Interview With Steven Foster, Founder & Chairman of LAM Holdings

In this interview series, VentureCation will be interviewing business leaders from a wide range of fields. In this interview, we are super excited to be talking to Steven Foster, Founder & Chairman of LAM Holdings.

 

About Steve: 

Foster’s multiple decade’s experience as an entrepreneur and global leader in payments gives him a unique insight into FinTech and payments. As a result, Steve has built four companies that were driven by financial markets and payment networks over the last twenty years. Because of his entrepreneurial approach and expertise in product development, strategy, innovation, and finance, he is able to provide businesses in the financial and technology sectors with best-in-class payment solutions.

 

About Company:

LAM Holdings Inc. offers innovative and cost-effective payment solutions to many of today’s top Fintech and crypto organizations as an independently owned and operated card issuing, software provider, and payment facilitator. Established by industry professionals with over 100 years of card issuing and card acquiring experience, we specialize in building and managing global card programs, remittance platforms, and other banking solutions. The LAM platform allows Fintech companies to discover breakthrough innovations via strategic and advanced technologies to reach a fully customized offering for their clients.

 

Founding Year: 2021

Office Locations: 3

Investors: Founders and Silent partners

Competitors: We have very few competitors because we specialize in providing white-glove service to our clients. We got into business to provide a simpler way for companies to enter the global remittance and card issuing space without the technical know-how required. As a company, we help Fintech companies add in top-line revenue either by helping them develop a core solution or by adding in new services.  To do that, we broke the mold.

Revenue Model: Revenue is driven from our technology services and monthly programs.

 

Please help us understand the current market landscape?

 

AMI’s early estimates suggest that retail e-commerce will grow 21% in 2022, and that digital goods will grow by over 40%, which is good news for the digital payments industry. As for contactless payments, Brazilian card association ABECS reports that contactless volume grew 200% and Visa reports that contactless has surpassed 50% penetration of face-to-face card volume in Chile and several Central American markets. Taking a closer look at the numbers, it is important to note that face-to-face retail fell 18% in 2020, meaning all forms of payment declined due to COVID.

 

How is your company positioned in the current market scenario? 

 

Card issuing and remittance are now experiencing a new wave of innovation as new software breaks down old, stodgy technology. Because of the lack of technology, traditional forms of money transfer have historically been a challenging experience for companies and users alike. Among the many aspects of this change is how users can transact and how the new technology can be used to align their company’s missions and delivery times.

 

Our modern card issuing and remittance partners offer our clients superior money movement and remittance services. We provide our clients with virtual and physical cards and streamline the reconciliation process with stable coins. Once our engagement is over, we can enable them to be onboarded swiftly and with their technology. By integrating our current services, digital banks and Fintech can disrupt the traditional payment experience and push banking to a whole new level.

 

With our expertise, we can fill gaps in the financial services available to certain geographies in Latin America and The Caribbean and build companies’ brands and revenues through white label programs. We build our programs on open APIs to enable custom controls and flexibility to create unique experiences.  Through our solutions, innovators can create next-generation payment experiences that set themselves apart..

 

 

What are the greatest strengths of LAM? 

There are several ways in which LAM has secured a major foothold in the industry, but three of our greatest strengths have been:

 

1. Offering financial solutions to individuals and businesses who did not have access to financial solutions. Especially in certain countries and regions, among GenX and millennials, and among the unbanked.

 

2. White label programs that help companies build their brands and generate revenue through remittance and card issing solutions.

 

3.   Innovation and state-of-the-art digital tools and systems have powered our extensive card features, provided a graphics-rich interface, and provided seamless integration with business clients’ existing systems in addition to providing superior levels of security and compliance and regulatory safeguards.

 

Brief overview of the products and services offered by your company:

 

Global disbursement of funds has shifted to card networks for a variety of purposes, such as expenses, payments, loyalty rewards, and more. LAM Holdings Inc. will be your partner in building your card network and developing your applications for deployment in Latin America and the Caribbean.

⦿ White Label Applications built-in weeks

⦿ Complete card management while the distributing entity owns their code stack

⦿ Issue virtual or physical cards in markets across all of Latin America and the Caribbean

⦿ Issued cards are available for use immediately

⦿ Users can manage cards, spend limits, and more, all in one dashboard

⦿ Access to Carnet, Visa networks, and AMEX

 

What is a good case study example?

 

Over the past few years, disbursements have continued to grow across various industries at a rapid pace. Many disbursements options, including physical checks, legacy payment cards, Automated Clearing House (ACH), and electronic fund transfers, have proven to be too slow, too complex, or too rigid for the needs of many of today’s disruptive companies. They are searching for an experience that can be faster, more flexible, and provide superior control.

 

Card issuing and remittance provide disbursements with the flexibility, control, and speed they need to meet their payment challenges. With modern payment platforms, much of the money can be disbursed quickly in the insurance, health care, and gig economy industries. The use of virtual cards and blockchain remittance simplifies the process of business-to-business disbursements since no sensitive financial information needs to be shared or payment systems integrated.

 

What is the road map ahead?

 

LAM will continue to expand its presence in Latin America and expand its network to Africa and Europe during 2022. Moreover, we continue to invest heavily in developing our advanced digital tools and systems that power our core frontend, backend, and cardholder platforms. This will ensure the highest standards of security and compliance. Because a strong team is our most important asset, we will continue to provide a work environment and salary and benefits packages that attract and retain top marketing, product development, IT, and cardholder services talent.

 

Thank you for your time Steven and we have one last question for you

 

What drives you?

 

Knowing that myself and my team members have been part of what drives this sector into a new era for the last few decades is a great feeling. When you consider that along with paving the way for my son and showing him what hard work and dedication can accomplish anything and growing my family with my beautiful fiancée, that’s all I need to stay motivated.

 

For more information on LAM Holdings, please visit www.lamwhitelabel.com or email sales@lamholdingsinc.com or download the LAM Client app in the Apple Store or Google Play Store.