Embedded payments in SMS with Solutions by Text

Solutions by Text is a Dallas, Texas-based provider of conversational messaging solutions for businesses. Founded in 2008, SBT received a strategic investment from Edison Partners in 2021, following which Dave Baxter assumed the role of CEO at the company. SBT then committed to its growth as a “FinText” company, building out text-based solutions for consumer finance. 

In October, SBT announced the launch of embedded payments within its FinText platform in partnership with Nuvei. The product enables payments through consumer text-based responses like “Pay Now,” tokenizes payments for data protection purposes, and automates payments for consumers and businesses. 

To Dave Baxter, CEO of Solutions by Text, the expansion into embedded payments is a logical next step for SBT that ultimately benefits consumers. “Bill pay isn’t going away,” Baxter said, citing its place as 30% of consumer spend. 

SBT’s "State of Bill Pay" report suggests that younger and older consumers prefer text communication over other channels. What’s more, Baxter said that 95% of text messages are opened in under five minutes, a far higher rate of engagement than other channels such as email. These preferences enable more expedient and satisfactory payment experiences. 

“We operate in these highly regulated industries to really empower our customers to meet their consumers where they want to be met and over messaging,” he said.

Baxter further suggested that text messages are a more secure forum for payments than counterparts such as phone calls and emails. By using shortcodes—short numbers that connote an authentic source—SBT can help merchants sustain trust with consumers and differentiate their messages from those of malicious actors. 

SBT’s focus on spam prevention and compliance has led T-Mobile to grant SBT exceptions to some of its messaging policies; it’s also requiring all third-party collection agents to run over SBT rails. “That’s a testament to how seriously we take the rules,” Baxter noted.” We protect against spam because we don’t want… what happened to email.” 

So far, SBT’s growth and retention seem to be on the right track. It pivoted from a consumption-based business to a SaaS model, helping it reach an NRR of 137% last year; attrition hovered around less than a half of a percent.

It remains to be seen, however, whether fraudulent activity may pick up over text-messaging channels as volumes increase. Are spam and fraud low over text because it’s hard to mimic authentic actors, or are phone and email just incumbent and larger pools of potential—for now?