Monri Payments is a Bosnian startup company that has revolutionized card payments. The revolution took place in the regional market in just a few years. This company is increasingly present in the European Union market as well.
Monri was founded in 2017 in Sarajevo, and just two years later, the Polish group Payten acquired a majority stake in this startup. It operates in all the countries of former Yugoslavia and Romania and is expanding its business in Albania and Moldova. Monri’s headquarters are in Sarajevo, Zagreb, and Belgrade.
You probably use this company’s services without even being aware of it. For example, you use these services when ordering pizza online, paying your mobile phone subscription, or shopping in a supermarket. The fact that millions of people use Monri’s services every day shows that this company is a leader in online payments in the Bosnian market.
What Services They Provide
Damir Čaušević, co-founder and CEO of Monri, explained their services in an interview with Klix.ba. He emphasized that they offer all payment solutions in one place—from advanced solutions for accepting cards at POS terminals in stores, online stores, and/or mobile applications to solutions for hospitality cash registers.
These solutions make payments faster and more convenient, which has been recognized by as many as 1,000 online stores in Bosnia and Herzegovina that use Monri’s services. Nine out of ten web shops in B&H use Monri’s online payments for processing its card transactions.
In-Store Payments via SinglePOS
Meanwhile, payments in stores are increasingly being made through Monri’s SinglePOS, and more and more hospitality venues are using Monri’s Remaris hospitality cash registers due to their ease of use and the ability to manage the entire business. Čaušević further commented on SinglePOS – how it revolutionized payments.
“SinglePOS allows merchants to accept all types of cards through a single POS terminal and to enable installment payments from all banks. This speeds up the card acceptance process and completely eliminates errors in card payments,” he said.
SinglePOS was first introduced in the Croatian market and quickly became a card payment standard. It has been available in Bosnia and Herzegovina for several years, meaning that in this regard, we are keeping pace with the rest of Europe.
“Merchants want to introduce card payments and seek modern solutions to make their work easier and optimize their business. The demand for SinglePOS is high. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have an excellent team that can support our clients through the entire process and provide them with quality service and support and advice,” adds Čaušević.
Transactions Amounting to Four Billion Euro
Last year was another successful year for Monri. In an interview with Klix.ba, it was pointed out that in 2023, Monri Payments processed transactions worth 4 billion Euro (8 Billion KM). He mentioned that a great team is responsible for success, which reflects quality.
“We have almost 15,000 clients, and if we look only at Bosnia and Herzegovina, the fact that nine out of ten online stores use Monri’s solution speaks to the quality of our service. We have nearly 13,000 POS terminals processing more than 600,000 transactions daily. Last year, more than 500 new users of our POS solution were added. In the region, each day more than 8,000 Monri cash register solutions issue 800,000 receipts. These are awe-inspiring numbers,” he concluded.
Čaušević highlighted data that speaks to last year’s business success, noting that in Bosnia and Herzegovina, there were 80 percent more transactions through Monri’s online services compared to 2022, a 320 percent growth in POS terminal transactions, and that they are the leading online payment gateway in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
“These are significant numbers that show not only that we have earned the initial trust of our clients but that we manage to justify it with our work day by day,” adds Čaušević.
Becoming a Regional Leader in Five Years
Čaušević agrees that Monri has made rapid progress. Accordingly, we asked him how they became a regional leader in their field in the past five years.
“As a startup, we recognized an opportunity to simplify the payment process, which was quite complex at the time, and we wanted to make it simpler and easier for both the merchant and the customer. We aimed to provide a secure, flawlessly functional, and flexible service. We also aimed to develop excellent partnerships across the industry – primarily with banks, business software development companies for merchants, and developers who create online stores,” he pointed out.
This is a principle they still adhere to today, and it was quickly recognized by the Payten group.
“After entering the market with our SinglePOS solution, we received three offers for strategic partnerships and the sale of the company. We planned to find investors and recapitalize and dreamed of going public on a European stock exchange, but an ‘exit’ happened quickly. By the end of 2019, we agreed to sell a majority stake in Monri to the Polish company Payten, a leading provider of payment solutions for financial and non-financial institutions in this part of Europe,” Čaušević emphasized.
