In 2022, Israeli fintech unicorn Rapyd went through a major rebrand and launched one of [arguably] the edgiest brands in the sector so far. To sneak a peek behind the scenes of Rapyd's rebranding, we spoke to its Head of Global Communications, Brand & Creative, Francine Harris.
Rapyd is a global payments provider that enables the transfer of electronic funds across borders through various means of payment, including bank transfers, digital wallets, and cash. In March 2022, the fintech reached a valuation of $15 billion which made it the highest-valued Israeli tech unicorn at the time. Amongst Rapyd's most notable investors are BlackRock, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Target Global, and Spark Capital. Currently, the company employs over 600 people across 12 offices around the globe.
After over 4 years of hyper-growth, Rapyd's management team decided it was about time to take a fresh look at its brand. "As Rapyd continues to grow, the products, scale and vision have evolved dramatically. So, the way we describe ourselves, as well as our brand voice, needed to be revised, elevated and professionalised," said Francine Harris, Head of Global Communications, Brand & Creative at Rapyd. That's when the idea of Rapyd's new "Build Bold" brand was born.
What's the new Rapyd brand all about? And what did the whole rebranding process look like for Rapyd's marketing team?
Read Francine's complete Q&A below to find the answers to the above questions and more.
What’s the new Rapyd brand all about? What has changed?
We wanted to keep our logo, but all other visual elements needed changing. Our objective was to create a visual representation that was both edgy and timeless. Something that could speak to every audience we work with - enterprises, SMBs, investors - and appeal globally. We wanted to create a visual that could instantly demonstrate who Rapyd is and what it does to its audience. In addition, as a business, we wanted something different from every other fintech company in the market.
Starting with the colour palette, we opted for bright, intensely pigmented colours that were really gutsy - very different from any company in fintech. You’ll notice that we still include black as a nod to Rapyd’s DNA. But it’s the other colours you’ll see that truly take centre stage. What’s extra important is that this palette offers flexibility in colour pairings - so we will have a lot of creative freedom, yet still, look like one brand. Typography is equally striking - confident, strong and exciting.
In addition to the new visual identity, we also introduced a new set of company values as part of the rebrand. They serve as pillars for our brand promise and motivate us to continue succeeding and being a leader in the global fintech market.
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What was the new brand creative process like?
We partnered with Known, a global creative agency to develop both the voice and visuals because of their global experience, wildly creative approaches and their deep roots in doing qualitative and quantitative research. It was a collaborative and deeply rewarding process, with a leadership team committed to doing things differently. We tried to push every creative boundary imaginable.
"The brand is bold, edgy, and direct. It’s electrifying in its look, yet understandable and approachable, with a bit of irreverence in its tone. I asked the team to really push it to the edge in terms of creativity while not losing sight of our core purpose and vision. I think it has succeeded."
- Marc Winitz | CMO of Rapyd
Have you faced any challenges during the process?
As a global organisation, the biggest challenges were related to time zones. Our team came together from cities throughout the US, London, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and Dubai.
Flexibility, collaboration, open communication and a sense of humour were key.
What was the motivation for the rebranding? Why now?
As Rapyd continues to grow, the products, scale and vision have evolved dramatically. So, the way we describe ourselves as well as our brand voice needed to be revised, elevated and professionalised. We needed to match the current stage of the company growth, our ambitions, and an audience that includes enterprise, SMB, developers and investor community whilst keeping the Rapyd DNA - our strong and distinct personality: fast-paced, audacious, ambitious, vocal.
What did the activation campaign look like?
We developed both an internal and external global launch campaign that kicked off at Money USA 20/20 (October), Singapore Fintech Festival (November). The external campaign included a website relaunch, sizzle videos, events, paid media, digital marketing, ‘out-of-home’, merchandise, a press tour and more. The last component was a series of events promoting the ‘Hack the Galaxy’ hackathon/contest and the Rapyd Customer Summit in Lisbon.
What’s next for Rapyd?
As economic headwinds intensify, businesses need access to a unified payments infrastructure – the payments equivalent of the cloud – to mitigate risk, unlock growth, enable cross-border trade and commerce, and forge deeper customer relationships. Rapyd is the global payments partner that will keep payments simple and seamless.
Whether that is through building an app, selling a product, sending payments or doing a little of everything, Rapyd has solutions that let businesses build from sending and receiving funds, adding hundreds of payment methods worldwide, issuing prepaid virtual and physical cards, and integrating fintech with APIs.
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