Episode Six (E6) have a deep understanding of the industry pain points and a vision of the enormous opportunity in the paytech arena. The three co-founders of E6 came together in 2015 to build and launch TRITIUM® – a platform that helps banks and fintechs leave legacy behind and build payments products their customers love.
From there, they attracted several visionary allies within key payments industry players to support E6, as they built a global team to bring their vision to market. They currently have employees in 35+ countries and support clients across five continents.
During Money20/20 Europe we spoke with Chris Ramsay, MD for Business Development at Episode Six, to learn more…
Tell us about the genesis of Episode Six?
“We are a mature business not a startup. We’ve been going nine years. Furthermore, we’re series C and have raised over £97 million across three rounds. The last round was in March 2023. We’re actually a secure reliable FinTech. We work with the likes of HSBC and can meet that reliability change for banks who might be wondering whether a solution provider will still be around in two years. E6 has 180 employees globally. We operate in Asia, the US and we’re growing fast in Europe.
Additionally, we see huge growth in this space and we’re really excited – it’s one of the reasons I joined from HSBC nine months ago. At E6, we love to solve customer problems, and a customer problem has payment as a component. We want to make that customer journey a better experience in a safe and secure way. Banks want to do that. Companies want to do that. People just need the technology to be able to do it well. And we think we’re able to support that now and in the future.”
Tell us about your role at Episode Six?
“I joined from HSBC where I was the innovation head on the corporate side for the bank speaking to a lot of the verticals. And every time I spoke to hospitality, healthcare, or telcos, they were asking about how can you actually do intake as a bank… And the bank’s response is that they would love to do that, but they’re not fintechs. I got a bit frustrated by trying to always push for change. Yet there is a different way. And that way is for banks to actually think about E6 as a partner. We provide technology. We’re a technology company. We have a ledger that allows you to actually take lots of different products to sit alongside your core business, and then we can do the issuing and processing.
What are some of the key challenges financial institutions are facing that you can help them with? What problems are they asking you to solve? In doing so, what are the challenges for Episode Six?
“We are now deploying into the Middle East and recently launched within Saudi Arabia. Our technology can pretty much be used in every country. And what’s interesting, I’m a banker and I know that everybody likes to make things complicated. The payments process does not have to be complicated. You can simplify it. People who are buying into our services start from addressing their customer problems. They’re keen to solve them and don’t want, or need, to understand all the ins and outs of payments. They just want to be able to get things done. And that’s where again, we try and focus a lot of our effort. So, it’s the people aspect of our company we’re proud of because we are bringing cross industry knowledge combined with technology to actually have a bit of fun.
Tell us about some of the successful partnerships Episode Six has been involved in…
Japan Airlines
“Japan Airlines is one of the companies that we power. You download the Japanese Airlines app when you’re booking your flights. And if you’re a regular customer you get points like you do with BA. And they also have a multicurrency wallet within their app that’s linked to a card. That card is powered by a bank and has 15 currencies on it, along with the loyalty points. So, the card can be used outside of Japan as a normal debit card and handles the currency conversion. We have Revolut in Europe and they have an inbuilt multicurrency app in Japan airlines and link to loyalty points.
So, for the Japanese Airlines customer, they don’t have to worry about being embarrassed about not having the right currency abroad and plan how they will actually be able to spend their money. Our platform also enables FX rates to be changed. For example, Platinum Japanese Airlines customers get better FX rates. All of this creates a great customer experience, but it’s the flexible technology that’s making things happen.”
A-Tono
“We have also just launched with A-Tono in Italy. Italians love real Cash, but even so digital payments grew 12% last year compared to 2022, totalling €444bn, up from €397bn. It represents a huge opportunity for payment solutions providers and retailers. A-Tono wants to deliver prepaid card offerings across many verticals: transit, gift cards, post offices and more. They needed the right technology to be able to make these offerings. You take a card and load money onto it – we power that for A-Tono. We’ve actually migrated all of their existing customers onto our platform. They want to stand out as the innovator in digital payments in Italy where Italians don’t have many choices.
By integrating E6’s powerful enterprise-grade payment processing and ledger technology, A-Tono can now offer its clients, which span a number of sectors in Italy, access to the latest global payment capabilities. Switching to E6 has broadened the services A-Tono is able to offer clients when it comes to payments processing and solutions, giving them more flexibility, choice and revenue streams.
Together, E6 and A-Tono will offer clients easy access to the most innovative payment solutions, integrated seamlessly into their existing infrastructure to provide secure, scalable and best in class customer-centric experiences.
Whatever the size of the company, whatever the region, we want to be involved in solving customer problems.”
What trends are you seeing across the FinTech landscape? What opportunities do you see for Episode Six?
“Everybody says cheques are going to go, they’ve been saying that for years but it’s actually happening. Not in the US, but digital payments are on the rise and it’s not just card payments. You’ve got wallet payments and the likes of PayPal, people don’t want physical cash. I don’t think the large retail brands have found a real solution. When you see what’s on offer at events like Money20/20 there are lots of people who can actually solve problems and it’s the collaboration I get excited about. What I’ve seen change over the last three or four years is that the Visas, the Mastercards and the big banks are looking to find small organisations like us to figure out how to solve their problems.”
And what’s next for Episode Six? What future launches and initiatives are you particularly excited about?
“The great thing is that we can go fast. We’re able to take a customer opportunity today and be delivering it and in market by the end of the year. That growth is consolidating our position that we are a technology company that can be trusted. We’re here to stay, but it’s the people that are employed by E6 that are really going to be the difference about why we are chosen versus some of our competitors. It’s not just about technology, it’s about trust and it’s about partnership because everybody wants their money to be transferred safely. And we can be trusted because we’re already trusted by the big banks.
Why Money20/20? What is it about this particular event that makes it the perfect place to showcase what you do? How has the response been to Episode Six?
“Networking is really important for us as a small company. I wander around the stands here and there are lots of people who can actually solve problems and it’s the collaboration I get quite excited about. What I’ve seen change over the last three or four years is that the big banks are looking to find small organisations like us to figure out how to solve their payments problems. And that’s different to when I was working for a bank only a few years ago. You just have to be here at Money20/20… What I’m seeing, since we returned after Covid, is how many people from different parts of the world are coming here to actually talk to each other in person. If you’re not here at Money20/20, then it’s actually hard to be relevant in this industry.”
- Digital Payments
