Finix & AgVend: Powering Frictionless Payments in AgTech

• Finix is a Payment Processor

• The Finix API enables online and in-person payments

• Quick ACH integration and bank account validation

The future of farming continues to expand with new technological developments every year—from irrigation drones to weather forecasting satellites and beyond. However, business solutions have struggled to keep pace with these advancements. This all changed when two experienced agtech (agriculture technology) enthusiasts, Alexander Reichert, and Eli Rosenberg asked the question: “Why don’t growers manage more of their business with their ag retailers online? ” The answer to this question transformed into a mission to empower agriculture retailers with a streamlined digital solution to manage their inventory, finances, and teams more efficiently and profitably.

AgVend first launched in 2017. Since then, the business has grown exponentially. When they first started, they were a marketplace for e-commerce. But after hearing common themes of frustration from agriculture retailers across North America, AgVend formulated a plan to build the digital enablement platform they offer today. 

Their white-labeled online site and mobile app makes it easier for agricultural businesses, their teams, and their customers to work together by streamlining workflows and centralizing access to information. The pain points Ag retailers had been experiencing were:

• Having to manage multiple independent systems to run their businesses. Often, teams of agricultural sales representatives and grain merchandisers had to access several platforms to get the collective information they needed to do their jobs. This was especially challenging when team members were on the go or working in the field.

• Ag retailers’ customers wanted an easier and more convenient way to do business, including the ability to make purchases, pay invoices, sign contracts, and access holistic customer account information anywhere, anytime.

AgVend helps solve these issues by providing one centralized platform that connects multiple systems,  aggregating different pieces of the customer profile. This way, teams can operate more efficiently and have a more seamless experience without sacrificing access to one set of data or another, or sacrificing functionality. 

AgVend represents 23% of the agriculture retail market, and its vision is to continue to provide value, digitize, and strengthen the agriculture supply chain. From the beginning, AgVend committed to use technology in a way that connects the ag industry and their communities. They’re empowering frontline teams with tools to do just that–enrich relationships with their customers and drive productivity for the industry as a whole.

To realize its goals, AgVend also needed to incorporate a new payment solution for their ag retail partners, which included making the process easier, reducing their operational costs, and ensuring their customers were getting paid out faster. 

This is where Finix fits into the world of agriculture technology.

The decision to change payment providers started back in 2020. One of the greatest value propositions AgVend provides its customers is digitizing all transactions. For a simple way to process credit cards and ACH, they first integrated with Stripe. However, processing ACH payments through Stripe was creating delays and friction for a lot of customers who had to verify their bank accounts with micro deposits. According to Eli, this friction is what ultimately sparked the company’s decision to change payment providers in 2020.

The AgVend product team wanted to find a payment processor that would give them full control over the user experience. They had even entertained the idea of building out their own payment solution but realized it would be too expensive and time-consuming. That’s when they began researching Stripe alternatives. Along with their own research, they also reached out to their networks for recommendations. An investor mentioned Finix as a viable option for what the AgVend team was looking to accomplish. As Eli puts it: “As soon as we had a technical demo of the Finix platform, we knew that Finix was going to be our new payments provider – it just made sense.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

Eli and Danil (CTO) dove straight into the Finix developer documentation and began the process of API implementation. While it often takes months to get up and running with a new software integration, AgVend was able to integrate with Finix in just a few days.

In the words of Danil: “The overall integration process was very straightforward – which helped speed up the implementation process.” Even though the technical implementation was going well, the AgVend team still had questions about Finix. That’s when they noticed another major differentiator between Finix and Stripe: How helpful and responsive the Finix customer support team is.

After a successful year of processing cards and ACH payments with Finix, AgVend was ready to tackle another pain point: Fund failure notifications. With most payment processors, it’s typical for customers to receive fund failure notifications within 12 days. However, a 12-day delay was causing funding complications and frustrations for AgVend's customers.

When the team at AgVend heard the news that Finix would become its own processor in 2023, they expressed interest in onboarding. AgVend ended up volunteering to be the pilot customer on Finix’s new processor. Almost immediately, the team noticed a drastic reduction in their fund failure notifications—dropping from 12 days to 3 days. A 75% improvement was a game changer for the team at AgVend!

I. Within the second year of processing payments with Finix, one of the most significant impacts for the AgVend team and their customers was the ability to utilize ACH, and add new bank accounts without the ordeal of micro-deposits.

II. The second most important impact that Finix has provided to the team has been the nine-day reduction for funding failure notifications, from 12 down to 3. This was a huge boost for AgVend in terms of customer satisfaction and retention. By partnering and integrating into Finix’s processor, the AgVend team has been able to create a frictionless payments experience. What’s even better? AgVend is backed by Finix’s ability to troubleshoot and solve customer issues in less than 24 hours–rather than days or weeks.

As the future of agtech and payments continue to grow and evolve, it’s exciting to see what new solutions can be enabled by teams of people working together. With Finix as its payments partner, AgVend is positioned to become the leader in the agriculture technology space.