Making a specialist payments platform known to the right analysts.

A different role in a crowded payments market.

Imburse solved a specific enterprise problem: connecting complex and legacy systems to different payment providers, technologies and markets. Its cloud-based middleware gave customers one integration for collecting money and making payouts, with workflows and reporting across those connections.

The technology could serve several industries, but the commercial focus was insurance, alongside banking. In a crowded payments market, Imburse needed analysts to understand how its role differed from payment orchestration platforms, payment service providers and gateways—and recognise the situations in which an insurer or bank would need it.

Three routes to commercial value.

Imburse wanted analysts to recognise the problem it solved, understand its distinctive role and remember the company when advising insurers and banks with a matching need. That understanding could put Imburse into relevant buyer conversations and build towards inclusion in research.

The experienced leadership team also recognised the value of being known to analysts whom potential acquirers consult when assessing markets and capabilities. Buyer recommendations, research coverage and acquisition visibility gave the programme three complementary routes to commercial value.

Repeated engagement was central to that ambition. An introduction establishes awareness; subsequent conversations give analysts opportunities to examine customer evidence, question the roadmap and assess progress against earlier discussions. Over time, that creates a stronger basis for considering a company when the right opportunity arises.

A trusted introduction and an enterprise focus.

Imburse came to Kea through a recommendation from an existing business contact. Its focus on large enterprises made analyst relations relevant: in a crowded payments market, the team needed the specialists advising those buyers to understand where Imburse fitted and why it mattered.

Kea combined senior advice with the work of running the programme. It worked closely with CEO Oliver Werneyer and Michael Sharp, then Chief Commercial Officer, on the briefing narrative, analyst selection, preparation and follow-up.

The advice also extended to conversations Imburse arranged through its own research relationships. Kea helped the team understand individual analysts’ coverage and decide what to emphasise, making each executive’s time more purposeful.

Explain the architecture. Demonstrate the difference.

Kea began with workshops on the business, its ambitions and the analyst landscape. It then worked with Imburse on a briefing deck and tailored outreach that connected the technology to the problems analysts were researching.

1. Clarify the role

   Kea recommended integration diagrams, payment workflows, reporting capabilities and roadmap detail. The deck explained how Imburse connected enterprise systems to providers and made the distinction from a payment service provider explicit.

2. Prepare the team

   Before briefings, Kea shared analyst profiles and the presentation. After calls, it reviewed the questions and agreed next steps with leadership, using the feedback to refine later conversations.

3. Follow through

   Kea coordinated deeper sessions, demonstrations and updates with payments, banking and insurance specialists. Follow-up gave analysts more opportunities to test their understanding of Imburse’s capabilities and examine its progress.

The first Celent briefing showed the approach in practice. The analyst had reviewed the deck beforehand, so the conversation went straight to client cases and questions. Kea arranged a follow-up demonstration, which brought a banking and payments colleague into the discussion.

Preparation that made a difference in the room.

After the first Celent briefing, Imburse’s CEO linked the quality of the deck directly to Kea’s contribution.

Michael Sharp described the relationship as fruitful for Imburse and thanked Kea for its work.