Buckaroo supports Youfone in digitizing its payment strategy

SIM-only provider Youfone is growing rapidly and aims to double its customer base in the next two years. To achieve that, the telecom provider follows a unique philosophy based on collaboration with specialized outsourcing partners, including Buckaroo as strategic payment partner. A conversation with Valentijn Rensing, CEO of Youfone, and Maurits Dekker, CCO of Buckaroo, about the innovative concept of payments, credit management and subscription handling.

Youfone was one of the first companies to enter the SIM-only market eleven years ago, offering an alternative to the traditional mobile subscription market. That proved to be a winning move. Today, the provider serves about 300,000 customers and aims to exceed half a million within two years. “It took almost five years to onboard the first 10,000 customers, but we’ve seen significant growth since,” says Rensing. “Growing 40% annually is a result of our philosophy. We’ve developed our own IT platform, allowing partners to easily connect. It’s the core of our organization.”

Rensing strongly believes in the power of collaboration. Instead of doing everything in-house, Youfone partners with specialized outsourcing experts. While the business grows in customers and revenue, the internal Youfone team remains lean. “That’s a conscious decision,” Rensing says. “Credit management, customer service, SIM card shipping, marketing—we outsource it all. Partners connect to our IT platform, enabling us to benefit from expert knowledge, operate efficiently, and avoid complex management layers. Since this summer, we’ve been working with Buckaroo, who now manages the entire payment process. We urgently needed to digitize and automate our credit management and sought more flexibility in payments. That goes far beyond the traditional PSP model.”

Credit management is about more than collecting outstanding payments, says Dekker. “It goes beyond the transaction and often starts before invoicing—like obtaining the SEPA mandate. The biggest added value is in the follow-up. We apply a customer-friendly approach focused on attention and retention, rather than labeling subscribers as defaulters. We've built a separate workflow tailored to both product and customer. For instance, our strategy varies across Youfone’s mobile, fixed line, and TV services.” Rensing gives an example: “The likelihood of payment increases when we temporarily block mobile internet on a SIM-only plan. Buckaroo truly adds value and quickly understood our IT infrastructure.”

“With our hybrid model, we’re moving beyond the standard PSP framework,” Dekker summarizes. “We can truly co-create and scale with our clients—in Youfone’s case, even during explosive growth.” Rensing adds, “Not every PSP can handle that level of complexity. Buckaroo was already highly automated, so we were able to complete implementation in just two months—whereas seven to eight months is standard.”

This article originally appeared in Online Retailer on December 13, 2019.