Everyone in payments seems to be talking about orchestration these days. But as the word gets printed on more conference stands and speaker slides, it also risks becoming more misunderstood; used as a catch-all for any payment feature, rather than the specific kind of infrastructure it actually is.
That may be because the market behind it is growing fast. The global payment orchestration market is forecast to hit $6billion by 2030, with annual growth of over 23 per cent, driven by digital payment adoption, rising merchant expectations, and the push to unify fragmented systems. Forecasts also suggest transaction values processed via orchestration will surpass $10billion by 2028.
In short, orchestration has gone from niche to a key part of many payment strategies. But what it means in practice, and who it’s really for, is still up for debate.
According to Tom Voaden, VP commercial at BR-DGE, orchestration is more than just another feature bolted onto a payments stack. It’s an agnostic software layer that sits between merchants and providers, and done properly, it’s infrastructure that works for everyone: merchants, acquirers, platforms and consumers.
Voaden explained to The Fintech Times: “Solving connectivity challenges is one thing, but actually being able to truly optimise is another. Orchestration, when it’s done well, combines advanced transaction routing on pay-in and pay-out flows, network and PSP tokenisation, and checkout customisation.”
Not just for merchants anymore
Founded in 2018, Edinburgh-based BR-DGE works directly with enterprise merchants, but it’s increasingly also being adopted by acquirers and platforms through white-label partnerships. That side of the business has grown quickly.
“What initially started as feeling of threat among acquirers, especially the legacy ones, has now turned to a recognition of opportunity” Voaden says. ” Merchants now have access to better tech via orchestrators, but in many case they justwant to implement solutions like Apple or Google Pay, tokenisation, and to have greater resilience if their PSP goes down. Acquirers can actually deliver this through white-labelled orchestration technology – allowing them to address their own technology gaps while meeting the evolving needs of their merchants.”
That realisation has led to more collaboration. Voaden describes cases where acquirers partner with BR-DGE to deliver modern tech without needing to rebuild everything. One example: creating a single front end that brings together multiple legacy gateways.
Platforms and e-commerce providers are also engaging with orchestration earlier. Rather than building payment infrastructure in-house, many opt for orchestration tools from day one.
Solving the right problems
What stands out in the BR-DGE model is modularity. While some clients use the full orchestration stack, others come in with a single problem to solve.
“We went in early doors with this full 360 platform,” said Voaden. “But we’ve had some gateways who just want to use us for routing, but not actually use us to send the transaction on. We’ll just do a routing call and response.”
That includes supporting network tokenisation, often a starting point for merchant conversations. “A lot of PSPs can’t do it,” he says. “and most can’t intelligently operate network and PSP tokens together in the right way. An orchestrator with their own tokenisation solutio can resolve this and and tie that tokenisation logic into the routing.”
Industry verticals with traction
BR-DGE has gained traction in several verticals, and not always the ones you might expect.
“Travel is a big one, and it’s what a lot of orchestrators are doing. It tends to be simpler, often it’s just bringing legacy systems up to consumer expectations,” Voaden says. “Gambling is the other end. The stuff those operators are doing is incredibly advanced: tokens used cleverly across pay-in and payout, pulling in fraud tools, authentication, verification.”
He also points to fragmented global businesses with legacy systems as strong candidates for orchestration. “We work with a global brand selling internet domains, and they’ve acquired 12 different brands, all with fragmented connectivity.”
Misconceptions and mindset shifts
When it comes to common misconceptions about orchestration, Voaden is clear.
“The classic concern is that orchestration becomes a single point of failure.” he says. “But we go modular. Lots of customers don’t use us for everything. We make sure the tech is interoperable. They can take our tokens and process them elsewhere if they want. We also arm them with tokens from their PSPs so they truly own their customers ”
Another is the idea that orchestration triggers a race to the bottom on price. “Some orchestrators do help their merchants with that. We are not doing that because we think that the acquirers have to be on board for it to really work.”
And finally: orchestration is not the same as a gateway. “There are a lot of gateways doing acquirer-level routing and calling it orchestration. But it’s not truly independent. . We say: keep your existing providers. We’ll just relieve you of the technology burden and give you the ability to keep moving your business forward. .”
Not one-size-fits-all
Ultimately, orchestration only works when it meets the business where it is. “For some merchants, going with a full stack provider is the right call. If that’s what works, that’s fine,” Voaden adds.
But for those with a clear strategy, orchestration offers something different. “The best relationships are three-way partnerships between us, the acquirer, and the merchant. You prove it out over time. Look at the data. Launch new markets. Add PSPs.”
And for financial institutions, the question is no longer if orchestration matters, but how to approach it. “Some are doubling down and investing heavily in their tech. Others are spinning it out. Either way, we can support them. But the mindset shift is happening.”
As the technology evolves, so does the conversation. The focus now, Voaden suggests, isn’t just scale or speed: it’s about giving every part of the ecosystem the tools to build what they need, on their terms.
