An Innovator Transforming Payment Solutions for Businesses in a Digital-First World: Zift

The Silicon Review

Zift is redefining how businesses approach payments in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Founded by industry veterans Nate Hughes, President and Co-Founder, and Marc Roberts, CEO and Co-Founder, Zift was born from over
15 years of experience in the payments sector. During their journey, Hughes and Roberts observed a critical shift: the payments industry was moving away from traditional methods and toward integrated, software-driven solutions. Recognizing the need to innovate, they set out to revolutionize the process, creating a platform tailored to modern business needs.

Zift is designed to empower Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), vertical SaaS platforms, and business management systems by offering seamless embedded payment solutions. Instead of relying on multiple providers for payment processing, Zift simplifies the process by helping these software platforms integrate payment services directly into their software ecosystems. This integrated approach not only enhances convenience but also enables monetization opportunities for software partners, fostering growth for all stakeholders. Zift embraces the Payments as a Service (PaaS) model, helping businesses move beyond standalone payment processing. By embedding payments directly into existing workflows and software platforms, Zift creates a streamlined experience for merchants and their customers. The platform bridges the gap between payments and software, ensuring businesses can provide modern, efficient, and intuitive payment solutions directly from within the software they use to manage their business.

Hughes and Roberts envisioned a future where payments are no longer a separate function but an embedded component within the software solution used to operate their business. Zift fulfills that vision by supporting its partners with a suite of API’s that allows software platforms to deeply embed all aspects of the payments process into their platform With a commitment to driving growth and simplifying payments, Zift stands at the forefront of the embedded payments revolution, empowering businesses to thrive in today’s dynamic economy.

In conversation with Nate Hughes and Marc Roberts, Key Executives of the company Zift

Q. What are the biggest challenges in the current fintech payments landscape, and how does Zift help its partners overcome these hurdles?

Like with any software solution, support for the technology and support for the customer is the key. We are finding that large ISO and payment service providers have a hard time meeting the demands of their partners and customers because they are unwilling to be flexible or provide the desired service levels of their merchants. Zift is all about making the integration experience, the onboarding experience, the processing experience, and the funding experience simple and easy to digest. In addition, there are those that claim to offer an embedded payment experience for their customers, when in reality it’s a cobbled solution of multiple services all under the guise of “integrated payments.” Zift is truly a one-stop shop for any software company wanting to benefit from offering a deeply embedded payments experience to their customers without actually having to register or go through the red tape and compliance of becoming a payments company. Zift does the heavy lifting for them.

Q. Can you elaborate on how Zift’s integrated payments solutions transform the way SaaS companies manage payments and drive user retention?

For one thing, when a partner is being compensated for bringing merchants to Zift, they have a vested interest in ensuring the customer is being taken care of at all levels. Naturally, better support and communication are being provided to the customer. In addition, having the payment experience reside inside their platform makes for a much more “sticky” user experience. Having one place to manage all of their business functionality, the merchant is happier, more satisfied, and with the proper pricing and economics in place, there’s no reason to look elsewhere. An integration to Zift greatly enhances that experience for both the partner and the merchant.

Q. Merchant onboarding is often a pain point. How has Zift streamlined this process to enhance efficiency and user experience?

We have two primary ways a merchant can be onboarded to process payments on our platform.

onboarding through our API directly from a software platform’s system. This process also auto-configures the merchant’s account within the system. Eliminating any extra work the merchant has to do to try and figure out how to connect and activate a merchant account.
a branded, Zift-hosted application link our partner can publish on their website or provide to their customer. While this process doesn’t always auto-configure the merchant’s account within the software platform, our tools allow the software platform to configure the account for the merchant, eliminating extra legwork the merchant has to figure out in order to activate payments and start processing.

Q. Security and compliance are critical in payments. What measures does Zift implement to ensure PCI compliance and safeguard customer data?

Zift is a PCI Level One compliant facility. Thus, our merchants and partners benefit from being integrated with us. For our merchants and SaaS partners, we have a team of compliance specialists who will reach out to them letting them know of the requirements to be PCI compliant themselves. We have a simple toolbox that helps them navigate this requirement.

Q. What sets Zift apart in terms of customer and partner support? How do you ensure a seamless collaboration experience?

We absolutely love and value our partner and merchant relationships. They are truly the lifeblood of our business. We find being Uber-focused on their needs and accommodating at all times is a major KPI for our business. In some cases, we find ourselves on the phone with partners and customers, helping them sell, market, and put creative solutions in place for greater customer acquisition and retention, etc. We try to respond to all inquiries the same day, but definitely by the following business day. We have both email and phone support for both merchant and partner relationships.

Support was mentioned above, but to speak more to how we work with a new integrated software partner and their customers, we have a dedicated team member who will help with the initial use case discovery, contract negotiation, and integration. All along the way, Zift technical support personnel are available to help with API-specific questions and implementation. Once the partner is set up and ready to send merchants to Zift, we have a kickoff call and invite those who will support the partner and merchants once they are onboarded as a new customer.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We’re incredibly excited about what’s ahead, and 2025 is shaping up to be a year full of innovation and growth. We’re planning to onboard larger software partners, expanding our reach and impact in the market. We continue to expand in the government services vertical; additionally, we are working on rolling out a Soft POS solution, which transforms any NFC-enabled mobile device into a fully functional payment terminal—putting powerful payment tools directly into the hands of users.

We’re launching operations in Australia, which will give us a stronger global presence alongside our operations in the U.S. and Canada. To support all this growth, we’re focused on hiring key team members in operations, sales, and finance to ensure we continue delivering the high level of service our clients have come to expect.

Meet the leaders behind the success of Zift

Nate Hughes is the President and Co-founder of Zift. He is a veteran in the payments industry with over 23 years of experience. Nate began his career in payments at Authorize.net, now owned by Visa and a leading payment gateway. Nate not only contributes to the expansion of Zift through integrated partner acquisition and client outreach, but has grown and maintained key relationships with Zift’s partners and customers. He holds degrees in Marketing Comms and English from Brigham Young University.

Marc Roberts is the CEO and Co-founder at Zift. Marc has over 16 years of experience in the payments industry helping businesses optimize payments and software companies embed payments into their platforms. Prior to Zift Marc was an owner at Platinum Payment Systems and served for 8 years as a member of the Utah House of Representatives. Marc has a degree in Civil Engineering from Brigham Young University where he also spent time playing on the basketball team.