How to Build the In-House Team for an Acquiring Startup in 2025

Table of contents:

1. Key in-house roles and functions for an acquiring startup
2. Where to hire your in-house team: best resources
3. Best practices for hiring professionals
4. How Boxopay helps startups work efficiently

If you plan to grow into something bigger than a temporary startup, you’ll need a reliable in-house team that covers all your product’s processes. This process is much more complex than working with a small team. You’ll have to hire, manage, and direct all experts across your product’s department.

Read on to learn everything about building an in-house team for acquiring startups – the next step in starting an acquirer business.

Key in-house roles and functions for an acquiring startup

The first thing to do is understand the key roles in an acquiring startup. We’ll cover all responsibilities, key hiring considerations, salary insights, and how Boxopay’s solutions can support your processes.

1. Risk management & AML team

Acquiring startups must create a risk management and AML department to avoid expensive fines and maintain industry credibility. As you work with merchants, you inherit their client base and transaction records. That’s why diligent risk assessment is a non-negotiable step.

This department is responsible for:

• Monitoring transactions for suspicious activity;
• Conducting due diligence like KYC procedures;
• Filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs);
• Ensuring compliance with regional and international regulations.

Consider the following aspects when hiring your risk management team:

• AML certifications: ideal candidates need certifications from ACAMS or similar bodies;
• Previous experience in compliance: candidates should have a proven track record in fintech compliance and risk management roles;
• Analytical and investigative skills: a must-have for detecting and interpreting suspicious patterns;
• Familiarity with local and international standards: AML and KYC regulations can vary by region, so global awareness is necessary to keep your operations running smoothly.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all number of people for this department, your team size will range from 2 to 5 people during the early growth stages. This can grow up to 15+ people during the pre-IPO stage or when you already work with multiple clients.

Roles of your risk management & AML team
Role	Description
Head of Risk Management	Oversees the entire risk framework, sets policies, and collaborates with other department heads to ensure a balanced approach to risk-taking and compliance.
AML Compliance Officer	Dedicated to anti-money laundering policies, implementing procedures to detect and prevent money laundering activities.
Risk Analysts	Investigate daily alerts, analyze transaction patterns, and identify potential fraud and compliance breaches.
Fraud Prevention Specialists	Focus on fraud detection and prevention strategies, using data analytics and behavior monitoring to minimize losses.
KYC Specialists	Perform initial and ongoing customer due diligence, verifying identities and assessing risk levels.
SAR Specialists	Prepare and file Suspicious Activity Reports, maintaining up-to-date documentation for regulators.

According to Glassdoor, the average yearly salary of an AML specialist is $92K per year. The pay range varies from $70K to $122K depending on the industry, country, and years of experience.

Boxopay’s solutions for risk management & AML

Boxopay provides powerful anti-fraud solutions for risk management and AML policies. Our white-label acquirer solution allows you to cover all essential elements:

• Flexible configuration of limits, restrictions, and other settings;
• Individual rules for different merchants;
• Intelligent 3-D Secure instead of the typical fraud-based rejection;
• Detailed dashboards with all the info you need, and many other features.

This will help you save on assembling an acquiring startup team for risk management, as you’ll get most features already waiting for you in our software. You won’t have to hire a full-scale department.

Additionally, Boxopay provides you with a full-scale KYC/AML client management system that helps by:

• Automating AML scoring and due diligence;
• Creating client profiles in all subsystems;
• Speeding up the acquiring launch process.

The solution allows your clients to start working within 24 hours and save time to increase profits.

2. Sales team

Your sales team is the driving force behind onboarding new merchants and expanding into new markets. When acquiring startups, a unified sales structure ensures your newly merged customer bases are addressed efficiently.

The sales team is responsible for:

• Creating and closing B2B deals;
• Communicating the value proposition of your acquirer solutions;
• Negotiating contracts and managing CRM pipelines;
• Onboarding new clients in coordination with the merchant support and risk management teams.

Generally, there aren’t that many requirements for sales experts:

• B2B sales experience, especially with fintech and payment sales;
• Ability to communicate complex products easily;
• Experience working with CRMs;
• Negotiation skills.

