Traffic Cardinal
wrote May 29, 2026
Traffic Cardinal
wrote May 29, 2026
Today, we’ve spoken with Alexey, CMO of Finup, a fintech platform that offers unlimited virtual payment cards and digital wallet services. We discussed what the payment solutions market looks like from the inside, what matters to virtual card users today, what solutions Finup can provide, and… much more.
Product
How are things going at Finup right now? Any news or numbers you’d like to share?
In 2025, we attended 14 conferences and held countless meetings and negotiations, which ultimately led to a huge number of new partnerships. Over the year, our team tripled in size and continues to grow every month in 2026. We’re proud to have issued over 100,000 cards—15 times more than we did last year. We also attracted over 2,000 new clients, which is 10 times more than the year before. Besides, our clients completed more than 400,000 transactions, which is… many, many times more than last year :)
In reality, however, the specific numbers aren’t as important as the constant, continuous, and incredibly rapid growth.
You provide cards for 10+ sources, from Facebook to more unconventional platforms, such as Etsy and Netflix. How heavily are you investing in these platforms compared to Facebook and Google Ads, which seem to be your main revenue drivers?
Finup’s audience is incredibly broad, both geographically and in terms of business types. Of course, Facebook and Google Ads are indeed something of a “core”, and the majority of users use the cards for these sources specifically. But it’s not all about Facebook, not by a long shot.
Our clients use Finup cards for all sorts of subscriptions, logistics payments, various business expenses, plane tickets, hotels—some even pay for jewellery and corporate equipment. Finup is for everyone. And for everything. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a media buyer or a personal assistant, our cards can handle any financial need.
Is there any fundamental difference between your product and those of your competitors?
Objectively, every payment provider has BINs, virtual cards, pricing models, and support services. In that sense, we believe in fair competition. We don’t even refer to other payment providers as competitors—we call them colleagues, and that’s why we don’t like comparisons where everyone tries to prove they’re the best while slinging mud at everyone else. We excel at one thing, our colleagues prioritize another, and this is the kind of fair and healthy competition that drives the growth of both our company and the industry as a whole.
As for Finup, our users highly appreciate our flexible and personalized approach to every client. We always find solutions tailored to specific business needs: providing exclusive BINs, offering more flexible fee structures, on/off-ramp transactions, API integrations, and much more.
You used to have cards for Apple Pay and Google Pay; then you apparently decided to move away from B2C. Why?
That’s correct. For the time being, Finup does not issue cards for Apple/Google Pay, the ones that were previously called Platinum. This wasn’t an easy decision for us, as a significant number of our clients used Platinum cards for everyday spending. Yet, these cards had to go—this is how the current business model and market demand work. Right now, we’re fully focused on B2B, and we comprehensively meet the needs of various businesses.
Partnerships
In spring 2025, you had only just entered the public spotlight, and within a year, many of the key companies in the industry became your partners, clients, or simply friends. How did you do that?
In 2025, we put enormous effort into building our public image and made it one of our key priorities for the year. Essentially, in spring 2025, almost nobody in the affiliate marketing world knew who we were—and we had to change that.
We expanded the team, opened new departments, and brought in incredibly talented specialists, the best in their fields. We also attended conferences and niche industry events, held meetings and negotiations, formed new partnerships, launched collaborative projects, and produced various media materials. As for external communications, the amount of work we did in 2025 was massive, and in 2026, it has only multiplied several times over. But that’s actually a good thing: it shows we’re definitely moving in the right direction.
You attended 14 different conferences last year, from Europe to Asia. That’s a lot. What did you get in exchange: deals, connections, market insights, brand exposure, or something else?
First of all, such conferences help you understand how this world actually works. If you don’t travel to other countries and don’t talk to real people there—people with different backgrounds, mindsets, and business expectations—you will never truly comprehend what they need and how they operate. Since we were actively stepping into the spotlight at that stage, it was critical that we understand the environment. So, we attended 14 different conferences throughout the year, from Europe and the Middle East to Asia, where many of our colleagues never make it.
Hong Kong and Singapore helped us form a fundamental understanding of the Asian market. We held meetings not only with representatives from those regions, but also with partners and businesses from Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Japan. European conferences and events in the Middle East, however, gave us the opportunity to meet representatives from the United Kingdom and Latin America. The goal of all these trips was to move beyond certain boundaries, to see what lies beyond the horizon. The world is enormous, and we’re absolutely confident we can solve a wide range of business challenges within it. As a result, these experiences steered us in the right direction and prepared us for 2026, simultaneously equipping us with a deep knowledge of all our key markets and a huge number of new partnerships and clients around the world.
Which conference turned out to be the most beneficial for Finup, and where do you feel the budget and time were wasted? How do you generally decide whether to attend with a booth or simply as delegates?
