payware
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersSofia, Bulgaria
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
payware firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- payware
- Legal name
- payware LLC
- Website
- https://payware.eu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
payware industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Payment Processing Platform
- NAICS
- Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (52232), Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- A2A Checkout & Merchant Acceptance Solutions (FSAMAFAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Merchant Payment Gateways (API/Hosted Checkout) (FSAMACAA), Merchant-of-Record (MoR) & Payment Facilitation (PayFac) Infrastructure (FSAGABAE), Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets) (FSAGALAB)
Keywords
Where payware is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Sofia
- HQ country
- Bulgaria
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
payware business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Transaction Fees: Flat percentage fee on each transaction processed through the network. Fee is 0.5% in EU/Europe (0.8% in US, 0.6% in Asia Pacific, 0.7% other regions). webPOS transactions have 1% fee. No fixed fees per transaction. Instant settlement included.
- Subscription Plans: Three-tier subscription model: Basic (€0/month, free above €1,000/month in payments, €7.98/month below threshold), Standard (€19.98/month or €199.80/year), Premium (€199.98/month or €1,999.80/year). Adds business tools, API endpoints, analytics, and advanced features.
- Referral & Growth Program Revenue Share: ISV partners earn revenue share (15% of payware's ISV revenue) when referring other ISVs to the network. Duration based on referred ISV's merchant portfolio volume in first 90 days.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier for small merchants with core payment functionality |
| Subscription | Annual | Mid-tier plan for growing businesses with e-commerce and API needs |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise tier with advanced analytics and Soundbite payments |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
payware product offering
Product offeringCore offering
payware operates a transaction resolution network that enables instant account-to-account (A2A) payments between merchants and licensed payment institutions at a flat 0.5% fee in Europe. The platform supports seven payment initiation methods (QR, NFC, BLE, Soundbite audio, Text/SMS, Link, Barcode) all resolving through one unified open-standard protocol. Merchants register once and become reachable by every institution on the network without bilateral agreements.
Product overview
payware is a transaction resolution network platform for instant account-to-account (A2A) payments. The core offering is payware Standard, an open network protocol that connects merchants and payment institutions for direct A2A transfers at 0.5% transaction fees. The platform operates through three subscription tiers: Basic (free for high-volume merchants), Standard (€19.98/month for growing businesses), and Premium (€199.98/month for data-driven enterprises). Key capabilities include 7 payment initiation methods (QR, NFC, BLE, Text, Link, Barcode, and Soundbite audio), AI-powered automatic payment routing, real-time transaction monitoring, multi-store management, and a sandbox environment for developer testing. Soundbite audio payments are a Premium-only feature enabling TV and radio advertising payment initiation. The platform integrates with payment institutions and merchants via APIs and SDKs.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- payware Standard Open transaction resolution network enabling instant account-to-account (A2A) payments globally. Connects merchants and payment institutions through an open standard protocol, returning merchant name, amount, currency, and optimal routing for each transaction at 0.5% fees. Supports 7 payment initiation methods and is designed for merchants, payment institutions, and ISV partners.
- Sandbox Environment Standalone test environment for developers to test all payware platform features and payment methods without processing real transactions or entering payment details. Includes full API access, test accounts, and realistic payment flows.
Quantifiable outcome
- Merchants save 80-85% on payment processing fees, typically $2,000-$2,400/month on $100,000 transactions
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use payware
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
payware technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature6 records
payware partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
payware competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Tink (Visa): Tink, owned by Visa, provides open-banking connectivity and account-to-account payment initiation across Europe. It is directly comparable as an API-first A2A payment-initiation layer that banks and merchants can plug into.
- TrueLayer: TrueLayer is an open-banking / account-to-account payments platform serving merchants and fintechs in the UK and EU with direct-from-bank checkout. It competes head-to-head with payware for the same merchant-institution A2A use case.
- GoCardless: GoCardless runs a network pulling payments directly from bank accounts for recurring and one-off billing via open banking and direct debit. It is comparable to payware on the merchant-side, A2A-pull architecture and European footprint.
- Trustly: Trustly operates one of Europe's largest account-to-account payment networks, enabling merchants and platforms to accept direct bank payments online. It is the most direct A2A-network comparable to payware's resolution-layer model across SEPA markets.
Broad incumbents
- Klarna: Klarna's Pay Now product is a direct A2A bank-payment option offered to merchants across Europe. While best known for BNPL, Klarna's Pay Now rails compete with payware for direct-bank merchant transactions in the same SEPA footprint.
- Stripe: Stripe is a global payments platform that now ships A2A / open-banking payment methods alongside cards. payware's website explicitly compares itself to Stripe, making it a direct incumbent benchmark across fees, settlement speed and merchant coverage.
- Adyen: Adyen is a global acquiring and payments platform with unified commerce and an expanding set of local payment methods including A2A. payware explicitly publishes 'vs Adyen' comparisons, reflecting Adyen as the enterprise-grade benchmark for fee and coverage economics.
- Visa Direct: Visa Direct is Visa's real-time push-payments network enabling account-to-account style transfers across banks globally. It is an incumbent comparator for any A2A network such as payware that seeks to disintermediate card rails for instant merchant and P2P flows.
- Block (Square): Block / Square is a merchant payments incumbent with POS hardware, software and processing, expanding into bank-account-based and instant payment flows. It is a credible broad incumbent peer payware positions against in POS and SMB payments.
Regional players
- iDEAL: iDEAL is the dominant account-to-account payment scheme in the Netherlands, processing direct bank-to-merchant payments at scale. It is a useful regional benchmark for what A2A traction looks like when a scheme reaches maturity.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
payware social profiles
Digital presencepayware financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
payware leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
payware funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
payware M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about payware
What does payware do?
payware operates a transaction resolution network that enables instant account-to-account (A2A) payments between merchants and licensed payment institutions at a flat 0.5% fee in Europe. The platform supports seven payment initiation methods (QR, NFC, BLE, Soundbite audio, Text/SMS, Link, Barcode) all resolving through one unified open-standard protocol. Merchants register once and become reachable by every institution on the network without bilateral agreements.
Is payware a public or private company?
payware is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was payware founded?
payware was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is payware based?
payware is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the Europe region.
How does payware make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Transaction Fees are the primary driver. The others are subscription Plans and referral & Growth Program Revenue Share.
Who are payware's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Tink (Visa), TrueLayer, GoCardless and Trustly. Broad incumbents are Klarna, Stripe, Adyen, Visa Direct and Block (Square). iDEAL is listed as a regional player.
Does payware have an API?
Yes. payware offers a public Partner Platform API enabling partners to integrate applications with the payware Service. The API supports transaction resolution, payment initiation via 7 methods (QR, NFC, BLE, soundbite, text, link, barcode), merchant registry queries, and payment routing. Rate limits and fair-use policies apply per documentation. Sandbox environment available for testing. Support for tolerant parsing required; implementations must not reject API responses with unknown fields. Developer documentation is at kb.payware.eu/tech/details/api-reference.
What industry is payware in?
payware's product category is Payment Processing Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAMAFAF, A2A Checkout & Merchant Acceptance Solutions, with a secondary code of FSAMACAA, Merchant Payment Gateways (API/Hosted Checkout). Its NAICS code is 52232 and its SIC code is 7372.