Kurt Matis co-founds company focused on simplifying e-payments

Three years ago, Kurt Matis (left) and his team of “technology guys” were in search of developing a simplified solution for collecting e-payments for businesses that didn’t involve the use of multiple channels. At the time, they had been working with merchants who were using remote deposit capture – a system that allows a customer…

Kurt Matis serves as the president and CEO of Financial Transmission Network Inc., a company focused on providing merchants with more robust and customizable e-payment solutions. Photo by Andrea Ciurej.

Three years ago, Kurt Matis and his team of “technology guys” were in search of developing a simplified solution for collecting e-payments for businesses that didn’t involve the use of multiple channels.

At the time, they had been working with merchants who were using remote deposit capture – a system that allows a customer to scan checks remotely and transmit check images to a bank for deposit through an encrypted internet connection.

This form of e-payment wasn’t integrated with back office processing.

“The reason the markets didn’t take off with remote deposit capture and others was the merchants who are the end users didn’t realize that it’s limited,” Matis said. “[Merchants wanted] something more robust and the banks didn’t have that to offer.”

After some market research, Matis co-founded Financial Transmission Network Inc. (FTNI), a company that designs, develops and manages customizable banking solutions for three types of payments: credit cards, checks and Automated Clearing House (ACH) processing.

FTNI gained national attention, with interest ranging from California to Maine, within the first two years of its existence before attracting the local market, Matis said.

“We’re making more roads into Omaha,” he said. “We’re signing larger customers who understand that we have a better solution.”

FTNI’s local customers include Mutual of Omaha Insurance, Physicians Mutual Insurance, West Corporation, American National Bank and, through a referral partnership, First National Bank.

As for the “better solution,” Matis and his team designed a flagship product, ETran, that streamlines payment processing and reporting.

“We’ve taken it all on an easy to use platform,” said Matis, the president and chief executive officer of the company. “Nobody’s been able to do that.”

ETran combines the use of check imaging and ACH processing, otherwise known as the electronic transfer of money between merchants and customers checking/savings accounts.

ACH processing involves five participants: The originating company or individual, the Originating Depository Financial Institution (ODFI), the ACH operator, the Receiving Depository Financial Institution (RDFI) and the receiving company, employee or customer. Screenshot from achnow.com.

Users can also receive and convert checks into the following ACH transactions: Point of Purchase transactions, an Accounts Receivable Entry, when a check is received in the mail, or a Back Office Conversion, when checks are accepted at the point of purchase and converted later in the back office.

“When people are bringing checks in, they had to scan the checks or drive them to the bank,” Matis said, “If they wanted to do ACH payments, they had to log into a bank’s virtual terminal and enter information there.

“If they wanted to do credit cards, they had to use a second or third company. If they wanted to take web payments, they had to use a fourth company. We’re able to do it all.”

The interface also takes on the use of web-portal processing–allowing single and recurring payments to be received online through an integrated application program interface (API)–as well as identification validation and card transactions.

“[We’re] not really worried about getting into the bank, which we kind of feel is a commodity, but taking the data, matching it up to invoices, the loan payments or whatever,” Matis said, “and then posting into the back office systems to offer those merchants a true turn-key solution that really helps them save money.”

This Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant platform is delivered to clients in a Software as a Service (SaaS) environment.

“Every time they log on to the system, it downloads the latest updates,” Matis said, “and they have a turn-key solution to take all of their different payment types.”

The ETran interface was developed using the Microsoft .NET 2.0 framework and utilizes ClickOnce technology.

This enables users to download and execute the interface from FTNI’s secured servers, which are housed by the CoSentry data center, also in Omaha.

ETran also has a proactive payment monitor module to track payments as they take place, as opposed to when they are received.

“The problem that banks have right now or one of the hot areas is risk and fraud,” Matis said. “We’re being more proactive in helping banks be a first line of basically monitoring for those transactions.”

Matis said FTNI has plans to develop more modules to the interface as the company continues to grow, as well as expand its customer base through sales and marketing.

“We’re constantly adding new modules and new features based on the feedback we’re getting directly from our clients,” he said. “We’re looking at all opportunities.”


       

More about Financial Transmission Network Inc.

FTNI’s flagship product, ETran, integrates check imaging. Screenshot from ftni.com.

Website: ftni.com

Founders: Kurt Matis, President and CEO, and Brian Grier, Chief Technology Officer

Founded: 2007

Company Overview: Designs, develops and manages scalable, customized solutions that incorporate check scanning, ACH processing, card processing and ID verification on a single, managed platform to help clients reduce costs, accelerate timelines and improve transaction processing quality

Benefits of ETran:

  • Improves customer service and cash management capabilities by providing real-time payment intelligence and full back office integration
  • Reduces costly errors and labor expenses by automating the traditionally manual process of accepting and depositing checks and money orders
  • Reduces staff training time and costs and increases productivity by providing a single, easy-to-use system for all payment types
  • Ensures compliance with federal and industry mandates for ID verification by offering real-time identity validation services

Kurt’s Take

How did you acquire funding to start FTNI?

We kind of did it the old-fashioned way. We basically funded it ourselves. We’re Midwesterns and we don’t want to risk somebody else’s dollar until we’re sure we had it. About a year later, after we funded it with out own investment and our own bank loans, then we turned around and went to some people that we knew that we’d been successful with in the past. [We] basically pitched the idea to them and got a group of local angel investors that had known us before.

What is your advice to entrepreneurs looking to building a successful business in the Omaha area?

I would say networking. Omaha is filled with a great knowledge base. These people want to help. They want Omaha to be successful. They want the companies to be successful.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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One response to “Kurt Matis co-founds company focused on simplifying e-payments”

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