolled out.
‘These are exciting times. But it is just the start. There’s much to do,’ says Ghosh.
