PENG partners with Ecospend to benefit its small business customers with open banking services

By Edlyn Cardoza

Ecospend, the UK’s leading Open Banking payment provider, announced its partnership with the QR-code-based payment services app PENG. The partnership will enable PENG’s small business customers to benefit from Open Banking services through free transactions and enhanced security.

Founded in 2017, Ecospend’s ‘Pay-by-Bank’ technology aims to harness the benefits of Open Banking for businesses. In the year to date, Ecospend has already processed volumes exceeding £5 billion.

PENG is explicitly designed for small businesses seeking to migrate towards emerging payments systems to create more significant time and cost efficiencies as they look to resume service following the pandemic. PENG’s customers will now be able to benefit from Ecospend’s instant payment capabilities, which will be included within PENG’s highly competitive pricing structure. PENG offers its customers two subscription options, FREE and PRO. The PRO version, charged monthly at £19.99, allows customers to send payment requests to the value of £35,000.00 per month, while the free version limits pay requests at £1,500.00 per month. Additional credits are available for purchase to customers who exceed their respective limits.

In addition, PENG offers a simplified registration route. Customers need to only provide basic details, verify their bank accounts and select their subscription option.

Already small businesses are seeing the benefits of free transactions. Chanel Edwards, founder of SMART CEO, describes the service as groundbreaking. “PENG offers a compelling prospect for us. The ease of use coupled with security and, above all, value, are sought after features.”

Her sentiments are echoed by another small business founder, Mori Abdul, of the production agency Mori Moves. “I think it’s packaged really well and the company’s ethos is appealing.” Both women are model PENG customers – young, ambitious, tech savvy and always on the lookout for innovative advances.

PENG was conceived by longtime Ecospend partners James Kibera and Simon Reader. As Chief Executive Officer, Reader has been charged with leading PENG, with further appointments enhancing the finance, creative and product portfolios. James Hickman, Ecospend’s Chief Operating Officer, says: “We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with James and Simon who are highly regarded within the industry and we know their leadership will be instrumental to PENG’s success.”

Commenting on the partnership, PENG’s Kibera suggested that the brand’s positioning is happening at an important time. “Particularly over the pandemic we noted incredible changes in payment trends and, with traditional payments being subjected to increased regulation and scrutiny, the opportunity for small businesses to extract value from pay tech advances are much clearer. Open banking’s rising popularity speaks to this, and to the wider transformative power of open finance.”

“We position ourselves as value-driven. Gradually we’ll aim to incorporate more products to assist the innovators and entrepreneurs, the self-employed and sole traders – but for the moment we’re all about momentum with free, safe, no delay, cardless transfers,” concluded Kibera.