Hands In’s fintech innovation journey began in London in 2022. Just 18 months later, our progress has been astronomical. From winning prestigious awards to strategic partnerships with fellow fintech innovators, 2023 was truly a year of extraordinary milestones and progress for Hands In.
We break down the highlights for you in this article, as well as what to expect from us as we grow in 2024...
The highlights so far:
In the spring of 2023, we secured a $500,000+ funding round, benefitting from the investment of seasoned executives from the likes of GoCardless, Elavon, and Worldpay. It was this that launched us on our trajectory to a year of rapid growth and wide acclaim.
With great pride, we cast our minds back to when we won the “Start-Up Innovation of the Year” at the Merchant Payment Ecosystem, which earned us significant PR attention and boosted our credibility in the developing sector of travel payments. We also narrowly missed out on winning Travolution Startup of the Year, signalling a promising 2024 in the way of being recognised for the strides we’ve made in travel and Paytech.
Being recognised and celebrated as innovators in the Paytech sector was a highlight of our short but eventful journey, as it is testament to the hard work of the Hands In team and our innovative split payments product. In fact, Hands In founder, Sam Flynn, was listed as one of TTG’s 30 under 30 of 2023, demonstrating how our people are at the heart of what makes Hands In a groundbreaking split payments provider. Hands In was also featured by Retail Week as a Top 9 Payment Disruptor, as well as being voted one of the “15 Fastest Growing Startups” by Startup London.
Additional awards we were nominated for or won include:
Trailblazer Awards at the Travel Tech Show: Finalist
Best startup pitches at Mega Event 2023 and the Airline and Travel Payments Summit: Winner
Payment Leaders Summit: Finalist
Business Insider Fintech Rising Star: Finalist
We were also panelists for Fintech Circle’s Autumn Drinks
Continuing our journey to become established leaders in Paytech, we spoke at the Digital Travel Summit and Seamless Europe, where we explored the phenomenal benefits that split payments bring to the travel and eCommerce industries. Hands In also had a presence at the World Travel Market London and the Hospitality Tech Expo, becoming well acquainted with key players in these industries. Hands In also were interviewed at Pay360 by the Fintech Times, on how Hands In came to be and the success we’ve seen so far.
We’ve been travelling all over the world, spreading the word about our innovations from ATPS in Bangkok, the World Aviation Festival in Lisbon, and we’ve visited Berlin three times at the Merchant Payment Ecosystem, ITB Berlin, and Seamless Europe.
2023 was also the year that we signed our first enterprise client Air Europa, a major milestone and recognition of the transformative effect that the adoption of Hands In split payment technology within the travel industry has.
Our advisory board then came to fruition in 2023, featuring numerous industry-leaders, including:
David Parker, CEO of Polymath Consulting and Advisor to Curve and Konsentus.
David Birch, Chair of the Merchant Payment Ecosystem and Advisor to BankiFi; has been Director of Consult Hyperion for almost 40 years, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience, as shown further by his membership of the Payments Advisory Board for HMRC.
Mark Ufland, Chief Technology Officer at You Lend and former Solutions Architect at WorldPay.
Paul van Alfen, an innovator in travel payments through his consultancy, The Air Payments. He is also co-founder and now strategic advisor to Actuary, the first ever data exchange platform for credit risk monitoring for the Travel sector.
Our new website was also launched at the end of 2023, with a sleek new look, showcasing our fintech innovations as pioneering split payment providers, such as Multi Card and Group Payments. Multi Card in particular is paving the way to remove credit limits as blockers to successful online purchases.
Additionally, our partnerships have signalled the recognition of our progress in the last year, as we formed successful collaborations with renowned payment orchestrators and platforms such as:
Yuno
Inai
Bridge
Cell Point Digital
However, the progress doesn’t stop there. This year we are undertaking new payment projects, developing even more solutions to support the smooth execution of group instalment payments in underserved markets.
At Hands In, we see 2024 as the year to launch multiple split payment solutions across a series of different markets. This will start off with group checkout with Air Europa, then Multi-Card, and then launching instalment solutions for airlines within the first half of this year. We plan to continue pushing for excellence in our field and increasing the uptake of our innovations across key sectors, such as travel and hospitality. We will be taking forward all the lessons learned in 2023 and applying them to our future of innovation and growth.
If you want to make 2024 the year of innovation and make strides in your checkout experience, get in touch with the Hands In team to make this a reality for your business.