US & International Market Entry & Global Payments

The Opportunity

Your next market is worth more than you think.

The US alone is a $1.3T e-commerce market. Whether you're entering it or expanding from it, most companies capture a fraction of what's available.

Expanding from the US

Take what's working at home to Brazil, Europe, Asia — without rebuilding payments from scratch.

Expanding into the US

Land in the world's largest market — without losing six months to entity, banking and compliance.

Cross-border e-commerce

in 2026, growing 18% per year

Conversion lift

from in-market payments & localization

Weeks

Not months

from signed to live

Sources: Forrester · eMarketer · Coherent Market Insights · ITA · Capital One Shopping Research · FT3 Global Playbook 2026

THE OPPORTUNITY

The opportunity is real.
So are the challenges.

Cross-border e-commerce is a $1.7T market growing 18% a year. Most companies leave their share on the table — not because their product can't compete, but because the systems weren't built for businesses moving between markets.

You can't get set up where you need to be

Entity formation, banking and compliance look easy on the marketing site. In reality they're spread across vendors who don't talk to each other.

Every market is its own puzzle

Local payment methods, banking rails and regulations are different everywhere. What works in São Paulo doesn't work in Singapore. What works in California doesn't work in Amsterdam.

Building it yourself eats 12–18 months

Time you don't have. Hires you can't justify. By the time you're ready, your competitors are already in the market taking your share.

Nobody explains what to do next

Standard processors aren't built to guide you. They're built to filter you. You're left figuring it out alone — or worse, taking advice from people who don't understand cross-border.

That's what FT3 fixes. Here's how ↓

THE FT3 APPROACH

Three Stages. Two Directions. One Team.

One coordinated approach to cross-border growth for online businesses — from landing in a new market to scaling globally.

THREE STAGES

Launch the entity. Run the payments. Strategy that ships. Use one. Use all. Start where you are.

TWO DIRECTIONS

Inbound and outbound. International online businesses entering the US, and US online businesses going global. Same playbook, both ways.

ONE TEAM

A seasoned team on the ground — in market, across multiple regions. Entity, banking, payments and partner access coordinated by people who’ve done it before, not handed off to a pile of vendors.

Who We Serve

Scaling globally — or helping your clients do it?

FT3 is built for both. Same playbook, different entry point.

For Businesses

You're growing. New markets mean new entities, new banks, new payment complexity. FT3 gets you operational fast — without the six-month setup.

See how it works →

For Partners

Your clients are expanding internationally. FT3 gives you the team and partners to serve them and earn on it — without taking on the complexity yourself.

Explore partner model →

The Reality

Why going global is harder than it looks.

The opportunity is real. So is the obstacle course. Six places where most businesses underestimate what stands between ambition and live payments in a new market.

FT3 LAUNCH

You can’t get banked.

Two months in, three rejections, and the only feedback is “we can’t open this account at this time.” No reason, no path forward. Your investors want a timeline. Your clients want an invoice.

FT3 LAUNCH

Compliance is a moving target.

Every market has its own KYB ritual, AML rules, and “preferred structure.” What worked in Delaware doesn’t work in Amsterdam, doesn’t work in Singapore. By the time you understand the requirement, it’s already changed.

FT3 PAY

Payments is a jungle.

Cards, wallets, bank rails, BNPL, real-time payments — every market has its own stack and its own rules. Stitching it together with one provider leaves money on the table. Auth rates drop, declines pile up, FX gets eaten, and most teams never see where the leak is.

FT3 PAY

One-size-fits-all doesn’t fit you.

Big platforms run one algorithm for every merchant. Legacy players run on systems that can’t flex to your model, your geography, or your growth plans. Your business doesn’t fit their template — so they say “no,” or they say “yes” and underserve you. You need a stack tailored to how you actually operate.

FT3 NEXUS

You don’t know who to call.

You need a bank in São Paulo, an acquirer that does crypto, a regulatory specialist in Singapore. You can Google for hours and still not know who’s credible, who’s expensive, who’s a dead end.

FT3 NEXUS

Going it alone takes 12–18 months.

You hire consultants, sign vendor contracts, wait for replies, start over when one piece doesn’t fit. Meanwhile your competitors are live in the market.

The FT3 Platform

Connected solutions. Built for global scale.

01 FT3 Launch

Land in New Markets

Market expansion works in both directions — FT3 Launch handles the full journey whether you're entering the US or expanding your US business internationally.

