Drawing upon decades of experience in the payment processing industry, deftly handling high-risk transactions for merchants that span undervalued global markets from India and Russia to the Middle East and Africa, Certus Finance is paving the way for freshly realized international opportunities.
On the cusp of marking their fifth anniversary this June, founder and CEO Sergey Kazlouski, head of sales and marketing Ilya Firsov and COO Sonya Rashell have built up Certus Finance into a global player with main offices in St. Petersburg, Russia and Minsk, Belarus, while being legally incorporated in numerous countries spanning Germany, Estonia, Singapore and beyond.
By looking at new markets, we understand such countries like India, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya and many others are undervalued.
Their services encompass a wide range of billing solutions, including payouts for performers from challenging regions through a tailored, low-friction system that utilizes local currencies via instant deposits on local cards. They also offer comprehensive cash flow management that harnesses region-specific legal frameworks, while offering regulatory advantages for merchants due to Certus’ main bank acquirers being based in the CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East and Africa) region.
As they ramp up operations in the adult industry, Certus Finance seeks to bridge the gap between traditional markets and untapped potential in areas that are highly populated and experiencing an e-commerce renaissance, especially for clients seeking to have greater reach in overlooked countries. To introduce their vision and spotlight their team, XBIZ interviewed Kazlouski and Firsov for the latest trends in global payment processing.
XBIZ: Give us the history behind Certus Finance. What are a few of the biggest milestones the company has achieved since its founding?
KAZLOUSKI: In June, Certus Finance will celebrate our fifth anniversary. I first envisioned this project back in 1998 when I was a webmaster and worked with SEO. At that time, Altavista was the most popular search engine, and adding an address in a unique field allowed us to get on the Yahoo directory. I even remember Lycos and Hotbot, but maybe I’m a little old school. We had been working with the TopCash affiliate program, where the legendary iBill was the payment provider. It was then, that I had an idea to have my own payment solution.
It took me about 18 years to become a successful entrepreneur. Prior to the launch of Certus Finance, we had launched many projects with my current staff at the time, including the first PSP in Belarus, where I’m from. We started an online marketplace to sell tickets for sports events and concerts and also created an online system to sell insurance certificates. Finally, in 2016, after obtaining experience in local internet-acquiring, we started an international business. And that’s when the Certus Finance story truly started.
From the very beginning, we decided to work in a high-risk niche and chose forex (foreign exchange) trading, which can be a bit like gambling. Paying close attention and understanding the customer’s demands brought an explosive growth of clients. After one year in business, we had more than 600 merchants with huge venues.
In 2017, I began attending adult-related conferences in Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague. I really enjoyed the environment and cheerful atmosphere of exhibitors. After analyzing the adult market, we decided to develop Tier 3 countries as the main target for our merchants.
Today, Certus Finance is a group of companies in different countries. We have two main offices: in St. Petersburg, Russia and Minsk, Belarus. Our technical team is located in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, and in Pune, India. Also, we are legally incorporated in many other countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Estonia and Singapore. There are over 50 regular corporations who work with Certus Finance, and we’re always looking for new candidates. This structure helps us to find the most flexible and efficient solutions for our customers.
Because we’re not focused on only one country or region, it gives us the freedom to move and anticipate customers’ expectations in our work. Plus, we can consider requests to onboard merchants from any countries (except OFAC countries) and not only U.S. or European residents.
The Certus Finance team has vast experience from multiple crossover businesses like affiliate marketing. For instance, Ilya Firsov is in charge of sales and marketing communications. He worked for a huge Russian CPA Network and also was involved in the compliance business for a while.
Another example is Sonya, our COO. Since 2000, she has been working in adult billing. Sonya was involved in creating a billing system from scratch, and has worked with banks, merchants and promotions. And, we together integrated e-payments in Belarus. Sonya also has experience in teaching bank security and she knows a lot in the payment security business and marketing.
As a result, we understand not only payment’s nature, but have hands-on skills in traffic, compliance, data security, fraud and other routines.
XBIZ: How does Certus distinguish itself in the payment processing market?
FIRSOV: The main way we distinguish ourselves is being a leader in new markets where we can serve global merchants. In the U.S. and Europe, there are enough players in the processing markets, but there are other regions with just as much as profit potential for adult merchants with no high-grade payment solutions.
The list of Tier 3 countries has five markets with the greatest growth potential: India, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya and Chinese-speaking clients living outside of Mainland China. We offer all these regions to our customers because we have local processing solutions there.
For most projects that work only in the U.S. and Europe’s local markets, there’s a huge problem: payouts for performers from other regions. That’s why we launched a tailored payment service in local currencies with instant deposits on local cards. In our case, performers don’t need to get a new card to receive payouts.
XBIZ: What does your multi-feature portal offer businesses as far as data analytics and customization?
KAZLOUSKI: Our multi-feature portal offers our customers a five-pronged approach:
1. Payment summary on the home page to check brief information about the payments for the last day, week and month.
2. Advanced statistics on completed transactions (purchases, refunds and chargebacks).
3. Flexible filters to search all necessary information.
4. The ability for users to perform manual refunds.
5. Report downloads with custom filters in Excel format with such information as Merchant Name, Transaction ID, Transaction Type, Result, Amount, Currency, Card Holder Name, Date/ Time, Result Reason Info, Card Issuing Country and Customer IP.
XBIZ: Describe your approach to compliance in the face of ever-evolving regulations.
KAZLOUSKI: Certus Finance adheres to responsible principles following all the regulators’ and card scheme requirements. We regularly revise and update our policies regarding all the compliance procedures.
A significant distinction is our international presence, and our offices are physically located in different countries. This allows us to manage customers’ cash flow and build a legal framework in the best possible way and gives our clients more freedom and opportunities. Whenever possible, we try to remove comprehensive regulative liabilities from the customer’s side. For instance, our main bank acquirers are from the CEMEA region, which means our merchants aren’t held to PSD2 and GDPR regulation standards.
XBIZ: What untapped opportunities in regions like Russia, India, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the EU are merchants not taking advantage of, that Certus can help with?
FIRSOV: By looking at new markets, we understand such countries like India, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya and many others are undervalued. For example, India has a larger population than the entire U.S., and about five times more cardholders, and their e-commerce payments go up in volume every year.
As it stands right now, the Indian market is set to double in growth in 2023. It’s astounding how much profit merchants could earn annually if they gave some thought to these new regions and started to pursue business in them.
In my opinion, global business will inevitably change their strategy and include these other markets very soon. In the adult markets, it’s essential. Customers with high-speed internet are ready to amuse themselves and are willing to pay for it. We can’t compare today’s e-commerce market share to what it was 10 years ago.
The current market’s main problem is lack of information. It’s very clear that working in streamlined markets and competing with well-known players is the easiest route, but there is a long list of countries ready to pay that don’t have any deal-breaking issues for interested merchants. Our company has pioneered these new regions, and we’ve been able to resolve our customers’ issues from jurisdiction and legal questions to qualified traffic. We definitely have the tools to expand their business.
XBIZ: Speaking of global regions, where does most of your business come from and where are you looking to expand market-wise?
FIRSOV: The biggest revenues we have right now are India and Russia, which includes payment acceptance and payouts to Russian performers. Our future plans include focusing on North African, as well as Southeastern Asia and South American countries.
