Business

Empowering Small Producers: How Delivered Cold Promotes Direct-to-Consumer Sales

Published

2 years ago

December 22, 2023

Over the years, but especially since working from home has become more of the norm, home delivery of food products has experienced a rapid rise in popularity. The frozen food market has seen considerable growth and is set to reach $432.55 billion by 2030 — a significant portion of which is the home delivery market.

Busy lifestyles and a desire for a wider variety of food have led people to seek the services of several home-delivery options that can deliver everything from meat to vegetables right to their door. However, the traditional direct-to-consumer frozen food market has one major downside: most are limited to one supplier per box.

Ruben Cortez, the entrepreneur behind Frozen Logistics, saw an opportunity to expand the frozen food delivery business and solve a number of pain points in the direct-to-consumer space. Cortez brings his years of experience in the entrepreneurial, technology, investment, and real estate spaces to change the traditional direct-to-consumer frozen food delivery space.

Cortez has recently unveiled Delivered Cold, a revolutionary new direct-to-consumer option that allows shoppers to add products from multiple different sellers in the same box, solving what he sees as an obvious issue with the traditional market. “We’re giving customers more options to fill their box with a variety of items they may not find elsewhere with this option,” he says, “making it easier to check out new products without a large cost commitment.”

Different from the competition

Many competing home delivery food companies often only cater to one type of consumer, whether by offering vegan options, ready-to-serve meals, or specialty products. On the other hand, Delivered Cold’s approach to home delivery, is far more streamlined.

“We are setting out to shake up an industry in need of disruption,” says Cortez. The way Delivered Cold operates is simply not possible in other marketplaces because, more often than not, sellers are left to fulfill their own product orders directly. “If a consumer buys three different items from three different sellers, the consumer will get three different boxes,” Cortez explains.

Delivered Cold focuses on empowering the small producer by eliminating the complex self-fulfillment requirement. Because Frozen Logistics operates its own cold storage facility where various products are stored, consumers can order directly from the Delivered Cold freezer, freeing up the producers to do what they do best: produce food products.

“Consumers can shop our freezers directly and access products from all of the incredible farmers, ranchers, and other producers we work with,” says Cortez.

Since the Delivered Cold approach cuts out the middleman, costly and complicated food distribution networks are simplified. By reducing touchpoints in the supply chain, consumers can count on less spoiled food and sellers have another avenue to get their products to consumers.

The sustainability factor

According to recent studies, sustainability is one of the most important factors when consumers choose a company, whether buying food or other products. In recent years, the focus on climate change has influenced every market globally, and it behooves a company to make sustainable practices a cornerstone of their service platforms.

Delivered Cold is built around a sustainability model that compresses the cold delivery supply chain required to get products from the freezer to the consumer. Their approach leads to reduced transportation costs, reduced facility requirements, and reduced material waste.

According to Cortez, Delivered Cold is dedicated to using recyclable and recycled materials throughout the shipping process. It remains cognizant of the impact of its less-than-recyclable materials that are required to get frozen products to the customer. “We plant a tree for every box we ship,” he says. “This helps offset the negative impact of materials that are not entirely sustainable but are necessary for the process.”

Additionally, the company has approached the issue of excess space in packaging that can lead to product thawing, which can cause products to arrive to the consumer in less-than-pristine condition. Traditionally, companies would fill these empty spaces with plastic or paper. Delivered Cold’s approach is decidedly technology-informed.

“Our sophisticated algorithm tracks the available space in each box as consumers shop,” Cortez explains. “We then offer appropriate products to the consumer at competitive and affordable prices, letting us fill each box with as much product as possible.” By maximizing the product-to-packaging ratio, overall waste is reduced.

Moreover, Cortez and his team also produce their own dry ice, further separating the company apart from the competition. The dry ice production process is very energy-intensive, but producing dry ice in the same facility where boxes are packaged with products means they reduce wasted dry ice which, in turn, means less energy goes into each box. By producing dry ice in-house, Delivered Cold is furthering its pledge to sustainable practices.

Growing in 2024

Delivered Cold has soft-launched as of November and will be beginning the next year with over 30 sellers. The company also hopes to host over 100 sellers by the end of 2024 — shipping over 10,000 boxes of a variety of products to consumers by December.

By merging technology, innovations, and a dedicated focus on sustainability, Delivered Cold gives customers what they want and makes shopping for a variety of products easy and accessible.

Business

Inside the $4.3B Quarter: What’s Fueling Black Banx’s Record Revenues

Published

1 week ago

January 16, 2026

Matthew Wiles

Every quarter brings fresh headlines in fintech, but few make the kind of impact achieved by Black Banx in Q2 2025. The Toronto-based global digital banking group, founded by Michael Gastauer, reported an extraordinary USD 4.3 billion in revenue and a record USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, while improving its cost-to-income ratio to 63%.

These results not only highlight the company’s operational efficiency but also mark a pivotal moment in its journey from challenger to global leader. The big question is: what’s fueling such impressive financial performance?