Entity formation & EIN/tax registration
Banking readiness & KYB narrative
Regulatory guidance & compliance
Local payment method integration
Treasury & multi-currency management

→

Enter the US Market

For international businesses

→

Expand Internationally

For US businesses

02 FT3 Pay

Move Money Without Limits

Global pay-ins, payouts, and spend management — the payments engine that works everywhere you do. Built for businesses that can't afford to leave revenue on the table.

Global pay-ins & merchant acquiring
Visa, Mastercard & major schemes
Multi-currency processing
Payouts & spend management
Fraud prevention & chargebacks

See FT3 Pay → 03 FT3 Nexus

The strategy behind your growth

When growth needs more than execution — regulatory navigation, compliance posture, market entry strategy, capital readiness, payments optimization. FT3 Nexus hands you operators, not decks.

Operator-led engagements
Six service areas, one team
Regulatory, compliance & capital
Sales, distribution & payments
Strategy that ships, not decks

See FT3 Nexus →

FT3 Launch → FT3 Pay

Once you’re in-market,
payments become the lever.

Your entity is live. Your bank is open. Now you need to get paid — and pay — the way your customers trust and prefer, in every market you serve. That’s where FT3 Pay comes in.

FT3 PAY · SMART ROUTING

Online check-out. Multiple payment connections. Better auth. Fee savings. Provider redundancy.

Smart Routing decides — in real time — which acquirer gives the best outcome for every transaction. See how it works.

See FT3 Pay in detail →

Merchant Checkout TXN

FT3 Pay · Smart Routing

Acquirer A Acquirer B Acquirer C

Settled · Multi-currency ✓

Illustrative Results

What payments done right can unlock.

Three scenarios, three markets — the kind of outcomes a well-designed payments approach delivers.

Global SaaS Platform

+$2.3M

ARR lift

Cross-Border Retailer

+$1.8M

Revenue in 6 months

Digital Marketplace

+89%

GMV year-over-year

See Full Case Studies →

All examples anonymized. Indicative of what FT3's orchestrated approach unlocks for businesses operating across borders.

FT3 NEXUS — OPERATOR ENGAGEMENTS

The strategy behind your cross-border growth.

Most consultants hand you a deck. Most platforms hand you a portal. FT3 hands you operators — people who’ve sat in the seats at AmEx, Visa, and Worldpay, and built the network to actually move the work forward.

OPERATOR-LED

Real operators, in the room.

Twenty-plus years inside AmEx, Visa, and Worldpay. When the question is bigger than “how do we run payments,” you need someone who’s been on the other side of the table.

SIX SERVICE AREAS

Where engagement matters most.

Regulatory navigation, compliance posture, market entry experts, sales & distribution strategy, capital support, and payments optimization. Coordinated under one engagement.

END TO END

Strategy that ships.

Our work doesn’t stop at a deck. Engagements connect directly into FT3 Launch and FT3 Pay when execution starts. One team, accountable end to end.

Explore FT3 Nexus →

PROOF

Real businesses. Real outcomes.

From Launch to Pay to Nexus — three real engagements, one team. Names anonymized at client request — details reflect active relationships.

FT3 LAUNCH · B2B SaaS · Brazil → United States

“

We had enterprise clients in New York ready to sign, but no US entity that banks would actually approve. FT3 structured our banking narrative, matched us to the right provider, and had our US merchant account live in under six weeks. The first application was the only application.

Rafael M.

Co-Founder & CEO, B2B HR Analytics Platform

FT3 PAY · RegTech · EU → US → LatAm

“

We were running three separate payment relationships across Europe, the US, and Latin America — each with its own contracts, reporting, and overhead. FT3 consolidated everything into one structured relationship with full cross-regional visibility. The FX cost reduction covered the engagement within the first quarter.

Marlene V.

CFO, Digital Compliance Platform

FT3 NEXUS · Platform Partner · Multi-region distribution

“

We’re a vertical SaaS platform serving merchants in three regions, and our clients kept asking us to help them with banking and payments. We couldn’t build that ourselves — and we couldn’t keep referring them to partners we hadn’t vetted. FT3 Nexus gave us a curated network we could plug into without taking on the risk, and a revenue model that actually made sense for our economics.

Sara K.

VP Partnerships, Vertical SaaS Platform

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Before you book, you probably want to know…

How fast can you actually launch us?+

Most engagements go live in weeks, not months — final pace depends on jurisdiction, your risk profile and partner SLAs. We give you a realistic timeline on the discovery call, not a sales pitch.

What industries do you support?+

FT3 works across digital commerce — SaaS, cross-border B2B, digital media, financial services, fintech, and online travel. We specialize in cross-border, high-volume and complex merchant needs and are experienced operating across regulated industries — including crypto payouts, digital assets, and merchant models, especially where large brands and platforms reject.