Some conferences were more successful, others less so. But we do not regret attending any of them. Every event is an experience, and all future work in this direction is built on that experience.
At this stage, we don’t attend conferences with booths; this is not a cost-effective decision. That may change in the future, but at the moment we believe it would simply be money spent inefficiently. For every conference, we have clearly defined goals, and we’ve been very successful in achieving them by attending as delegates alone. Our team delivers a consistent 101% at every event to maximize results.
What’s harder: finding a partner among large players, or building working processes with them?
Finding partners is not that difficult. Thousands of people attend conferences, and fortunately, many of them are there not to just show up, but to work. What’s much more difficult is everything that comes after. Negotiations are never fast—it’s a long game, especially in B2B and especially in finance. You have to be prepared for that from the start. After a conference meeting, there are usually many more iterations ahead, which can continue for months before you reach any form of cooperation. It’s a journey that has to be completed. Fast or slow doesn’t really matter; what matters is the final result. And that’s what we at Finup focus on above all else.
Finup Clients
How much more profitable is it to work with large clients, especially with affiliate teams and companies, compared to solo webmasters? Is the difference only in revenue, or also in operational stability?
Actually, a lot of factors are at play here. It’s hard to say what is more profitable—working with a client who has a large spend once every six months, or solo webmasters who spend less but consistently every day. We are equally happy to work with everyone and treat all clients the same way, regardless of their professional position. Everything is highly individual, and we tailor conditions for each client separately. From our experience, stability does not depend on company size. Both large companies and individual buyers can be equally stable or unstable.
We’ve examined your site and noticed a significant difference in pricing: the Trial plan costs $10 per card with a 5% top-up fee, while the next plan, Scale, reduces this to $3 and 3%, respectively. The difference between the tiers is a $1,000 turnover threshold. Isn’t that quite a high entry barrier for beginners?
Well, what does a $1,000 monthly turnover mean today? In some cases, you can’t even rent an apartment in Europe for that money. We don’t think this is a high threshold, nor do we consider the 3% top-up fee expensive.
The Trial plan was designed primarily as a natural safeguard against scams and fraud. People engaged in fraudulent activity typically want to open 100 cards immediately, with an expected monthly turnover of $100, ideal conditions for first billing abuse. It is precisely the reason why banks eventually drop off, and all legitimate customers suffer as a result. That’s something we actively fight against. Our internal compliance operates 24/7 because we are responsible for ensuring maximum security and uninterrupted service.
Affiliate teams and companies in the CIS region are your primary focus. What are their most common card-related problems, and how does Finup solve them?
Unfortunately, there are many so-called one-day payment providers that work no longer than a month and then shut down, often taking clients’ funds with them. When such cases are widespread, it naturally destroys trust and disrupts business operations. A weak BIN setup and weak compliance ultimately lead to frequent declines, freezes, and card blocks. What users need is stability, confidence that everything works today, will work tomorrow, and will still work a year from now. Clients focus on their business, while we handle all their financial infrastructure. That’s our informal guiding principle.
Personal Questions
You talk about everything, from regulation to operations. How is marketing structured at Finup: does it lead the product, or does the product define marketing?
I believe there must be a balance between building a strong product and building awareness of it. That’s exactly how it works for us. We know for a fact that in terms of technical aspects, usability, design, feature set, and service level, our product is strong, and that gives marketing the ability to do its job effectively. There’s no need to invent, hide, or exaggerate anything; in a sense, the product sells itself. Essentially, our marketing team’s role is to deeply understand user pain points and convey the information on how our product solves them. Of course, it’s not that simple—the payments industry has a lot of specifics. You can’t just launch paid ads and expect to capture everything. Marketing for payment services is a complex system that requires a sizeable team and constant work across multiple channels and activities simultaneously. Retracing the steps, however, I want to emphasize one thing: when there is synergy between all departments, from development and design to marketing and sales, everything becomes much easier.
If the CMO of Finup had to give one piece of advice to young payment companies entering the market in 2026, what would it be?
Trust, reliability, and operational stability are absolutely fundamental. Without them, it’s impossible to retain users. You can pour a huge amount of money into advertising, but if the payment service cannot provide stable performance over the long term, it will ultimately be a losing strategy. That’s why I would prioritize building a strong product and a strong team that is capable of continuously supporting, developing, and handling ongoing challenges.
Second priority would be building trust, recognition, and a loyal client base. Large teams don’t approach unknown brands. The industry is quite small; everyone knows everyone, shares experiences, and recommendations always come from trusted colleagues and acquaintances.
Number three is building visibility itself: conferences, events, side events, niche media, rankings, networking, social media, and all related tools. You don’t mean to sell—you want to showcase a strong product, making it easy to access, and then deliver excellent service so users stay long-term and recommend it to others.
