Businesses sent an estimated $3.2 trillion in prepaid and gift card payouts in 2024. As more businesses become global faster than ever before, they need financial infrastructure to support their expansion.
Giftbit, a Canadian-founded payouts and digital rewards platform, is steadily aggregating global payout options to optimize how businesses send money and is dedicated to making payouts easy, transparent, and revenue-positive.
We spoke with Giftbit’s CEO and co-founder Leif Baradoy about the company’s global expansion and what it means to exceed expectations in the evolving world of digital payouts.
The data shows that digital rewards and payment options are gaining serious traction. Why do you think that is happening now?
LB: Payouts and rewards have always been part of growing a business. The internet has accelerated globalization and, therefore, the need for businesses to have transparent and flexible ways to issue payouts easily and anywhere.
We’re in the late-stage of digital adoption so everyone’s basic expectations are incredibly high. This is good but the reality is that financial infrastructure is slow to catch up. Businesses that win are great at change and don’t accept lock-in with vendors that slow them down. This is the fintech opportunity.
Digital payouts and rewards are gaining traction because they’re simple, fast, and effective. Businesses move money for all sorts of reasons and they’ve learned that individual recipients want maximal options to receive money: bank transfer, prepaid card, brand-specific gift cards, stablecoins, crypto… Just like businesses need to be able to receive payments through a variety of different means, they need their payouts to have similar flexibility. I expect this trend to continue, driven by global competition, with both businesses and individuals gravitating to easy and inexpensive options. So, ‘move money for low-cost’ will become ‘move money for free’ or ‘get paid to move money’.
What trends are shaping the future of payouts and incentives in fintech?
LB: Globalization. Ease and clarity. Cost.
I’ve discussed globalization. While there’s a rise in national protectionism, it does seem that governments reluctantly accept that domiciled businesses win when they can sell to the world. The consequence of selling to the world is that a business will also need to do payouts to the world. Moving money away from a nation’s economy is, understandably, an area of regulatory scrutiny. The trend of globalization isn’t going to slow. Great fintechs will navigate multi-jurisdiction regulatory requirements but make it straightforward for users.
Ease and clarity never go out of style. AI and automation are obvious trends that will drastically reshape payouts and how easy they are to manage. Speed will be the outcome. Also, as an operator, I’ve noticed how unattractive long-term contracts are when the world is so dynamic. The trend away from fintech’s locking in clients for +5 years will continue. This is a good thing.
A specific trend for payouts and incentives, especially when it comes to consumers and individuals, is clarity and transparency. Lack of transparency around some payout providers and payout mechanisms hurt the reputation of the industry and created mistrust between providers and their customers. I’m very happy that payouts and incentives are moving to be more transparent and less opaque.
Last, cost will keep shaping payouts. Moving money just-in-time to suppliers and partners will become easier. Competitive payout providers will continue to harness and promote less expensive ways to move money at scale, which will benefit their customers.
Giftbit recently launched prepaid incentive cards that can be instantly added to digital wallets. How does this move the industry forward?
LB: Giftbit’s prepaid incentive card has straightforward and easy user-experience. We made a simple and modern, one-click-add-to-wallet experience so recipients can add a digital Visa® card to Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay.
It seems to me that we have the best user experience in the industry. I know this is a big claim. However, other providers have more friction, such as app-downloads and forced account creation, in their tokenized incentive card offering.
We know users expect modern, frictionless experiences. Adding a prepaid card to your Apple or Google wallet should feel more like saving a boarding pass—not like opening a bank account.
Transparency is a recurring theme for Giftbit. Why is it so important to your approach?
LB: I fundamentally believe that increased transparency is the trend of modern businesses, especially when it comes to critical things like moving money. This seems basic and obvious to me, so this belief is fundamental to Giftbit’s culture.
“If we know, you know” is a phrase I’ve found myself repeating to customers. The consequence usually means we have to keep our product up-to-date, as modern businesses are incredibly hungry for data.
You recently announced multi-currency support and an expanded catalog of region-specific brands. What challenges come with global scaling?
LB: Yes. At the beginning of 2024, we served Canada and the USA. Now, Giftbit operates in 25 different currencies and issues payouts to over 130 different countries.
Scaling globally adds more complexity. Thankfully, Giftbit has experienced people who know how to navigate global growth and the nuanced, non-obvious surprises that can arise. I’m very grateful. There are regulatory requirements, currency exchange logistics, and region-specific rules for prepaid and gift card brands. Every new market presents a different challenge.
We focus on absorbing all that complexity so our customers don’t have to. Our goal is to provide a platform that feels simple and flexible, even though there is a lot happening behind the scenes.
You recently launched a new rewards history dashboard. What user needs does it address, and how do you expect it to improve their experience?
LB: The rewards history dashboard is just another view of the data we provide customers. Simply, it’s a list of every individual payout a customer has sent (rather than sorting them via bulk orders or campaigns). Providing multiple views to manage and understand existing data was one of our most requested features, so it was great to deliver that.
With less clicks or any need to download comprehensive data, customers can filter, sort, and take action in one place. If a payout has not yet been claimed or needs to be resent, customers can handle that directly and in bulk from the dashboard. It’s another intuitive experience that helps people manage payouts and rewards easily.
Giftbit is Canadian-founded but operates mainly across both the US and Canada. How has that foundation influenced how you build and scale the company?
LB: Giftbit is Canadian-founded and now operates globally. Yes, a lot of our business comes from the USA. I’m very grateful for the USA-Canada relationship, as I think Canadians have a lot to learn from our neighbours and a lot to share with them. It’s win-win.
Canada appears to be going through a moment of renewed but awkward patriotism. I’m energized that we are rebuilding a strong and distinctive identity, but some of our patriotism is tinged with fear and underlying conflict—”we’re not like them.” I think emphasizing conflict is unhelpful and short-sighted. Prolonged dissonance is a detriment to both countries.
I founded Giftbit in 2012 on the west coast of Canada. By the end of our first year, we were serving the USA. Many of Giftbit’s customers, employees, and investors are in the USA. I struggle to imagine how Giftbit could exist today without our company’s relationships in the USA. I love the ambition, competition and expectations that drive so much of USA business culture. It’s inspiring.
What I think is very Canadian is that Giftbit has a global vision. In year 1, our company was multinational, multicurrency, etc. Taking our Canadian-founded business to the world, starting with our closest neighbours, has instilled many great habits in the company.
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