myPOS is an innovative payments company which partnered with Advent in early 2024. Leveraging Advent’s significant payments expertise, together we are empowering SMEs to solve payment challenges and grow in new, innovative ways.
In this interview, Fabio Cali, a Managing Director at Advent, speaks to myPOS Chairman, Laurent Le Moal, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mario Shiliashki, about the company’s transformation, international expansion, and future growth.
An edited transcript is below:
Mario: We started as a payments company for micro, small, medium sized businesses across Europe. We provide the payments technology and hardware. We are on a journey of growth and transformation to bring more services to merchants, from financial services to software solutions.
Fabio: We saw a great opportunity in myPOS – to invest behind a business platform that helps small and micro merchant throughout Europe, and potentially one day, globally, to operate and grow.
Laurent: The thesis for myPOS was very clear from the beginning. If you look at the markets in which we operate, SMEs are at the heart of innovation and growth, yet they are underserved by incumbent banking providers. myPOS’s proposition is to bring small merchants the best all-in-one solution for their business. We are evolving from a payments company to a comprehensive software solution that helps merchants operate and grow.
Mario: We already offer a bank account and a connected card, and we’re also getting into lending to give merchants more efficient access to cash. This is all centered on what myPOS can bring to merchants to help them build their businesses.
Fabio: An aspect that has been fundamental for the growth at myPOS has been the foundational work we’ve done on data and building on this, AI. Tell me how this has transformed the organization?
Mario: The implementation of our data lake house has been a massive transformation. It gives us access to instantaneous and live information which has been a game-changer. It enables us to dynamically allocate capital and make data-driven decisions on a daily basis. The ability to understand our cost of acquisition and lifetime value in a scientific way gives us confidence in our budget and our growth plans.
Laurent: What is really exciting to me is the level of transformation occurring within myPOS due to AI. What’s so special about AI is how it provides a level playing field and therefore opportunity for us to compete with larger companies.
AI is a key part of our internal transformation, automating specific customer interactions and freeing up our people to focus on higher-value activities like marketing and solving complex problems for customers.
Mario: Our use of AI has already had a major impact on our operations. For example, since I first started at myPOS over a year ago, we’ve reduced our merchant onboarding time from 10-12 days to less than a day, with nearly 50% of it being instantaneous. We’ve also improved customer support, with our AI-driven chatbot having a 92% customer satisfaction score, compared to 79% for a human-driven chat.
Fabio: Another key part of the myPOS story is international expansion. Half of our business is in France, Italy, and the rest of continental Europe. During due diligence we identified that the UK, France, and Spain were key markets for myPOS.
Mario: Exactly – we made the decision that M&A could act as a leapfrog for myPOS to achieve even faster growth. Given our ambitions to disrupt strategic markets such as Germany and the UK, it made sense to pursue growth in this way.
Fabio: It was a very strategic decision to more meaningfully enter these high-growth markets. We very carefully and methodically mapped all the acquisition targets and then executed against them quickly.
Mario: Absolutely. The partnership with Advent was crucial in this regard and their ability to decide quickly and provide cash was key. Take the acquisition of UTP in the UK, for example, we went from meeting the founder to signing the deal in the space of just three months.
Laurent: Building on the concept of M&A being a catalyst, an accelerator, is also the acquisition of Toporder in France, which showcases our focus on innovation. It was a small startup that developed fantastic software for small businesses, and it was a natural extension for us as we transition from a payments company to a provider of core software services.
Fabio: As myPOS continues to evolve, what is your long-term vision for the company’s future?
Laurent: I believe that with Advent’s support and the dedication of our team, myPOS is poised for even greater success in the years to come. We will continue to expand our geographical reach, strengthen our product portfolio, and foster a culture of innovation and excellence.
Mario: My vision is to build a platform that helps small and micro-merchants throughout Europe to operate and grow. Our partnership with Advent, and the “debate, decide, commit” framework that we’ve established has enabled us to build trust, and their daily support makes it a true co-ownership.
