Bubble integrate Modulr’s API for faster babysitter payments

Modulr & Bubble have teamed up to futurize babysitter payments in the UK. We spoke to Modulr about how their API is providing babysitters and parents with a frictionless, fast payments system, and how Modulr’s API could keep revolutionising the gig economy in the future.


What problem were you trying to solve in this collaboration?

It was taking Bubble three days to make payments due to relying on manual file upload process to the bank portal. This meant that babysitters, and parents too, were laboring under a slow system that could be so much smoother for both sides. We knew Modulr’s API could make this process much faster.

What makes Modulr’s API perfect for this kind of collaboration and adoption?

It allows for a much simpler, frictionless customer experience. Customer accounts can easily be created, without the need for time-consuming customer checks. Customers can then use these accounts to get paid, pay out and reconcile automatically, monitor fund flows across their accounts and receive real-time notifications about the status of payments.

Payment through our API doesn’t involve any manual file upload processes, it’s automatically triggered from their Modulr account. They receive real-time payment status notifications, and have access to same-day payments in seconds, so it’s easier to make, control and automate payments.

This means that 99% of inbound payments are available in five minutes, and 99% of outbound payments are submitted in 90 seconds, 24×7. Moving to real-time payments removes all of the hassle, with a much better service level than what you’d traditionally get from a bank. Replacing manual, error prone processes, means Bubble don’t have to employ as many people in finance to manage payments, too, reducing cost.

Of course, every now and then, a service like babysitting might involve some disputes over payment, due to issues, complaints, and so on. The flexibility of our API enables customers to insert a pause in the payment process so they can deal with anything like this in an uncomplicated way.

Why do you think collaboration is such a driving force for innovation in fintech?

Because fintechs like Modulr are API first. Our API is designed from the outset for functionality and to be shared. We want our potential collaborators to be able to easily integrate and use our API.

This is part of a proactive strategy by the FCA, the Bank of England and the UK Payment Systems Regulator to increase competition and drive innovation by opening up access to the UK’s electronic payment schemes to non-banks.

How else can you envision Modulr being utilized to enhance an existing payment structure?

Lending is an area to which Modulr would be well-adopted. Paying out in batch, utilizing real-time payments, working with new, digital, consumer lenders that are making investment decisions in seconds and want money in a bank account on the same day. It would also be well-suited to payroll. Today there are more contractors and temporary workers involved in our economy than ever before, which means there is a higher demand for the flexibility to make payments when they want, and more easily access schemes like Faster Payments.

How can fintech further democratize the financial lives of consumers?

We’re more B2B, but we work with consumer facing companies like Bubble, so I think the biggest transformation that fintech can bring is making financial services more accessible, cheaper, so that they can reach a wider audience and open up of the payment schemes which have traditionally been dominated by the banks.

Giving consumers more choice and ease of use is essential, AISPs and PISPs should be developing more feature rich services, which can then be re-authorised as Third Party Providers or TPPs by the FCA in the UK. Only then can EMIs and PIs apply to provide account information and payment initiation services, increasing competition and providing a real alternative to banks.

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