2024: The Year of Innovation

PayTR General Manager Merve Tezel was featured in Fintechtime January 2025 issue with her “2024 evaluations and 2025 expectations”.

2024 was a very exciting year for payment technologies and digital transformation. This year also had a special meaning for us; as a fintech that has been producing reliable technologies in the payment sector for many years, we celebrated our 15th anniversary in September. We recently came together with our teammates from all over Turkey in Izmir, where our story began.

According to the latest report published by the Interbank Card Center (BKM), we saw that card payments made online grew by 101 percent in the first six months of 2024. As PayTR, we focused on developing innovative products that support the digitalization journey of SMEs. We continued our growth with more than 150 thousand member merchants. Our SMEs, which form the backbone of the economy, continued to seek speed and convenience in every field while digitalizing this year. The ease of participation in trade from both online and physical stores with financial technology solutions enabled businesses to expand their customer base and offer their products and services to more people. For businesses of all sizes that want to get a share of the growing e-commerce market, securely receiving online payments within two hours with a single integration, easily tracking all financial processes from a single screen, and being able to communicate 24/7 with the relevant teams on a sensitive issue such as payment in case of need have made it much easier for SMEs on the payment side of the business. Many businesses started to sell their products through their own websites and the search for a reliable payment partner increased. As PayTR, we have been supporting businesses in their e-commerce journey, regardless of their scale, since the day we were founded. This year, in addition to Virtual POS, we introduced our PayTR Physical POS product for physical payments to more businesses. In January, we strengthened our multi-channel payment approach with NeoPOS and NeoPOS+, which transform mobile phones into POS devices, with an installment function. While focusing on our technology and expert workforce investments, we expanded our teams in customer communication. We had a full year in which we took action on the event side to meet thousands of merchants using our Virtual POS in Turkey, and on the brand side, we addressed our target audience with our commercials and inspiring merchant stories. We came together with approximately 200 thousand SMEs in 8 different cities with Smart SME Digital Transformation Conferences. At the beginning of May, we released our “Those Who Grow Their Business with PayTR” video series on digital platforms, where we heard from our SMEs themselves how continuing with reliable payment solutions improves their business processes.

The Pride of Being the First Brand SMEs Think of in Virtual POS

In the comprehensive research we conducted on Virtual POS usage habits and Virtual POS preferences in the first quarter of the year, PayTR Virtual POS became the “first and most preferred” Virtual POS. I believe that this success is a result not only of our 15 years of expertise in the sector, but also of the trust placed in us. As PayTR, we have always adopted a user-oriented approach and while facilitating the payment processes of SMEs, we did not compromise on security and speed. We are proud to help SMEs grow their businesses with these secure, flexible and innovative solutions. The new generation products we added to our payment solutions this year have enabled us to respond more deeply to the needs of SMEs and help them become competitive in the digital world. Being a fintech that SMEs trust for payment solutions motivates us to reach our new goals. As one of the companies shaping the future of the fast-growing fintech ecosystem, we closed the year with beautiful awards. While increasing our ranking among the IT 500 companies, our first place in the Izmir Region made us very happy this year. We took our place in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Turkey 2024 List again this year. We won the bronze award at the PSM Awards with NeoPOS and NeoPOS+, which make life easier for businesses.

2025 Expectations

With the development of technology and many technological tools, the future of payment technologies in our country will be shaped by the steps to be taken in innovation, collaboration and financial inclusion. We will continue to see the effects of 2024, which witnessed rapid and valuable developments and strong growth in the blink of an eye, in 2025. As in all sectors, speed, security and personalized services in payment technologies will continue to shape the industry in 2025. Technologies and products that improve the user experience, develop customized solutions and increase security in all areas will have an important place in the fintech world. In addition, with the integration of next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics into the sector, financial processes are expected to become even smarter and faster. Although developing technology facilitates business processes, threats will also continue to evolve, so I think the measures and investments that industry players will take to protect themselves will become more important.

As PayTR, we will continue our new developments in the fields of multi-channel payment systems, pre-fraud security measures and data analytics in 2025. We believe that we will work hard to build a safer, faster and more efficient financial ecosystem together with all stakeholders of the ecosystem. I wish everyone a healthy and successful year.