[Money20/20 – Primer interview] How partnerships now drive payments growth

At Money20/20 USA, we spoke with Lara Rosquët, Global Head of Partnerships, and Crystal Henkle, Head of Americas at Primer, about the shift from linear payment chains to connected ecosystems, Primer’s US growth strategy, and the role of AI in payment decisions.

From owning the chain to enabling the ecosystem

Payments once followed a straight line from acquirer to network to issuer. According to Rosquët, that model worked when payments were simple, with one processor and one payment method. Today, merchants want to meet customers where they are, which most of the time means supporting local payment methods, local acquiring, and local compliance.

As a result, the objective has moved from owning the value chain to enabling ecosystem connectivity. Primer is a payment orchestration provider, connecting merchants to multiple payment services through a single integration. It relies on partners rather than trying to own every piece of the chain, which makes partnerships central to both its product strategy and its go-to-market approach.

The global team sets the thesis, including who to serve and which infrastructure matters. Partners at market level report what merchants actually need. These partners act as local feedback to the product team, shaping how Primer engages with customers.

For merchants and PSPs, this highlights the value of infrastructure that can reach local methods and partners without rebuilding the stack for every market.

Building for banks and acquirers in the US

Henkle explained that partnerships with US banks and acquirers sit at the core of Primer’s regional strategy. Its Primer for Partners product uses a no-code editor so providers can integrate onto the platform with their own engineering teams, without waiting on Primer.

Rosquët noted that the US business has been doubling year on year, driven by large digital companies. Because every transaction costs more in the US, she argued, those companies will find a need for orchestration. Primer aims to grow the US from about a fifth of its revenue to more than a third by 2028.

AI, data, and the next partnership frontiers

Are American merchants more ready than Europeans to hand payment decisions to an AI agent? It seems that each payment decision carries higher stakes in the US, which is why Primer built its AI companion and plans to keep developing it. The US adopts technology quickly, Henkle said, but AI readiness is not a matter of geography. Merchants on both sides of the Atlantic want unified data they control.

Looking three to five years ahead, Henkle pointed to two trends. The first is partnership around data, including more shared fraud signals and closer collaboration to get outcomes right for merchants. The second is reconciliation and treasury management, which she called the next frontier. Primer is working with Opera to prepare for it.

For merchants and consultants, this raises questions about how well their data is consolidated and where treasury and reconciliation workflows can improve next.

What success looks like

Henkle defined US success in terms that go beyond revenue. Success means large, well-known companies choosing Primer and recommending it to peers. It means Primer sitting at the top of the list when a new payments leader reviews their stack, and a local team making decisions in-market.

Ultimately, both orchestration and AI-driven payments depend on infrastructure that connects new capabilities with existing systems. For PSPs, banks, and acquirers, integration speed and local insight are becoming differentiators. For merchants, unified data they control is a prerequisite for trusting automated recommendations. Collaboration on fraud signals and treasury workflows is likely to define the next phase of partnerships across the payments ecosystem.

About Primer

Primer is the unified infrastructure for global payments. They give finance and payments teams the visibility and control to reduce complexity, improve performance, and capture more revenue, all from a single platform. Backed by Sofina, Peak XV Partners, ICONIQ, Tencent, Accel, and Balderton, they're building the payments layer that the world's best companies rely on.