Railsbank, a global open banking and compliance platform, has closed a $1.2m investment round led by Firestartr.
Railsbank’s vision is to give digitally native companies access to global transaction banking with 5 lines of code and is revolutionising the access to international transaction banking by giving digitally native companies, via a single global API, the ability to instantly create bank accounts (with IBANs) and connect to payment schemes (e.g. SEPA, SWIFT, Visa, Mastercard, Direct Debit, FasterPayments etc.) to receive and send money to/from these accounts; with all transactions in line with compliance policy enforced through Railsbanks’s unique Compliance Firewall. Traditionally companies would need to invest significant capital and 6-12 months of project time to achieve the same for each country and/or payment scheme
The money raised will be used to build out Railsbank’s Partner Network (who deliver the underlying financial products to customers) to initially offer pan-European capabilities to customers and take their Open Banking platform from closed beta to live (although anyone can sign up to the PLAY sandbox and if in Europe can sign-up to the live money sandbox PLAYLIve, which can issue three current accounts with IBANs in real time and send / receive money via SEPA).
The latest investment round, led by Firestartr, included Kima Ventures and industry angels Peter Jackson (CEO WorldPay UK), Tim Levene (Betfair, Augmentum Capital) and Phillip Riese (former Chairman of Zopa, NED Cross River Bank).
Co-founder and CEO Nigel Verdon said: “We are delighted to have closed this latest round and received backing from such leading firms and figures in the investment community. It underlines the confidence we and others have in Railsbank, and our business model, and it will allow the company to continue to develop in the direction and at the pace we have planned.”
Firestartr Chairman and General Partner Richard Muirhead said: "We are very excited to welcome Nigel, Clive and their awesome team to the Firestartr portfolio. Most of the market is focused on PSD2 and not focused where RailsBank are, for example, building a global bank, delivered as a platform. We believe this gives them an advantage and look forward to working with them on their journey as they scale RailsBank from seed stage to Series A and beyond."
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About Railsbank
Founded by serial entrepreneurs and FinTech veterans Nigel Verdon and Clive Mitchell, Railsbank is a global banking and compliance platform that gives companies access to wholesale banking services in 5 lines of code. Railsbank turbo-charges the scaling of businesses by massively reducing the time and complexity of opening bank accounts, streamlining technical integration with banks, enhancing banking functionality with core Railsbank services; and enabling both parties to have a trusted compliance relationship. Awarded the FinTech50 2017, winners of the Simmons & Simmons FinTech Fund in 2016 and Startup Pitch winners at Paris FinTech Forum 2017, Railsbank was also the “Startup-in-Residence” for the 2016 Startupbootcamp FinTech 2016 Cohort.
About Firestartr
Firestartr makes seed stage investments in British and European technology start-ups led by entrepreneurs who are uniquely positioned to transform their industry and create new markets. It takes a disciplined approach to seeking out atypical founding teams and products during the earliest days, backing the most exceptional entrepreneurs and supporting their companies from seed stage to Series A, and beyond. The portfolio currently includes companies such as Transferwise, Adbrain, Big Data for Humans, Urban Massage and YoYoWallet.