Čaušević stressed that they chose Payten very carefully, knowing it fit with Monri’s strategy and could help them expand more quickly into markets from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. Payten gave Monri a strong push forward.
“When we joined Payten, we had six employees. Now, we have more than 160. As part of Payten, we also made three acquisitions. We merged the companies Remaris, Gastrobit, and WSPay into our operations, expanding our service offerings. For example, we now offer cash registers for managing hospitality venues or small shops, not just POS terminals for card acceptance,” he said.
Furthermore, thanks to Payten, Monri’s revenues have increased by more than 1,500 percent, and they have entered three new markets. Čaušević highlighted another important aspect.
“Our business is really sensitive because someone needs to trust you when processing monetary transactions. It is naturally more comfortable to know that a large global corporation like Payten is behind the transactions rather than a startup,” he pointed out.
This is why they also do business with large companies such as the German group Schwarz (Lidl and Kaufland) and the Spanish Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti, and others).
“When you are part of a large and reputable system, it is much easier to meet all the conditions to even compete to become a supplier for the mentioned and similar companies,” Čaušević adds.
The Importance of the Romanian Market
Using the example of entering the Romanian market, he explained that in payment industry, everything boils down to numbers—how many inhabitants a market has, what the consumption is on that market, how many cards are used on that market, etc.
“Even if we consider all the countries in our region together, it is still a relatively small market to make a big story. For comparison, Romania has a similar number of inhabitants as the entire region. Recently, we had an interesting situation where a single merchant in Romania, using our SinglePOS solution, made the same number of transactions as all our SinglePOS merchants in Croatia, which number more than 1,000,” he emphasized.
Business Plan in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Monri plans to improve business in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will also mean additional employment.
“This year alone, we will hire more than 30 new colleagues. We are actively hiring throughout the year, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have various positions open – from sales and customer support to development. Our industry is quite niche, so in most cases, it is almost impossible for us to hire a ‘ready-made’ person. That’s why we place great importance on internal training and want our employees to grow with us and learn the specifics of the payment and card industry,” he said.
Čaušević stated that he is pleased because employees can work in a dynamic, fast-growing company, see the application of what they do every day, and gain knowledge applicable in the financial technology industry and beyond.
He is pleased that Monri has retained the startup culture, while membership in Payten has provided them with stability, organized processes, and more opportunities for investment in development and innovation.
Development of New Services
The conversation also covered plans for developing offerings and new services. Čaušević pointed out that they are dedicated to continuously improving the user experience and providing innovative solutions for greater flexibility and business control.
“We know that the line between the online and offline world is very thin, and we want to offer our clients a unique user experience across all platforms,” Čaušević adds.
He also highlighted three new services, two related to payment.
“We have developed a solution for customers to scan their products in-store and pay for them through an app. I would also like to highlight a new solution we developed for the hotel industry, which is quite specific in that it requires interaction with the user in both the online and offline worlds. Since we process a large amount of client data, we are also working on offering tools that help use that data to make better business decisions and improve operations,” Čaušević explained.
He believes that Monri is responsible for increasing the number of places where card payments are possible. He considers it a personal failure when he cannot pay by card in Bosnia and Herzegovina for services such as taxis, hairdressers, or ćevapi.
Čaušević pointed out that efforts are already underway to amend laws to facilitate the entry of new companies into the Bosnian payment industry. He expects some will offer digital wallets and other alternative payment methods. He stated that Monri would be ready to help merchants accept these new payment methods.
Monri’s co-founder and CEO, Damir Čaušević, believes that a commitment to innovation and constant progress allows them to remain a leader in the payment industry.
In 2022, Monri received Mastercard’s award for payment innovations. This year, they have already received two awards. One is for their WSPay solution as the best payment integrator in Serbia. The other is for the best service in the eCommerce market in Croatia.
This article was originally published in Bosnian on Klix.ba.
