Achievements from 2017 to 2023
Creating a new way to manage payments in the existing financial industry involves developing advanced technology. This technology should be easy for people to use while also giving them more control and freedom compared to the usual payment systems. Achieving this goal requires experts in finance and a willingness to learn from mistakes along the way. Most importantly, it takes strong vision and a lot of dedication. And that's exactly what we've done at GoCrypto.
Our first step was creating a closed testing environment where we enabled multiple merchants to start accepting cryptocurrency payments through our webPOS system (known as Elipay at that time). The testing phase turned out to be very successful, with numerous merchants showing interest to join our project.
The merchant response confirmed our mission and we moved forward by registering the Bitcoin City trademark and transformed BTC City, the biggest shopping district in Slovenia, into the first Bitcoin City in the world. The first GoCrypto payment was at Vodno mesto Atlantis in April 2018.
We moved forward by developping a complete solution (crypto wallet for users and a simple web-based POS for merchants) where merchants are able to accept crypto payments, yet do not have to worry about the volatility of cryptocurrencies since the payout is received in their local fiat currency. To simplify the payment flow we developed APIs and have partnered with first cash register system providers who integrated our solution into their existing cash register system that employees are already used to.
In 2019 we focused on growing the market through a series of partnerships on different levels. The company managed to achieve strategic partnerships with several cash register system providers that integrated our solution which became easily available to thousands of their merchants. This proved to be very successful in onboarding new businesses including several renowned merchant chains which was followed by huge recognition in the market and community.
We started expanding our services to new markets, outside Slovenia. All of our products were tailored in accordance with feedback provided by the merchants in order to optimize them before the planned expansion abroad. We also worked a lot on the regulatory aspect and managed to obtain several approvals from regulators in different markets.
“Our mission is to unify all payment methods by creating an all-in-one solution and enable merchants to have the ultimate access to the world of simplified, futuristic, and frictionless payment options." -GoCrypto's mission
Gradually, we expanded our services from webPOS to supporting major e-commerce platforms as well. In the second half of 2020, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were already felt throughout the markets and the company used this opportunity to make partnerships with relevant players in the payments industry as well as to develop a solution and strategy that would rattle the payments industry in years to come.
For the needs of faster scaling, the company developed automated tools for onboarding that simplified the process not only for the merchants but especially for our back-office team. Additionally, the so-called Manager Dashboard, where the merchant has a complete overview of GoCrypto payments and payouts, was made available. It enabled advanced filtering and exports to ease the accounting.
The year 2021 was groundbreaking since we decided not to focus only on crypto payments, but to offer a holistic payment solution to our clients by partnering with a card as well as other digital payment method providers. Our goal was to put the crypto payments side by side with already established card payments and that is why we introduced the holistic POS solution to the market. This solution has completely eliminated the issue of untrained employees operating POS terminals. In order to ease the expansion of our holistic solution we initiated strategic talks with several additional card payment acquirers and payment applications.
"We are creating the future of intuitive and holistic frictionless payments by unifying multiple payment methods in the universe of transactions. Our final destination is an open and decentralized payment network.” -GoCrypto's vision
A lot was done also on the side of the license to keep everything within the regulatory environment. We have also obtained ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certificates. During this period Eligma also applied for an E-money license in Slovenia. In November 2021, we were listed in the Register of providers of exchange services between virtual and fiat currencies and providers of custody wallets, which is established by the Office for Money Laundering Prevention of the Republic of Slovenia.
In 2022, we started opening up our technology to partners who would use it in various markets and spread it among their customers. It was decided that we will limit our direct sales efforts only to a limited number of markets, while the others will be approached through the strategic partners that are locally present. The main technologies available for licensing were crypto and/or holistic payment solutions for physical and online stores, including all supporting tools (i.e. Manager Dashboard, Admin, plugins, etc.). We have developed a system that allows white-labeling of our solutions.
In the same year we have partnered with Tether, Bitfinex, and the City of Lugano for the distribution of our white-labeled Plan B crypto payment solution for physical stores in Lugano, Switzerland and with GLS (through Lab4Pay) for the distribution of our white-labeled holistic payment solution for online stores in Slovenia. Partnership with Bitfinex brought us also the upgrade of our product that now also supports direct on-chain payments with Bitcoin on Lightning and USDT on Polygon.
In 2023, we opened new market in El Salvador and started collaborating with local partners to support the Bitcoin adoption in Latin America. Our partner Done4You started spreading our white label holistic POS solution throughout the Benelux market.
The company was established in December 2017 by three co-founders. The mission of the company from the beginning was to utilize the latest technologies in order to improve the shopping experience. We found the offices in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where our HQ is still placed, and started to employ the core employees who remain to lead the company.
The company relied and still relies strongly on a relatively small group of employees who believe in the same mission - enabling access to an open payments network to everyone. The GoCrypto team has proven time and time again that with hard work and true dedication, mountains can be moved. More info about our core team is available on the GoCrypto website.
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