We’re Not “Just Another Payments RFP Shop”
And that’s intentional.
Let’s clear something up right away.
We run RFPs.
A lot of them.
Sometimes they’re required by procurement. Sometimes a board asks for one. And sometimes a company simply needs a structured way to evaluate partners across a messy payments ecosystem.
So yes, Revolv absolutely runs payments RFPs.
But if an RFP is the starting point of your payments strategy, you’re already behind.
Finding the right embedded payments or technology partner is not a procurement exercise. It’s infrastructure. It’s distribution. It’s customer experience. And for growth-stage companies and investors, it’s often a valuation lever hiding in plain sight.
An RFP is a tool.
It’s not the strategy.
Where Traditional Payments RFPs Go Off the Rails
The “standard” payments RFP process usually looks something like this:
Send a boilerplate template to several providers
Collect rate sheets and feature lists
Compare pricing
Negotiate economics (if you’re lucky)
Pick a winner
On paper, that sounds logical.
In practice, it often optimizes for the wrong things.
Payments performance rarely hinges on the lowest processing rate. What actually determines success tends to look more like this:
Risk appetite and underwriting model
Friction in customer onboarding
Client-facing capabilities that actually matter in your vertical
Contract flexibility and long-term optionality
Data ownership and reporting access
Influence over product roadmap
Operational execution once the deal is signed
Those variables determine whether payments become a growth engine… or a permanent support ticket factory for your product team.
And a generic RFP template won’t surface those issues unless it’s designed around your strategy.
Payments Strategy Impacts Enterprise Value (Because It’s Actually a Product Decision)
Payments touch far more than transaction economics.
When it’s structured correctly, it influences some of the most important drivers of enterprise value:
Revenue predictability
Gross margin expansion
Customer retention and stickiness
Risk posture
Product defensibility
The diligence narrative when investors or buyers show up
Many companies still treat embedded payments as a bolt-on revenue stream. Something that lives quietly in the background generating basis points.
In reality, payments decisions shape how the entire platform operates.
They affect:
How customers onboard
How confidently sales teams can position the product and compete
How partners are incentivized
How underwriting impacts acquisition
How scalable the model becomes at 10× volume
Shaving a few basis points might improve margins this year.
But architecting payments correctly changes how the business scales and how it’s valued.
That architecture shows up everywhere: contracts, economics splits, data access, merchant experience, and the long-term flexibility of the platform.
A structure that works fine at $10M in GMV can become very painful at $100M.
Which is usually the moment someone asks, “Do we need to run another RFP?”
We see that movie a lot.
How Revolv Approaches RFPs Differently
We absolutely run sourcing processes.
Between the two founders, we’ve negotiated well over 175 embedded finance and payments contracts and managed programs representing more than $250B in payments volume. We also maintain a slightly obsessive database of processors, sponsor banks, ISOs, fintech platforms, and emerging infrastructure providers. Yes, it’s a little nerdy.
But before we send a single RFP out the door, we start with a different focus:
What are you actually building toward?]
How should payments support revenue growth and valuation?
What does this need to look like in 24–36 months?
What will a future investor or buyer scrutinize?
What experience do you want your merchants and customers to have?
Only after those answers are clear do we design the RFP (if needed).
And that word matters: design.
A well-run RFP should be tailored to your product, your customers, your vertical, and your long-term strategy. It should involve the right partners from the start and evaluate them against criteria that actually matter.
Not just who has the lowest rate sheet or the best industry parties.
Partner Selection Is Only the First 20%
Here’s another thing the industry doesn’t talk about enough.
Selecting a payment partner is maybe 20% of the work.
Execution is the other 80%.
We regularly see companies run a perfectly good RFP, select a partner, sign a contract… and then struggle through onboarding, migration, underwriting friction, product integration, or merchant conversion.
Payments strategy doesn’t fail on slides or spreadsheets.
It fails in execution.
That’s where operator experience matters.
So What Do We Actually Mean When We Say “We’re Not Just an RFP Shop”?
We mean we don’t treat payments like a rate negotiation exercise.
We treat it like a strategic asset.
Sometimes that strategy includes a formal RFP. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the smartest move is optimizing an existing partner relationship instead of starting over.
(Yes, we know. Revolutionary concept.)
But when we do run an RFP, it’s grounded in:
Clear enterprise goals
Deep ecosystem relationships
Contract structuring experience
A practical understanding of how embedded payments actually operates
Insight into what future investors and buyers will care about
An RFP is often a required phase, strategy first, sourcing second, execution always. Or procurement → infrastructure + strategy.
At Revolv, we help SaaS companies design embedded payment ecosystems that are built to perform—financially and operationally.
We don’t just build models. We lead vendor selection, embed strategic leadership, and work alongside your product and revenue teams to turn payments into a sustainable growth engine.
If you’re ready to build a smarter embedded payments strategy—we’re here.
Let’s make every transaction count.
