Business Messaging Infrastructure
APIs enabling enterprises to send and receive messages across SMS, WhatsApp Business, RCS, Apple Messages for Business, and voice. Used for OTP authentication, order confirmations, customer service, marketing campaigns. The commodity layer — differentiation is in reliability, coverage, and speed of integration.
Payment Orchestration
A middleware layer that routes transactions across multiple PSPs (Adyen, Stripe, Mollie, Worldpay) to optimise authorisation rates, reduce processing costs, and enable multi-market checkout. The commercial pitch: merchants no longer locked into one acquirer. Typically sold on transaction volume + SaaS fee.
Ticketing & Marketing Automation
Event ticketing and marketing automation platforms completing the "One Platform" stack. Live serves venue operators, sports clubs, festivals. Engage automates personalised campaigns across messaging channels. Together they create cross-sell and upsell vectors within a single client relationship.
Share of enterprise messaging volume by channel
Source: Industry estimates. RCS share projected to double by 2027 following Apple iOS 18 RCS support.
Apple enabled RCS in iOS 18 — this changes everything
Rich Communication Services (RCS) — the successor to SMS — was Android-only until September 2024 when Apple added RCS support in iOS 18. This unlocks ~55% of the European smartphone market that was previously unreachable via RCS. CPaaS platforms with early RCS infrastructure are positioned to capture significant volume migration from SMS over 2025–2027.
Fastest enterprise channel growth — but Meta controls the rails
WhatsApp Business API grew 40%+ YoY in 2024 across Europe. Used for order updates, authentication, customer service. Key commercial risk: Meta controls pricing and message template approval — CPaaS providers act as BSPs (Business Solution Providers) and pass through Meta's costs. Margin is in platform and orchestration, not the channel itself.
Source: Company reports, public filings, analyst estimates. Revenue figures may include non-EU operations.
Multi-PSP strategy reduces transaction costs & improves auth rates
Large merchants routing transactions through a single PSP typically see 1.5–3% lower authorisation rates versus optimised multi-PSP routing. On €100M transaction volume, orchestration recovers €1.5–3M in failed payments — making the commercial case easy to close.
Messaging + payments in one platform creates sticky client relationships
When an enterprise runs payment notifications (SMS/WhatsApp), payment processing, and customer engagement through one vendor, switching costs are very high. Average contract duration for integrated platform clients is 3–5 years vs. 12–18 months for single-product deals. This is the NRR story.
Local payment methods require local expertise
Europe is fragmented: iDEAL (NL), Bancontact (BE), Carte Bancaire (FR), SEPA Direct Debit, Klarna, PayPal — each market has preferred methods that a global PSP handles poorly. CPaaS providers with European payment operations have a genuine edge in enterprise conversations.
- Home market — CM.com HQ in Breda, deepest client base
- iDEAL dominates online payments (~70% share)
- High WhatsApp penetration — 85%+ smartphone users
- Dense mid-market enterprise sector: events, retail, fintech
- Strong ticketing market — Live BU stronghold
- Largest EU enterprise market by spend
- SMS still dominant for B2B authentication
- GDPR compliance requirements drive demand for EU-hosted solutions
- Complex payment landscape (SEPA, Giropay, PayPal)
- High data sovereignty sensitivity — EU-based CPaaS advantage
- Large enterprise market — retail, luxury, transport
- Carte Bancaire as dominant local payment method
- Growing WhatsApp Business adoption in customer service
- Strong events/entertainment sector — Live BU opportunity
- French data localisation preference favours European vendors
- Bancontact dominant payment method
- Bilingual market (NL/FR) — operational complexity
- Strong base in financial services and logistics
- EU institutions in Brussels — regulated procurement
- Largest CPaaS market in Europe by volume
- Post-Brexit: separate regulatory framework
- Strong RCS adoption — UK carriers early movers
- Competitive market: Twilio, Sinch, Vonage all strong
Conversational AI is the next commercial battleground
AI-powered chatbots, automated customer journeys, and LLM-generated message content are moving from experiment to production. CPaaS platforms embedding AI natively — for campaign optimisation, intent detection, and autonomous service flows — are commanding 30–50% premium pricing over commodity messaging APIs. The commercial implication: AI upsell is the next major expansion revenue driver for enterprise accounts.
RCS will obsolete A2P SMS for rich engagement use cases by 2028
Rich Communication Services enables branded sender IDs, carousels, quick-reply buttons, and read receipts — features that drive materially higher engagement than plain SMS. With iOS 18 unlocking Apple devices, RCS-capable audiences will exceed 80% of European smartphones by end 2025. Platforms with verified sender relationships and RCS delivery infrastructure have a 12–18 month window before this becomes commoditised.
EU enterprises are actively switching from US CPaaS to European providers
GDPR enforcement, data localisation requirements, and post-Schrems II scrutiny are driving procurement decisions toward EU-incorporated, EU-hosted providers. CM.com, Infobip, and Sinch (EU entities) are benefiting. This is a structural commercial tailwind for the next 3–5 years — particularly in regulated verticals (financial services, healthcare, government).
WhatsApp checkout and in-message payments are entering the mainstream
Meta's WhatsApp Pay (expanding across Europe) and CPaaS providers enabling in-channel payment completion are blurring the line between messaging and commerce. The winning commercial pitch: an enterprise client can initiate customer contact, resolve a service issue, and collect payment — all within a single WhatsApp thread, on a single vendor contract. This is what "conversational commerce" means operationally.
Platform deals require executive sponsorship
A full-platform deal at €300K+ ACV involves IT (integration complexity), Finance (pricing model comparison), Legal (data processing agreements), and the business owner (feature requirements). The Head of Commerce role is to orchestrate this multi-stakeholder process while maintaining commercial momentum. Average enterprise deal involves 5–8 stakeholders.
Which verticals to prioritise in the Netherlands
Highest commercial density for CPaaS + payments: Financial services (authentication + payment notifications), Retail & e-commerce (order updates + checkout), Events & entertainment (ticketing + on-site payments), Logistics (delivery notifications), Healthcare (appointment reminders + billing). Data sovereignty requirements make EU-hosted platforms mandatory in financial services and healthcare.
Platform migration is the current commercial challenge
CM.com is mid-transformation from a multi-product to unified platform model. Commercial alignment with platform migration means the Head of Commerce must sell the platform vision before the product fully reflects it — while managing existing clients through product transitions. This requires both client confidence management and internal commercial discipline.
Available for
Interim commercial leadership and platform strategy consulting across European B2B technology and e-commerce sectors.