In startups, the “Sales Team” usually consists of 1 person who is either a marketer or the product’s founder who knows it inside-out. This can work well while you’re still launching your product, but you’ll have to scale at least up to 5+ experts as only you start getting more clients. Below is a typical sales team for an acquiring startup that is already functional.

Roles of your sales team
Role	Description
Head of Sales	Sets sales strategy, defines quotas, and manages the overall sales operations. Marketing experience is a great add-on because this position requires creating call scripts.
Sales Managers	Oversee teams of sales reps or account executives, monitor performance, and execute day-to-day strategies. They are needed when your team grows to 10+ people.
Account Executives	Frontline sellers who reach out to potential clients, build relationships, and close deals. They must follow your team’s scripts and adapt when necessary.
Onboarding Specialists	Guide new merchants through the technical setup, documentation, and training needed to start using your acquirer solutions.
Customer Success Managers	Maintain ongoing relationships with existing merchants, ensuring they use the platform and remain satisfied.

Sales managers are typically paid a fixed rate and a percentage from each successful deal. This leads to them having an average of $170K per year, ranging from $128K to $238K depending on experience and industry specifics.

Boxopay’s solutions for sales teams

Boxopay’s all-in-one platform provides fast merchant onboarding and management. You’ll be able to set individual contracts with merchants and providers, fully digitize contracts, set minimum and maximum limits on applied rates, and many other useful accounting features. This also includes one-click merchant onboarding and easy management with all data provided in a single user-friendly dashboard.

3. Merchant support

Once you’ve sold the product and completed onboarding, merchant support becomes a must-have for retention and overall satisfaction. A responsive and well-equipped support team is necessary for quick issue resolution and maintaining strong client relationships.

Your merchant support team is responsible for:

• Addressing merchant queries via phone, email, or chat;
• Troubleshooting technical payment and platform issues;
• Coordinating with risk, sales, and IT teams for escalations;
• Educating merchants on updates, new features, and compliance needs.

Experts in this field will need the following:

• Support experience in fintech products;
• Communication and problem-solving skills;
• Cross-channel proficiency to work through phone, email, and chat.

In most cases, a single person can handle all the workloads of the merchant support team during the early stages of your product. But you’ll need 5+ experts on board when your client base expands. It’s necessary to distribute the workload evenly to prevent delayed responses.

Roles of your merchant support team
Role	Description
Merchant Support Manager (Team Lead)	Manages the support team, sets service-level targets, and coordinates with other departments. This expert is responsible for consistent support quality.
Merchant Support Specialist	Handles day-to-day inquiries, guiding merchants through platform features and troubleshooting basic issues. The first point of contact for most merchant concerns, heavily influencing customer satisfaction.
Technical Support Specialist	Resolves more complex issues requiring an understanding of APIs, integrations, and coding. Can be part of the IT department when you have a limited budget.
Onboarding Specialist	Assists new clients in the initial setup phase (sometimes overlapping with sales onboarding). Focuses on the technical part instead of the sales element.

Glassdoor indicates that customer support specialists in the United States make $55K per year on average. The rates vary from $43K to $71K depending on seniority and company.

4. Accounting department

Acquiring startups needs transparent and efficient financial governance. An experienced accounting team ensures smooth transactions, proper financial reporting, and timely settlements. This is especially critical when managing multiple entities and working in the fintech industry.

Your accounting department should be responsible for:

• Managing accounts payable and receivable;
• Reconciliation of daily, weekly, or monthly transactions;
• Preparing financial statements and tax filings;
• Monitoring cash flow and budgets;
• Ensuring compliance with local financial laws and regulations.

The most important things to look for in your accounting department are:

• Knowledge of laws and settlement practices;
• Attention to detail, as even small errors can have big consequences.

When hiring for acquiring startups, you can start with a single accountant to manage your initial documentation and set the foundation. But this is a very complex position with an intense load, so even a single new client may drastically increase the workload. You’ll have to scale quickly.

