When things are going well, they really go well: Just five weeks after its seed funding, another €18.5 million ($20 million) flows into Ivy’s coffers. The company has developed an API aimed at enabling open banking payments worldwide. Through direct account-to-account payments, the services of intermediaries like Visa are eliminated, along with their transaction fees. So far, open banking technology providers have largely limited themselves to domestic transactions in a single currency – Ivy aims to change that. In an interview with TechCrunch, Ferdinand Dabitz, CEO of Ivy, explains:
“The most important insight we gained was that while open banking is becoming global, the technology is very national.”
And further:
“Interoperability is key from a consumer perspective. We believe that in 10 years there will be a single point of contact for open banking, just as Visa created one for card payments. Even if it doesn’t work globally right now, a global network needs to be built.”
Ivy consequently plans to use the fresh capital from the Series A funding round to expand its banking services to other regions and acquire merchant customers in these markets. The platform currently offers its services to the EMEA region, Southeast Asia, and the USA, with Latin America set to follow soon.
Fintech investor Valar Ventures led the round. Andrew McCormack from Valar Ventures comments on the funding as follows:
“Ivy is building for account-to-account payments what Visa and Mastercard built for cards: a single, global point of access for merchants and consumers. A powerful payment platform combined with intelligent routing that increases conversion and success rates for businesses – market demand for Ivy’s solution is extremely impressive.”