What does this cost?+

FT3 Launch engagements start at $1,500 and scope up from there based on complexity. FT3 Pay and FT3 Nexus are priced based on your volume, structure and partner mix. Every engagement starts with a free discovery call — you’ll have a clear scope and fee before any work begins.

Do you replace Stripe / Adyen / our current PSP?+

Not necessarily. FT3 Pay is processor-agnostic — we can sit alongside what you have, replace it, or run multiple acquirers in parallel for smarter routing. The goal is the outcome, not the brand of the rail.

Do you guarantee bank or acquirer approval?+

No — and anyone who does is lying. We do guarantee a clean structure, a strong narrative, the right provider match, and a proper process. Our first-application success rate across our active portfolio is strong because we don’t submit until you’re ready.

Where are your partners located?+

FT3 operates across San Francisco, Amsterdam, São Paulo and Singapore (Q3 2026) — with a vetted partner network covering banking, acquiring, regulatory and entity formation in every major commerce corridor. We don’t list partner names publicly; you’ll meet the ones relevant to your situation.

Can platforms and agencies partner with FT3?+

Yes. FT3 Nexus offers referral, white-label and API engagement models for SaaS platforms, agencies, accelerators and acquirers who want to extend cross-border capabilities to their clients without building it themselves. We keep partner numbers small — quality over quantity.

What if I just want to ask questions and not commit yet?+

That’s exactly what a free discovery call is for. No pitch deck, no commitment. You bring the situation, we tell you honestly whether we can help, what it would look like, and what it would cost. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so.

WHY FT3

We don't sell software.
We orchestrate outcomes.

Four things we do that the big names don't.

Operator-led, not platform-led

Built by people who’ve sat in the seats at AmEx, Visa, Worldpay, and leading industry brands. We’ve seen which international businesses get filtered out — and why. FT3 exists to fix that.

Coordinated, not handed off

Entity, banking, compliance and payments — one team accountable for the whole journey. No vendor finger-pointing.

Bidirectional from day one

Inbound and outbound. Same team, same playbook, both ways. Most providers only do one direction — and only the easy half of it.

Real humans, not ticket queues

You can call us. You’ll know who’s on your file. Decisions made by people who understand cross-border — not by a risk algorithm.

THE TEAM

Built by operators.
Based in the markets that matter.

Frederik (Fredo) Pen

Founder & CEO

Over two decades in payments at American Express, Visa and Worldpay — leading global commercial and partnerships. Fredo built FT3 to fix what he watched the big networks consistently fail to do: serve international businesses with the same seriousness as their US counterparts.

Connect on LinkedIn →

WHERE WE OPERATE

🇺🇸 San Francisco

🇳🇱 Amsterdam

🇧🇷 São Paulo

🇸🇬 Singapore Q3 2026

YourCross-BorderGrowth Partner.

Cross-border is the bigger market — and the fastest-growing one.

Your next market is worth more than you think.

The opportunity is real.
So are the challenges.

Three Stages. Two Directions. One Team.

Scaling globally — or helping your clients do it?

Why going global is harder than it looks.

Connected solutions. Built for global scale.

Once you’re in-market,
payments become the lever.

Online check-out. Multiple payment connections. Better auth. Fee savings. Provider redundancy.

What payments done right can unlock.

The strategy behind your cross-border growth.

Real businesses. Real outcomes.

Before you book, you probably want to know…

The 2026 Global Payments Playbook.

We don't sell software.
We orchestrate outcomes.

Built by operators.
Based in the markets that matter.

Two doors. Pick yours.

YourCross-BorderGrowth Partner.

Cross-border is the bigger market — and the fastest-growing one.

Your next market is worth more than you think.

The opportunity is real.So are the challenges.

Three Stages. Two Directions. One Team.

Scaling globally — or helping your clients do it?

Why going global is harder than it looks.

Connected solutions. Built for global scale.

Once you’re in-market,payments become the lever.

Online check-out. Multiple payment connections. Better auth. Fee savings. Provider redundancy.

What payments done right can unlock.

The strategy behind your cross-border growth.

Real businesses. Real outcomes.

Before you book, you probably want to know…

The 2026 Global Payments Playbook.

We don't sell software.We orchestrate outcomes.

Built by operators.Based in the markets that matter.

Two doors. Pick yours.

The opportunity is real.
So are the challenges.

Once you’re in-market,
payments become the lever.

We don't sell software.
We orchestrate outcomes.

Built by operators.
Based in the markets that matter.