Roles of your accounting team
Role	Description
CFO or Finance Director	A strategic financial architect who manages budgeting, regulatory compliance, risk assessment, and all other operations to ensure everything works smoothly.
Head of Accounting	Oversees day-to-day accounting operations, ensures compliance, and manages the accounting team. Guarantees stability and accuracy in financial records.
Reconciliation Specialist	Focuses on matching and verifying transactions across multiple payment channels and bank statements. This expertise is needed to prevent discrepancies and find potential errors & fraud quickly.
Accounts Payable/Receivable Specialist	Manages invoices, payments, and collections from clients and partners. Maintains healthy cash flow and ensures timely settlements.
Financial Analyst (Optional)	Creates forecasts, budget analyses, and financial models to support strategic decisions. Often provides data-driven insights that help you understand growth areas.

Accountants are paid $87K yearly on average, with salaries ranging from $68K to $111K. You’ll have to prepare a larger budget for your Head of Accounting and Finance Director, although these positions will only be needed when your product grows big.

Boxopay’s solutions for accounting teams

Boxopay provides both manual and automated reconciliation solutions that support multiple projects, payment methods, and currencies. This includes detailed reports and a dedicated API for merchants. Also, you get a monitoring system to quickly detect low payment acceptance rates.

Some other key features for financial accounting at Boxopay’s solution include:

• Double-entry accounting;
• Customizable account chart;
• Complete accounting of receivables and payables;
• Real-time profit accounting per each transaction;
• Files upload for automatic processing of payment orders;
• A large set of accounting reports.

You won’t have to hire a full-scale accounting department, as Boxopay’s features will make everything more manageable and easy for your startup.

5. IT department

A reliable IT team forms the technological foundation of your payment infrastructure. Software engineers ensure your product is secure and works as intended, preventing downtime and improving performance. You’ll need them to create all new features and fix bugs.

IT departments are typically responsible for:

• Developing and maintaining secure fintech solutions;
• Integrating APIs for third-party services;
• Ensuring uptime, scalability, and performance;
• Implementing the best security practices (PCI DSS, GDPR, etc.);
• Coordinating with compliance and business teams.

As there are various technologies used in fintech development, you’ll have to focus on engineers with experience in your product’s tech stack. They must also be able to work together in a team and clearly communicate their workflows.

If your startup is working on its product, the IT team will consist of several engineers to fully develop and maintain the solution. They will be the leading force in your acquiring startup team structure. However, integrating Boxopay’s solutions into your workflow will help you minimize expenses on IT.

Roles of your IT team
Role	Description
CTO	Sets the overall technical vision, evaluates new technologies, and leads product development. Also assesses technology compatibility and integration strategies.
Head of Back-end, Head of Front-end	Oversee the architecture, code quality, and development processes for backend and frontend teams.
System Administrators / DevOps	Manage cloud infrastructure, automate deployments (CI/CD), and monitor system performance.
Software Engineers	Build and maintain applications, APIs, and user interfaces. They are responsible for all new features for your merchants.
Quality Assurance	Test and verify new features to ensure they meet reliability and security standards. They help you prevent costly errors, especially in payment processing modules.
UI/UX Designers	Create user-friendly interfaces and ensure a seamless user experience. It’s a must-have to increase merchant satisfaction.
Cybersecurity Specialists	Protect systems from external threats, implement security policies, and handle incident response. You’ll work with sensitive data, so high-quality security is a must.
Technical Support (Internal)	Assists other departments with platform, software, and hardware issues.

Focusing on acquiring startup talent acquisition for your IT department will be the most costly approach when compared to all other teams. This is what you should expect based on Glassdoor:

• CTO: $325K/year;
• Head of Back-End: $182K/year;
• Head of Front-End: $178K/year;
• Software Engineer: $163K/year;
• Quality Assurance Engineer: $114K/year;
• UI/UX Designer: $122K/year;
• Cybersecurity: $151K/year;
• Technical Support: $54K/year.

Note that all these positions may vary depending on your project’s scale. For example, the CTO may cover the responsibilities of a software engineer. Most roles are interoperable.

Boxopay’s solutions for IT teams

As Boxopay provides a full-scale platform for acquirers, you won’t have to worry about developing extra features for your payment software. Our team provides multiple out-of-the-box features and even provides custom development based on your request. This removes your expenses on maintaining a large IT team.

