Tremendous has long provided U.S. companies with a platform to streamline one-time payouts to consumers for incentives, rewards and refunds. Now market forces are driving the New York-based company to take its services global.
Tremendous is seeing some of its fastest growth from U.S. companies that send payments averaging about $40 each to an international audience, according to Nick Baum, the firm's founder and CEO.
One factor driving this growth is the
"Recent changes in online advertising policies have made it harder for U.S. companies to recruit consumers for their marketing programs through platforms like Facebook, so they're expanding their net to include consumers overseas and they need a turnkey way to pay them," Baum said.
The overall growth of global e-commerce in recent years has increased demand for international disbursements, with more customers seeking refunds and other payouts from international sources, observers say.
"There is plenty of mature competition in the B2C disbursements space, as many are offering cross-border and multicurrency opportunities through channels including global debit push payment networks or money transfer networks," said Sarah Grotta, director of debit and alternative products advisory at Mercator Advisory Group.
Tremendous focuses on U.S. companies targeting an expanding number of international consumers, with clients that include several Google divisions, marketing firms and academic institutions that provide cash or gift cards as incentives to consumers participating in studies or sales referrals, he said.
Tremendous has expanded its staff to 50 over the last 18 months, adding personnel in key international markets including Brazil. The company has also built up language translation and currency-conversion tools so that U.S. companies can more easily send payments to consumers in other countries, according to Baum.
The investments are paying off in a couple of ways, he said.
"We're giving U.S. companies a way to pay consumers in those countries for participating in marketing programs, and also helping these companies find affordable ways to recruit more international users through paid referrals," he said.
Within U.S. borders, Tremendous also enables lenders to quickly issue rebates to consumers for mortgage closing costs and helps law firms send recipients of cash settlements and rebates through digital channels instead of mailing checks.
"Our technology is powering some of the newest advancements in class-action payouts," Baum said, declining to name any specific firms or settlements.
Through its dashboard, Tremendous alerts consumers of a pending payment and companies set the choices available for consumers to receive the funds. Companies behind the marketing programs pay a fee to Tremendous for delivering funds via PayPal, Venmo, ACH or virtual gift cards from Visa and Mastercard.
Companies sending consumers funds pay no fees to Tremendous if consumers are offered payouts via thousands of digital retail gift cards supplied by Amazon, Blackhawk Network or InComm, Baum said.
Increasingly companies want more flexibility in changing the types of rewards they pay out, depending on the marketing program, according to Baum.
Tremendous can also alert companies when the email or phone contact information they have for recipients of payouts are incorrect, and corporations can make corrections or redirect funds directly through the Tremendous dashboard.
Launched by Baum in 2010 as an online gift card distributor called GiftRocket with help from California's Y Combinator, the firm gradually expanded its payout options and changed its name. The firm now works with Marqeta and Stripe to power a range of funding and distribution options.
"The internet has changed marketing, and online incentives are becoming a bigger part of selling everything, which is creating a lot of opportunity," Baum said.
