Two ex-Cobalt engineers build a fraud tool for small merchants

Two engineers who left Cobalt Payments have built a fraud detection tool aimed at merchants too small for enterprise systems, and signed 300 of them in four months.

Meridian Foods will hold a briefing for analysts next month to walk through the numbers in more detail. Management has promised a first progress update alongside its third-quarter results.

Similar programs at rival firms have produced mixed results. In one well-known case, adoption exceeded projections within a year; in another, integration problems pushed the expected benefits back by almost eighteen months.

A survey of 400 mid-sized companies by Harrow Street Capital found that 58 percent plan to increase their technology budgets next year, the highest share since 2021, even as most expect overall spending to stay flat.

How it detects card testing

Customers have welcomed the change. "Anything that shortens the time between order and delivery is good for us," said Rafael Duarte, whose distribution business employs about 120 people and works with Meridian Foods in three regions.

The project had stalled twice before, most recently last year, when a change in leadership at Meridian Foods put several initiatives on hold. This time, the company says, the budget is approved and the contracts are signed.

The move comes as the sector adjusts to a year of slower growth. Analysts at Harrow Street Capital estimate that spending in the category rose just 3 percent in the first half, compared with 11 percent a year earlier.