If you already have an IT department, Boxopay can help with its management solutions. You can control users, roles, and API access. Additionally, you get a detailed monitoring system to quickly detect issues and errors across the solution.

6. Business analytics

Your business analytics team can spot trends, optimize pricing, and find new ways to attract merchants to your acquirer startup. Their task is to provide you with data-based insights that show the most profitable opportunities for your solution.

Business analysts are responsible for:

• Gathering and interpreting transaction data;
• Tracking KPIs (conversion rates, transaction volumes, fraud metrics);
• Creating dashboards and reports for decision-makers;
• Providing practical insights to improve product and sales strategies.

The basic expectations for a business analytics team include:

• Experience with BI tools like Tableau, Power BI, Looker, and others;
• Ability to turn raw data into understandable information;
• Familiarity with payment and fintech KPIs.

Most teams start with a single business analyst on board just to keep the data going. This is also often the case for mid-size companies. However, when you decide to expand globally, you’ll have to set an acquiring startup hiring strategy to gather a whole team.

Roles of your BA team
Role	Description
Head of BI	Oversees data strategy, sets analytics methodologies, and manages the BI team.
BI Analyst	Builds dashboards, reports, and visualizations to help teams understand performance.
Data Engineer	Designs, builds, and manages data pipelines and warehousing solutions.
Data Scientist	Develops machine learning models and advanced analytics to predict outcomes like fraud risk, churn, and others.

Business analytics experts have an average salary of $144K per year. This sum is approximately the same for all other positions in your BA team.

Boxopay’s solutions for business analytics

Boxopay’s white-label payment gateway provides live monitoring of your merchants’ performance with intuitive dashboards. You’ll get visualized reports on the progress of payments, common issues, demographics, and other important data.

7. Other roles

While the above teams form the foundation, additional in-house functions often include extra roles:

• Legal Counsel: oversees legal matters, contract reviews, and conducts due diligence;
• Marketing & PR: handles branding, lead generation, and public relations to promote your product;
• Project management & product ownership: coordinates cross-functional tasks, manages timelines, and sets product roadmaps.

These roles will help you get everything covered when your startup reaches an increase in its budget.

Where to hire your in-house team: best resources

Most startups don’t have the budgets for HR services and recruiting companies, so they have to find experts on their own. You can start your acquiring startup recruitment by using the most popular platforms with professionals of all kinds:

• LinkedIn – the largest professional network where you can list your positions, set up a company profile, and connect directly with people;
• Indeed – a well-known job posting website where you can share an open position and review pre-uploaded resumes of people who are open to work;
• Wellfound – formerly known as AngelList Talent, specifically created as a job posting board for startups and experts looking to join new projects.

These are the best hiring resources for your startup to use. You’ll be able to find any role with minimum expenses on recruiting. However, buckle up: it might take a while. The global average hiring time is around 44 days, so you won’t get hundreds of applications in a single day.

Best practices for hiring professionals

We recommend the following recruiting best practices to get the most for your startup:

• Start with hiring essential roles first: if you already have engineers, then focus on sales, support, and risk management. Add specialized roles as you grow.
• Use Boxopay’s automation to minimize expense: you can automate compliance, onboarding, and analytics, and get pre-built features for acquirers to save costs on hiring extra roles;
• Cross-functional communication among teams: you must ensure all departments share data in real-time to prevent bottlenecks and maintain a smooth workflow;
• Unified data through Boxopay’s tools: you can use Boxopay’s back-office to keep all teams on the same page and deliver instant insights;
• Invest in training and constant development: FinTech products expand quickly, so you’ll need your teams to stay up-to-date with all new trends.

These practices will help you save time, budget, and other resources to focus on promoting and growing your product. Boxopay’s solutions are a real game-changer for small teams, as you won’t have to worry about most technical challenges.

How Boxopay helps startups work efficiently

Building your in-house team is easier and cheaper when you already have most features provided by an all-in-one payment software provider. Boxopay’s solutions consolidate all payment, risk, and analytics solutions into a single ecosystem. You get everything needed, built by professionals.