Applicant name: Brightwell Payments, Inc.
Applicant type: Private Company
Headquarter City: Atlanta, Georgia
Headquarter Country: United States
Innovation Name: ReadyRemit
Innovation Type: Product
Category: Top Service Provider
Status of Innovation: In-market
Innovation Active Since: 09/01/2022
Innovation Description: ReadyRemit is a cross-border technology enablement platform (API/SDK) that’s powered by Brightwell’s international payments partners including VISA, MasterCard, MoneyGram and The Bancorp. This innovation provides access to near real-time or same-day payments across more than 180 countries, 5 billion cards and accounts, 160 currencies and 290,000 cash out locations. Over 90% of the world’s population is covered by Brightwell’s solution.
 
Implemented alongside this technology is Brightwell’s Compliance as a Service model, which ensures your company meets Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and Office Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) regulatory requirements.
 
So, whether it’s a cross-border payout, corporate disbursement, or peer to peer remittance, ReadyRemit enables money to move seamlessly around the world.
What is your competitive advantage? ReadyRemit reduces the complexity of money movement around the globe into a simple technology that can be implemented in as little as 4-6 weeks for most companies, as opposed the typical implementation time of 6-9 months.
Why is your solution best in class? Access and compliance. Brightwell’s integration with VISA Direct, MasterCard, MoneyGram and others saves businesses from the difficult and lengthy integration process. Brightwell’s engineering, product and compliance teams have successfully integrated with these partners over the last several years, making it simple for the rest of the world to become connected to move money virtually anywhere.
Name one advantage of your solution versus competitors. While most embedded payment solutions can take upwards of six months to integrate, Brightwell’s ReadyRemit can be implemented and launched in as little as 30 days.
Explain your market presence globally and in your strongest market. ReadyRemit is a cross-border payment service provider that operates globally, with a presence in more than 180 countries. Our solution processes over 2.5B annually in cross-border send. While we send money all over the globe, our top 10 corridors include the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Peru, Korea, Lithuania, Japan, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico. These countries represent some of the most significant remittance corridors in the world.
What was the inspiration for this innovation? For over a decade, Brightwell has enabled global migrant workers in the cruise industry to receive and send payments with its turnkey payroll solution, Navigator. Once the Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued a No Sail Order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brightwell entered a period of research and development to create an innovative new offering. Brightwell found that, especially during the pandemic, cross-border remittances remained essential to fueling the global economy with more than 1 billion people worldwide transmitting and receiving international money transfers – driving the need for a solution such as ReadyRemit.
 
While the market is growing exponentially, there are many challenges surrounding the industry, making it ripe for disruption. After years of integrating with countless remittance partners, Brightwell understands the arduous process of building out a compliant and user-focused payment solution.
Who can benefit from your innovation most? Our core business focuses on the financial enablement and inclusion for global workers in the cruise industry who simply want to send money home to their families.
 
Inspired by Brightwell’s core offering, Navigator’s focus on financial enablement and inclusion for global workers in the cruise industry, ReadyRemit enables global workers from every industry to send money home to nearly anywhere in the world. We can now enable organizations like NGOs to quickly and securely move money to corridors of the world where aid is needed most. Finally, we enable corporations to de-risk money movement to their suppliers, partners and vendors to ensure that there’s no disruption to the flow of their business.
What are you most proud of about your innovation? ReadyRemit’s ability to simplify the cross-border payments process and increase financial access across the globe.
Why do you think you should win this category? First, scale: this innovation enables near real-time or same-day payments across more than 180 countries, 5 billion cards and accounts, 160 currencies and 290,000 cash out locations. Over 90% of the world’s population is covered by our solution.
 
Second, Brightwell’s why: we didn’t create this without understanding the human-centered challenges across the globe. At the heart of Brightwell is a focus on the belief that payments should be easy, simple and accessible to everyone. Financial inclusion and empowerment are truly the ‘why’ of what Brightwell does.

TEAM MEMBERS

Full Name: Audrey Hall
Role: Chief Product Officer
Full Name: Hal Ramakers
Role: Senior Vice President
Full Name: Kyle Fix
Role: Director of Product
Full Name: Jess Starobinets
Role: Senior Operations Specialist

LINKS