Customer Growth as the Core Driver

One of the clearest engines of revenue growth is Black Banx’s expanding customer base. By Q2 2025, the platform had reached 84 million clients worldwide, up from 69 million at the end of 2024. This 15 million net gain in six months demonstrates both the attractiveness of its services and the scalability of its model.

Unlike traditional banks, which rely heavily on branch expansion, Black Banx leverages digital-first onboarding that allows customers to open accounts within minutes using just a smartphone. This approach is especially effective in regions underserved by legacy institutions, where access to affordable financial tools is in high demand.

More customers don’t just mean higher transaction volumes—they generate a compounding effect where network size, brand trust, and service adoption reinforce one another.

Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Solutions

A major contributor to Q2 revenues is the platform’s real-time payments infrastructure. Black Banx enables instant cross-border transfers across its 28 supported fiat currencies and multiple cryptocurrencies, helping both individuals and businesses bypass the traditional bottlenecks of international banking.

For freelancers, SMEs, and multinational clients, this means faster liquidity, reduced foreign exchange costs, and simplified global operations. The demand for real-time financial services is growing rapidly—Juniper Research projects global real-time payments turnover to hit USD 58 trillion by 2028—and Black Banx is strategically positioned to capture a significant share of this market.

Crypto Integration as a Revenue Stream

Another key revenue driver is crypto integration. While many traditional institutions remain hesitant, Black Banx embraced digital assets early and has built infrastructure to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Lightning Network. In Q2 2025, 20% of all transactions on the platform were crypto-based, reflecting strong customer appetite for hybrid banking services that bridge fiat and digital assets.

Revenue comes not only from transaction fees but also from value-added services like crypto-to-fiat conversion, staking yields (4–12% APY), and blockchain-enabled payments. For customers in markets with unstable currencies, these services act as a financial lifeline, further expanding the platform’s relevance.

AI-Powered Efficiency and Risk Management

Record revenues would be less impressive if costs ballooned at the same rate. But Black Banx has proven adept at balancing growth with efficiency. Its cost-to-income ratio improved to 63% in Q2, down from 69% a year earlier, thanks to heavy reliance on AI-powered automation.

AI now drives fraud detection, compliance, and customer onboarding—areas where traditional banks often struggle with cost inefficiencies. By automating these processes, Black Banx can process millions of transactions securely while maintaining profitability at scale. This level of efficiency is rare in fintech, where high growth often comes at the expense of margins.

Regional Expansion and Untapped Markets

Geography also plays a role in fueling revenues. Much of the Q2 growth came from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—regions where demand for mobile-first banking continues to soar. In 2024 alone, Black Banx reported a 32% increase in SME clients from the Middle East and Africa, signaling the strength of its positioning in underserved markets.

By extending services to populations previously excluded from formal banking—migrant workers, rural communities, and small businesses—Black Banx taps into vast pools of latent demand. The strategy proves that financial inclusion and profitability are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.

Diversified Revenue Streams

Another factor behind Q2’s record revenues is Black Banx’s diversified business model. Income is not tied to a single service but spread across multiple streams, including:

Transaction fees from cross-border transfers and payments.
Crypto trading and exchange services.
Premium account features for high-net-worth clients.
Corporate services for SMEs and international businesses.

This diversification insulates the company against volatility in any single segment, creating stable revenue growth even in shifting market conditions.

Michael Gastauer’s Strategic Blueprint

Behind these results is Michael Gastauer’s long-term strategy: scale aggressively but with efficiency, innovation, and inclusion at the core. His vision has always been to create a borderless financial ecosystem, and Q2 2025’s performance is evidence that this vision is not only achievable but sustainable.

By balancing mass-market accessibility with premium features, and by blending fiat with digital assets, Gastauer has positioned Black Banx as a category-defining player in global finance.

The Road Ahead: Toward 100 Million Clients

Looking forward, the company’s goal of reaching 100 million customers by the end of 2025 will likely be the next catalyst for revenue growth. More customers mean more transactions, more data insights, and more opportunities to refine and expand its service offering.

If current momentum holds, the USD 4.3 billion quarterly revenue milestone could be just the beginning of an even larger growth story. The challenge will be ensuring systems scale securely while maintaining trust in an environment where privacy and compliance are paramount.

A Record That Signals More to Come

Black Banx’s Q2 2025 performance—USD 4.3 billion in revenue, USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, 84 million clients worldwide, and a lean 63% cost-to-income ratio—is more than a financial milestone. It is a signal of how the future of banking is being rewritten by platforms that are borderless, crypto-inclusive, and data-driven.

What fueled this record-breaking quarter is not one innovation but a combination of strategies—scalable onboarding, real-time payments, crypto integration, AI efficiency, and expansion into underserved regions. Together, they form a model that doesn’t just challenge traditional banking but actively builds the foundation for global dominance.

For Black Banx, the road ahead is clear: the $4.3 billion quarter is not an endpoint but a launchpad for even greater scale and profitability.