From two customers to over 1,700: how Merkato grew a payments business with myPOS
Last updated: 21.10.2026
Three people. Two customers. One opportunity worth pursuing.
That was Merkato in 2021. Five years later, the Bulgarian business supports more than 1,700 customers using over 5,500 active devices and processing more than €20 million each month.
The more useful story is how they got there. Merkato combined commercial experience, local relationships and the wider myPOS payments platform to build beyond the next hardware sale.
Meet Merkato: new market, familiar strengths
Valentin Kuntorov already knew how to grow a business before he entered the payments industry.
He brought more than 20 years of experience across telecoms, retail and ecommerce, including leading eMAG Marketplace through three of its most successful years.
Payments was a new market. The commercial fundamentals were not.
Valentin knew how to connect a strong proposition to a real customer need and turn individual sales into a repeatable process. Merkato joined myPOS in April 2021 with a three-person team and two customers.
The team already had sales experience, commercial discipline and knowledge of its local market. Those strengths became the foundations of the business it has today.
Valentin sees Merkato’s starting point as proof that a small team can still think ambitiously.
“We started with three people and two customers. What we already had was commercial experience, local knowledge and the ambition to build something much bigger.”, says Valentin Kuntorov, CEO, Merkato
Why Merkato chose myPOS
Valentin saw that the opportunity was bigger than selling card machines.
Businesses wanted to get paid easily, access their money quickly and choose payment options that fitted how they operated. The wider myPOS platform gave Merkato a proposition it could confidently take to customers across very different sectors.
The team could begin with the business problem instead of pushing the same setup every time. As a customer grew or added a sales channel, Merkato could continue supporting it.
That gave each relationship room to grow.
How two customers became 1,700+
There was no single campaign behind Merkato’s growth. The team built it one relationship at a time.
Valentin turned myPOS into a structured sales proposition. The team developed strong product knowledge and stayed fully involved after the first payment was taken.
Merkato now works across hospitality, retail, ecommerce, market trading, telecoms, medical laboratories and delivery and courier services. Products such as myPOS Sigma, myPOS Glass and myPOS Checkout give the team different routes into the market, depending on what each customer needs.
In its early years, that approach helped Merkato deliver 100 fiscal devices for a telecoms company and 140 POS devices for a medical laboratory chain. These projects showed the team could adapt the proposition to very different operating models before moving on to even larger rollouts.
Merkato helps customers choose their setup, install it and understand how it works. That helps turn sales into relationships that can grow as customer needs change.
Partnership in action: delivering 2,700 devices
Then came an opportunity that tested how far the model could scale.
A courier company needed 2,700 devices: 900 myPOS Sigma devices and 1,800 myPOS Glass installations. The rollout involved more complex negotiations and operational requirements than a standard activation.
Merkato led the local commercial relationship. myPOS joined the negotiations and provided the additional expertise and operational support needed to deliver the project.
Merkato remained close to the customer and owned the relationship, while myPOS provided the platform, product knowledge and wider capacity.
The customer can now track every payment device in real time and generate reports whenever needed, giving it much better visibility into daily operations.
For Valentin, the courier rollout showed how the partnership can work when an opportunity grows beyond a standard activation.
“We owned the customer relationship, while myPOS brought the expertise and operational support needed to deliver 2,700 devices successfully.“, says Valentin Kuntorov, CEO, Merkato.
For a prospective partner, that backing matters. You remain the trusted contact for your customers, with people to involve when a larger deal or technical requirement needs more support.
The results behind the story
Five years after joining the programme, Merkato reports:
- 160% average annual growth
- More than 1,700 business customers
- Over 5,500 active devices
- More than €20 million in monthly transaction volume
- 25% year-on-year growth in new customer onboarding
- A courier rollout covering 2,700 devices
In 2025, Merkato became the first company from the country to receive the myPOS Strategic Partner of 2025 award.
“This award is the result of the hard work and dedication of our entire team, as well as our successful partnership with myPOS.”, says Valentin Kuntorov, CEO, Merkato
Three people and two customers had become one of myPOS’ leading authorised distributors in the European Economic Area.
What drove Merkato’s growth?
Merkato’s results do not guarantee what another partner will achieve. But the decisions behind them offer useful lessons.
Use the strengths you already have
Valentin brought commercial leadership and local market knowledge. Your advantage may be an existing customer base, sector expertise or a team that already sells business technology.
Learn the full proposition
Understanding the wider platform helps you answer questions confidently and support more customer needs over time.
Stay useful after the first sale
Installation, training and responsive support protect relationships and create opportunities as a business grows.
Build for long-term value
A quick sale can produce immediate income. An active customer who stays, grows and recommends you can create much more value.
What comes next for Merkato?
Merkato plans to continue growing its customer portfolio while exploring opportunities in neighbouring markets. Soft POS, mobile payments, integrated solutions and value-added services are among the areas it sees driving the next stage of growth.
For prospective partners, the story offers something more useful than a promise. It provides real evidence of what can happen when commercial experience, strong customer relationships and local knowledge are combined with a payments platform that gives you room to grow.
Build your next revenue stream with myPOS
You may already know the businesses and understand their challenges. The myPOS Partner Programme gives you a wider proposition to take to them and a commercial model that can keep creating value as your customer portfolio grows.
Could you succeed as a myPOS partner? You may already have the customers. The question is: what could you build around them?
