Ivy, an API for instant banking payments, raised €7 million ($7,7 million) in a seed investment round led by a European venture capital fund creandum.
Payment and transaction fees may increase due to the card networks and schemes, gateways and wallets that are involved in online transactions today. Ivy's solution is to allow merchants to accept instant bank payments literally at the checkout. That means 'middlemen' transaction fees can be substantially reduced and transaction speed increased, the startup claims.
In a statement, Ferdinand Dabitz, co-founder of Ivy, said: “In ten years, trillions of dollars in payments will be paid by bank, not with a card, an important change that Ivy will promote. Currently, more than 60 countries around the world are implementing instant payment systems that allow this.”
Ivy's global API is currently available in the Europe, US, MENA, and SEA regions.
Simon Schmincke, General Partner at Creandum, said: “The payments from account to account they are just beginning. What started with Open Banking in Europe has now become a global movement, with connections around the world becoming more mature. Having looked at several legacy players as well as startups in this space, Ivy's product was significantly outperforming its peers in all relevant metrics: conversion, adoption, and success rates. “We believe the team has found a winning proposal.”
Ivy's main competitors are card schemes such as Visa and Mastercard. However, Dabitz said: "We think of A2A (Account-to-Account) companies as peers in this shared mission to shift volumes away from card schemes." Ivy also competes with startups like Volt or A2A solutions like Trustly.
Other investors in this round include 10xFounders, Jens Lapinski from Angel Invest, angels such as Jeppe Rindom (Founder/CEO Pleo), Daniel Krauss, Jochen Engert and André Schwämmlein (Founders of FlixBus), Oliver Merkel (Founder of Flink), Christian Grobe and Matthias Knecht (founders Billie), Martin Blessing (ex-CEO Commerzbank) and Nico Rosberg (F1 world champion).
