From Web3 Natives to Enterprise: How Fipto is Climbing the Corporate Adoption Ladder

From Web3 Natives to Enterprise: How Fipto is Climbing the Corporate Adoption Ladder

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Patrick Mollard, CEO and Co-Founder of Fipto, a blockchain payments platform that’s raised $16 million, described a market segmentation that most emerging technology companies recognize but few execute deliberately: not all customers are ready at the same time. Patrick’s approach reveals why sequencing customer acquisition matters more than casting a wide net.

The Three Tiers of Blockchain Payment Adoption

Patrick segments Fipto’s market into three distinct categories, each with radically different adoption timelines and sales requirements. Understanding these tiers isn’t just marketing theory—it’s the foundation of their entire go-to-market strategy.

The first tier comprises companies “exposed to web three and the blockchain from the activity they are actually doing,” Patrick explains. These are crypto-native businesses, web3 platforms, and companies whose core operations already involve blockchain technology. “Those are clients you actually don’t need to convince. The adoption is already done and they are testing the flows on the platform, so it’s great to have them and we’ll be happy to grow with them.”

This segment requires no education about blockchain benefits. They understand the technology, recognize the value proposition immediately, and have existing infrastructure that makes integration straightforward. For Fipto, these customers provided crucial early traction—revenue, case studies, and product validation from users who could evaluate the technical implementation critically.

The second tier reveals where real volume lives: payment service providers. “There is strong adoptions from the payment experts of the world. So payment service providers, they are the ones that see the advantages of the blockchain in terms of speed, transparency, cost, predictability, everything that I mentioned before, and that’s a very large market with a lot of volume,” Patrick notes.

PSPs represent sophisticated buyers who immediately grasp blockchain’s technical advantages over traditional correspondent banking networks. They process massive payment volumes, so improvements in speed and cost directly impact their economics. Unlike web3 natives, they’re not ideologically committed to blockchain—they’re pragmatically interested in better payment rails.

The third tier—large enterprises—presents the biggest long-term opportunity but requires the most patience. “I think that the discussions we have today are quite different from the ones we had two years ago. They are all convinced of what blockchain can bring to them and they also see very specific use cases where they can use blockchain, whether it’s repatriating funds or optimizing their internal flows, or adding an alternative payment method, for instance, or even paying suppliers in complex geographies,” Patrick explains.

Why Enterprise Adoption Lags Understanding

Here’s where Patrick’s segmentation becomes strategically valuable. Enterprise buyers understand blockchain’s benefits. They see the use cases. But understanding doesn’t equal adoption.

“I think adoption there will be facilitated when they are able to convince their legal departments, compliance departments that they can go for it,” Patrick notes. The barrier isn’t technical or even financial—it’s organizational and regulatory.

Large enterprises require multiple internal stakeholders to align before adopting new payment infrastructure. Legal needs to assess risk. Compliance needs to verify regulatory acceptability. Finance needs to approve budget. Treasury needs to integrate with existing systems. IT needs to evaluate security. This organizational complexity creates adoption lag even when the business case is clear.

Patrick identifies three factors that gradually remove these barriers: “The fact that regulation is becoming more and more clear is helpful. The fact that institutional players again like BlackRock and others, are investing heavily in the field is interesting. And the fact that stablecoins, and potentially in the future central bank digital currencies are being investigated and stablecoins are gaining a lot of traction.”

Regulatory clarity reduces legal and compliance concerns. Institutional legitimization provides air cover for internal advocates. Stablecoin adoption demonstrates that blockchain payments can work at scale. Each factor makes it easier for enterprises to say yes.

The Strategic Sequencing That Matters

Fipto’s approach doesn’t just acknowledge these three tiers—it deliberately sequences customer acquisition to match market readiness.

Start with web3 natives. They convert quickly, provide revenue during product development, and offer sophisticated technical feedback. Their adoption validates that the core technology works. “Today we see that obviously most of the first clients we have on the platform are early adopters,” Patrick confirms.

Move to payment service providers while building enterprise positioning. PSPs represent “a very large market with a lot of volume,” providing scale and revenue growth. They also serve as crucial proof points for enterprise sales—if professional payment processors trust your infrastructure, enterprise risk committees have less reason to object.

Position for enterprise as external factors align. Don’t try to force enterprise adoption before legal and compliance teams have the regulatory clarity they need. Instead, build the case studies, security certifications, and institutional partnerships that make enterprise adoption easier when the market is ready.

This sequencing creates momentum. Early adopter revenue funds development. PSP volume provides scale proof. Both create the foundation for enterprise conversations when regulatory clarity emerges.

The Market Education Evolution

Patrick’s observation about changing enterprise conversations reveals how market education compounds over time. “I think things changed quite heavily over the last. So we created a company two years ago. I think it has already changed quite a bit.”

Two years ago, enterprise conversations required explaining what blockchain could do for payments. Today, “they are all convinced of what blockchain can bring to them and they also see very specific use cases.” The education happened—partly through Fipto’s efforts, but largely through market maturation, institutional adoption, and regulatory development.

This evolution validates the sequencing strategy. Trying to sell to enterprises two years ago would have meant spending cycles on education rather than closing deals. Starting with early adopters and PSPs allowed Fipto to build revenue and product while the enterprise market matured.

Different Tiers Require Different Sales Motions

The three-tier segmentation isn’t just about timing—it requires fundamentally different sales approaches.

Web3 natives need product demonstration and technical validation. The sales cycle is short because they already understand the value proposition. They want to see that the implementation works and meets their technical requirements.

PSPs require proof of volume handling, reliability metrics, and economic modeling. They’re buying infrastructure that will process significant transaction volume, so they need confidence in uptime, security, and cost structure. The sales cycle is longer but follows predictable enterprise software patterns.

Large enterprises need organizational consensus building. The sales cycle involves multiple stakeholders, requires extensive security and compliance documentation, and often includes proof of concept implementations. Success depends less on convincing individual buyers and more on providing the internal advocates with ammunition to convince their colleagues.

Trying to use the same sales motion for all three segments wastes resources. Web3 natives don’t need the extensive compliance documentation enterprises require. Enterprises can’t move at the speed web3 natives expect. PSPs need volume economics that early-stage startups often can’t provide.

The Competitive Landscape Validation

Patrick’s market view reveals confidence in this sequencing approach. “From a competitive standpoint, there are a few actors in the market today, which for us is reassuring because it means we’re not the only ones convinced by the trajectory and where we’re heading.”

Competition in the early adopter and PSP segments validates the market opportunity. It suggests other companies see similar adoption patterns and are executing similar strategies. For enterprise buyers considering blockchain payments, seeing multiple viable providers reduces adoption risk—it’s not a single-vendor bet on unproven technology.

Looking forward, Patrick sees universal adoption: “In my view, obvious that all corporate clients will use blockchain technology in some way or shape to perform their flows. And that’s a 200 trillion revenue market. So it’s a huge market.”

But getting to that 200 trillion market requires climbing the adoption ladder methodically. Start where adoption is ready. Build proof points. Expand as the market matures. Don’t try to sell to everyone simultaneously—sequence deliberately based on which segments are ready to buy today versus which need more time for external factors to align.

For founders building in emerging technology categories, Patrick’s segmentation offers a framework: identify who’s ready to buy now, who will be ready next, and who needs the market to mature further. Then sequence your go-to-market to match that reality rather than trying to force adoption before the market is ready.