Primer, the UK-founded fintech backed by Accel and Balderton, today announces the launch of Primer Connect, an open app framework that enables third-party payments services to build integrations, or ‘connections’, on top of Primer’s unified checkout and payments APIs.
Primer’s open app framework is the first of its kind, with Klarna, Mollie, Worldline, Truelayer, GoCardless, Sift, Laybuy, Bridge, Banked, Fonoa, and others as early participants.
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Primer is an automation engine for payments, similar to Zapier for web apps. Merchants can rapidly add or ‘connect’ PSPs, payment methods, fraud providers, and other payments-related services to their checkouts and payment flows — no development effort required, thanks to Primer’s low-code approach. Merchants can maintain a unified checkout experience and centralised storage of saved payment information, streamline recurring payments, quickly expand to new markets, unify fraud, and optimise their payments services stack for performance, cost, and redundancy.
Primer was founded by ex-PayPal employees, Paul Anthony and Gabriel Le Roux in January 2020, securing Balderton-led seed funding in May the same year pre-launch and Accel-led Series A funding post-launch in November. To date, the company has raised £17.8 million. As a remote-first company, Primer has over 40 employees across 15 countries — doubling in size and reach in just a few months.
Commenting on this, Paul Anthony, Co-founder and Head of Product and Engineering at Primer, said: “With Primer Connect, we enable payments-related services to significantly reduce go-live timeframes, increase distribution and ensure customers maintain up-to-date, best-in-class technical integrations. Primer is an uncompromising, fully agnostic payments integration. By opening up our framework, we ensure merchants can gain access to best-in-class products and services across their payments services stack at all times.”
“Gone are the days of having to compromise on UX, and manage increasingly complex, interdependent APIs and integrations. Merchants can now focus solely on building the best possible payments experience for their customers. Our ‘connection’ types include payments processors, payment methods, fraud providers, BI tools and accounting providers, with many more on the way.”
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Primer Connect is currently in closed beta and is expected to be widely available to developers in Q2 2021.
Primer Connect partner quotes:
Klarna: “We love how Primer is making something complex simple. Through Primer, merchants can offer Buy Now Pay Later without any compromises!” — John Osvald, Head of Partnerships
Mollie: “We genuinely seek what is best for our customers. Integrating with Primer enables our merchants to grow beyond our focus markets.” — Jesse Raaijmakers, Strategic Partnership Manager
GoCardless: “By deploying GoCardless via Primer, merchants can tap into our global direct debit network, harnessing the power of bank-to-bank payments which increase conversion, cash flow and speed-to-market, while decreasing customer churn and cost. As we continue to combine our network with open banking technology, Primer’s seamless integration ensures businesses will always have access to the best and latest payment solutions, without any technical build.” — Rachel Astall, Head of Global Partnerships
Worldline: “As the world of payments become more open, global enterprise businesses are seeking flexibility in their payments stack to access the best payment platforms for global growth. Our partnership with Primer provides enterprise businesses with seamless and secure access to key commerce growth corridors for payments acceptance, with a multitude of acquiring options and local payment methods to optimise success rates and fuel revenue growth.” — Nathan Salisbury, VP Channel Sales, Digital Commerce
Banked: “Our partnership with Primer allows merchants to access a better choice at checkout by providing an easy integration to offer Pay-by-bank to all their customers.” — Nick Thomson, Chief Product Officer
TrueLayer: “Open banking-based payments are the future, offering greater security, higher conversion, lower fraud and faster settlement compared to bank transfer or cards. We’re excited to be working with an innovative firm like Primer that shares our vision on how to deliver a better payments experience for merchants,” — Jamie Morton, UK Country Manager
