MARKETPLACE PAYMENTS

Launch your marketplace without building a payments business.

You bring the vendors and the customers. Omnea takes care of payment processing, vendor onboarding, compliance, fraud monitoring, settlement and payouts, so you can take payments from day one.

Let’s talk about your marketplaceSee how it works
Craft seller with colourful handmade beadwork at a Durban market stall
ONE PAYMENT REQUEST · R 1,250.00
Seller’s iAccountR 1,062.50
Your platform’s iAccountR 187.50
Paid at the same time · illustrative
REGULATED PAYMENTS INFRASTRUCTURERegistered Third Party Payment ProviderPASA System OperatorISO 27001 certified

Your marketplace needs a payments operation. You don’t have to build one.

Most marketplace founders plan for vendors, customers and a great product. Few plan for what sits underneath: taking money on behalf of others, verifying every seller, meeting payment regulation, fighting fraud and paying everyone correctly, every day. Built yourself, that is a regulated business of its own, with the set-up costs, specialist staff and audits to match.

What every marketplace that takes payments inherits

  1. 01Taking payments before you have a merchant facility
  2. 02Integrating payment methods one by one
  3. 03Payment-provider registration and card-scheme obligations
  4. 04Verifying every vendor you sign up
  5. 05AML monitoring and reporting
  6. 06Fraud monitoring
  7. 07Splitting, settling and paying out every sale
  8. 08Reconciling it all, and staffing it

With Omnea, they’re handled from day one.

Small-business team working together around laptops

Our bank won’t give us a merchant facility until we’ve traded. How do we take our first payment?

Through Omnea’s regulated set-up, from day one.

We want cards, EFT and more. Do we integrate each provider ourselves?

No. One integration gives you 10+ payment methods.

Do we need a compliance team before we’ve made a sale?

Seller verification and AML monitoring are part of the service.

How do we pay sellers and keep our commission without holding their money?

Every payment is split at source into each party’s own iAccount.

Not a traditional marketplace, by design

The traditional way

Buyer→Your platform→Sellers
  1. Buyers pay your platform.
  2. You hold the money.
  3. You deduct your commission.
  4. You pay your sellers.

Your platform is holding other people’s money.

With Omnea

Buyer→Omnea→Every party’s iAccount
  1. Your platform sends one payment request listing who gets what.
  2. The buyer pays it.
  3. Omnea pays every party directly into their own iAccount, at the same time.
  4. Your commission arrives as one of those payments.

✓ Your platform never collects the money and pays it on.

You

  • Find the vendors
  • Bring the customers
  • Set your commission
  • Grow the marketplace

Omnea

  • Payment processing across 10+ methods
  • Vendor onboarding and verification
  • AML monitoring
  • Fraud monitoring
  • Split settlement
  • Payouts and reconciliation

The real cost of doing it yourself

Everything below has to be in place before a marketplace can safely take payments. Built alone, each one costs time, money and specialist people. With Omnea, it’s already there, and shared.

What you needDoing it yourselfWith Omnea
Payment-provider registration and sponsor bank✕ Apply, qualify and maintain your own✓ Omnea is the registered TPPP for the money flow
Card acquiring and scheme obligations✕ Negotiate and meet them yourself✓ Carried by Omnea
Payment methods✕ Integrate and maintain each provider✓ 10+ methods through one integration
Information security✕ Certify, audit and maintain✓ ISO 27001-certified platform
Seller verification (KYC and FICA)✕ Build tooling and review every seller✓ Built into onboarding
AML monitoring and reporting✕ Hire compliance staff and build processes✓ Part of the service
Fraud monitoring✕ Buy tools and staff a team✓ Monitored on the platform
Split settlement and custody✕ Hold funds and build payout logic✓ Split at source into iAccounts
Reconciliation and payouts✕ Build and run it every day✓ Done for every party
Operations✕ Run payments operations in-house✓ Handled by Omnea’s operations team

Shared registrations

Omnea carries the regulated set-up for the money flow, so in most cases you won’t need your own.

Shared technology

Payment methods, onboarding, fraud monitoring and settlement are built once, for everyone.

Shared operations

One expert team monitors and supports every marketplace on the platform.

See your split

Set a sale amount and your commission. Every party is paid at once, into their own iAccount.

Example only. Excludes processing fees.

Seller receivesR 850.00their own iAccount
Your platform receivesR 150.00its own iAccount

Built for the marketplace you’re launching

Bring independent sellers together, with each sale paying everyone directly.

  1. 01Buyer pays for a handmade lamp
  2. 02Seller gets their share
  3. 03Your commission lands
Craft seller with handmade beadwork at a Durban market stall

Every seller, and your platform, gets its own iAccount.

Funds land when a sale settles, placed in custody in an account the seller owns, and can be spent or paid out whichever way suits them.

Bank accountAll major South African banks
Mobile walletStraight to their phone
ATM cash voucherNo bank account needed
Seller iAccountRingfenced · placed with custodian
R 18,420.50
Sale 10482 · your share 85%+ R 1,062.50
Sale 10479 · your share 85%+ R 2,380.00
Payout to bank account− R 5,000.00
ILLUSTRATIVE · SAMPLE DATA

Four building blocks. One integration.

A

Onboard sellers

Verify each seller through our API; approved sellers get an iAccount.

B

Create payment requests

One request lists every payee and their share.

C

Split settlement

Your platform fee is simply another payee. No splitting logic to build.

D

Real-time updates

Status notifications so your platform always knows where each payment stands.

A sandbox for testing before you go live.

Visit the developer hub →

Before you launch

Why not just build payments ourselves?

You can, but you’d be building a regulated payments business alongside your marketplace: registrations, security certification, compliance staff, fraud tools and daily reconciliation. Omnea gives you all of that from day one, so you can spend your time and capital growing the marketplace.

How can Omnea cost less than doing it ourselves?

Because it’s shared. The registrations, technology and operations team already exist and serve every marketplace on our platform, so you aren’t paying to build and staff them alone.

We haven’t launched yet. Is it too early to talk?

No, it’s the best time. Getting the payments set-up right before launch avoids rework, and avoids your platform holding money it shouldn’t.

Do I need to register as a payment provider?

Omnea is the registered TPPP for the money flow, so in most cases you won’t need to. Every platform is different, though, so take advice on your own set-up.

Can I use my existing payment provider?

No. Omnea brings its own payment providers and 10+ payment methods, so you integrate once and we handle the rest.

Who checks the sellers on my platform?

We verify every seller before they can receive payments, and monitor activity on an ongoing basis.

Can sellers be paid without a bank account?

Yes. Sellers can be paid out to a bank account, a mobile wallet or an ATM cash voucher.

Does my platform ever hold the money?

No. Each payment is split at source and every party is paid directly into their own iAccount.

How do we get started?

Tell us about your marketplace and we’ll walk you through the next steps.

Let’s talk about your marketplace.

Tell us about the marketplace you’re building, and we’ll show you what Omnea can take off your hands.

Start the conversation
Prefer to read it later?Download the two-page Marketplace payments brochure (PDF)