Ivy will use these funds to expand its footprint in different regions and partner with major payment service providers thereby helping them power their own open-banking offerings.
On Thursday, August 31, Berlin-based startup Ivy announced that it secured a staggering $20 million in funding in order to take the open-banking payments international. Ivy recently built an API to create a “network of networks” for open banking payments globally.
Open banking, a concept where traditional banks share their data through APIs to create novel financial services for customers, holds the promise to be a major disruptor in the payments realm. If executed effectively, it could potentially replace prominent networks like Visa, along with their associated fees, for seamless payment processing and transactions across various locations.
Ivy majorly focuses on open-banking payments, which have been in great demand recently. In Europe itself, there are a total of more than 400 open banking tech providers. In an interview with TechCrunch, Ferdinand Dabitz, Ivy’s CEO, said:
“The key insight we had was that open banking is going global, but the technology is very domestic. Interoperability is key from the consumer perspective. We believe that 10 years from now there will be a single point of contact in open banking, just as Visa has created for card payments. So even if it’s not a global now, a global network is what has to be built.”
Ivy Plans for Further Expansion with Its Funding
In a swift move, the company has secured $20 million in a Series A funding round. Ivy will use these funds to expand its banking partnerships across more regions and acquire additional merchant clients in those markets.
This expansion aims to further develop its comprehensive business offerings, which encompass tools enabling merchants to seamlessly integrate open banking payment account options during the checkout process. The company’s suite also includes features like “smart routing” to enhance user experience and transaction speed, risk management solutions, instant payouts, and payment links.
Leading this funding round is Valar Ventures, a prominent investor in the fintech sector. This development comes only five weeks following Ivy’s announcement of a $7.7 million seed round led by Creandum, in which notable individual investors with extensive fintech backgrounds also participated.
Dabitz, one of the co-founders of the company alongside Peter Mosebjane Lieck (CRO), Joshua Becker (CPO), and Simon Wimmer (CTO), mentioned that the Series A funding was raised shortly after the seed round’s closure, highlighting the remarkable speed of this capital-raising endeavor.
Dabitz stated that Ivy is looking to partner with major payment service providers and help them power their own open banking offerings.
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