Ex-staff sues fintech unicorn Rapyd, alleges $1.1m in unpaid commissions

A former salesperson of Rapyd is suing the UK payments unicorn for over US$1.1 million in unpaid commissions, according to affidavits filed with the Singapore High Court in 2023 and seen by Tech in Asia.

Rapyd has denied the allegations and is contesting the lawsuit. The company asserts that the ex-employee is not entitled to the stated payouts, which is calculated based on the volume of transactions flowing through its platform.

Photo credit: Rapyd

Arguing his case, Rapyd CEO and co-founder Arik Shtilman alleged in his affidavit that one of the company’s clients, which was brought in by the former sales staff, had engaged in “round-tripping” that appeared to be done “solely for the purpose of pushing up the amount” of transactions flowing through Rapyd.

Shtilman contended that these money flows, which amounted to US$934 million from two clients, were ineligible for commissions due to the terms of the company’s compensation plan.

The CEO added that they were simply “internal transfers of funds between bank accounts and/or virtual accounts owned” by the client, and didn’t create “viable revenue” for Rapyd. Round-tripping is also commonly understood to be an unethical practice designed to inflate revenues.

Rapyd founders (from left) Arkady Karpman, Arik Shtilman, and Omer Priel / Photo credit: Rapyd

As this is an ongoing case, Tech in Asia is withholding the identity of these clients, who were named in Shtilman’s affidavit. We have also asked Rapyd to elaborate on the round-tripping claims and sought answers to other questions, but the firm declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the ex-salesperson said in his affidavit that the supposed instances of “round-tripping” were valid transactions and that the clients “were simply moving their funds and their customers’ funds around the globe” using Rapyd’s products, which include a multicurrency treasury.

According to a blog post on Rapyd’s website, its treasury solution is a “collection of cash management features” that allow users to “manage liquidity, balance currencies,” and “optimize the cost and effort of global payment operations.”

The former employee added that Shtilman had actually allowed these transactions and that Rapyd had facilitated them well into 2023.

Rapyd ascent

Headquartered in London, Rapyd was founded in Israel in 2016 by Shtilman, Arkady Karpman, and Omer Priel. It has offices in cities across the globe including Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Singapore.

The fintech company also has payment licenses in the UK, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.

Commission dispute

Negotiations break down