Abstract is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco with $1.5 billion in assets under management. We are sector-agnostic, focused on seed and early stage founders. Our reputation among founders is built on fierce loyalty, unparalleled connections, and a relentless drive to help them win.

Abstract

Peterson Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on SaaS, digital commerce, and healthcare. They provide seed funding to entrepreneurs looking for a partner to help solve the challenges that accompany rapid growth.

Peterson Ventures

GFC is a venture fund that supports entrepreneurs at various stages of business development. It focuses on global markets and seeks individuals with innovative ideas. The fund evaluates opportunities based on potential impact and feasibility.

Global Founders Capital

Clocktower Technology Ventures invests in the insurance, payments, personal finance, lending, credit, and asset management sectors. The firm’s expertise investing across financial services and its related ecosystem of global institutional allocators, policymakers, and hedge fund managers have created a community that offers a distinct value-add to portfolio companies. Since launching, Clocktower Technology Ventures has invested in 96 fintech companies in North America, Europe, and Latin America. It was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Clocktower Technology Ventures

Hack VC is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the cryptocurrency, fintech, and marketplaces sectors. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.

Hack VC

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

We are enterprise software experts.  We look to co-invest with strong leads, bringing our network of coinvestors and next round investors as well as enterprise software expertise to add value.  We see ourselves as partners who can fill out a round quickly and be a positive influence, and non-competitive as we don't lead or take significant stakes in our portfolio companies.  We generally write a small check into rounds of $750k-$3M that are mostly full, being low pain-in-the-ass to entrepreneurs compared to relatively high value add.  Having been entrepreneurs, we know that's the most important part.  While we'll invest anywhere in the US, we love ''second tier markets'' that can still support major exits but attract relatively less venture funding: Chicago, Toronto, DC, Baltimore, Atlanta, etc etc!

SaaS Ventures

CoFound Partners is an early-stage venture firm that helps founders build a repeatable sales motion. The company was founded in 2019 by Jordan Wan and is headquartered in New York, United States.

CoFound Partners

FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic investment firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer-facing startups. Their investments are seed and series A. The investment range of the company is $50,000 to $5,000,000. It invests in Alibaba Group, Beepi, BrightRoll, Betterment, Adore Me, and Earnest.

FJ Labs

Canvas Ventures is an early-growth fund focusing on AI transforming digital health and fintech. Canvas invests in companies at the inflection point of growth, and partners leverage their go-to-market expertise to help Series A and B companies get to the next stage and beyond. With a background in digital health, fintech, and AI, the team at Canvas focuses on companies that solve core problems in these industries and can become billion-dollar exits. All partners are former operators and entrepreneurs and have track records in venture. Rebecca Lynn has been on the Midas List five times. Canvas was founded in 2013, and the third fund is $350M.

Canvas Ventures

Founded in 2011, G Squared is aligned with a fundamental shift: venture-backed companies stay private longer. As a result, private companies need both primary capital to continue their growth trajectory and transitional capital to provide liquidity to early investors, current and former employees, and other sellers. Positioned at the crux of this liquidity access challenge, G Squared partners with portfolio companies throughout their lifecycle using a fundamentally different approach than traditional VCs. The company invests in companies that challenge the status quo and demonstrate a clear path to superior returns, partnering with world-class entrepreneurs tackling big problems. G Squared funds have invested in household names such as 23andMe, Coursera, Instacart, Lyft, Pinterest, and Spotify, as well as in the next generation of disruptors, including Asana, Blend, Bolt, Brex, Capsule, Flexport, Impossible Foods, Toast, and Turo.

G Squared

Tilled

Tilled is a PayFac-as-a-Service platform that allows B2B ISVs to monetize payments that pass through their platforms.   Through modern APIs and SDKs, Tilled's turnkey system allows software companies to be set up and running in a matter of weeks with no upfront costs or additional headcount required.  Without any of the headaches, regulatory compliance, or liabilities of becoming a fully registered facilitator, Tilled makes it easy for any software company to take full advantage of the benefits of payment facilitation.

Tilled offers a payment facilitator (PayFac)-as-a-service platform providing application programming interfaces (APIs) and system development kits (SDKs) for software vendors, marketplaces, and SaaS companies to onboard customers and monetize payments flowing through the vendors’ platform. Tilled charges software vendors based on the number of merchants, the transaction value, and the number of transactions handled by the vendor platform. The Tilled platform also integrates know-you-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and chargeback protection.

Democratizing financial technology with a suite of API-based solutions

FinTech Infrastructure

Tilled: PayFac-As-A-Service Company Raises $12.5 Million

Tilled offers a payment facilitator (PayFac)-as-a-service platform providing application programming interfaces (APIs) and system development kits (SDKs) for software vendors, marketplaces, and SaaS companies to onboard customers and monetize payments flowing through the vendors’ platform. Tilled charges software vendors based on the number of merchants, the transaction value, and the number of transactions handled by the vendor platform. The Tilled platform also integrates know-you-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and chargeback protection. Tilled primarily caters to software vendors and looks to distinguish itself from managed PayFac providers such as Stripe and Square by offering additional revenue from payment processing, and lower operational costs compared to PayFac-in-a-box solutions (all-inclusive payment gateway integration solutions). The company offers its services in the US and Canada.In February 2022, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8544">Tilled raised a USD 11 million extension </a>to its May 2021 USD 11 million Series A funding round. The funds were earmarked for recruitment to fuel the company’s aggressive growth strategy and product developments. Along with the funding, Tilled has also launched an omnichannel payments functionality, which provided a complete solution for merchants by enabling independent software vendors (ISVs) to process both card-present and card-not-present transactions.

Cross River Bank provides a white-label banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform for enterprises, combining banking services, payments, and marketplace lending infrastructure to build fintechs. Its solutions comprise demand deposits, savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and payment clearing services, including automated clearing house (ACH) and real-time payments. The company also provides banking and payment infrastructure for the crypto industry, including risk management services for its crypto clients.Cross River Bank has expanded its operations by acquiring Betterfin, a platform offering lending-as-a-service (LaaS) solutions, in November 2021. Through the acquisition, Cross River Bank leveraged Betterfin’s software to digitize parts of the small-business lending process (such as origination and underwriting).&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp; As of November 2024, Cross River had over 80 clients, including lenders such as Affirm, Best Egg, and Upstart, neobanks such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/220119">Revolut</a>, and blockchain-based payment processing platform GreenBox. The platform reportedly originated over USD 24 billion in loans per annum, around 10x the value of loans it originated in 2015.As of November 2024, the company had over 500 employees and had entered more than 80 partnerships.&nbsp;In September 2024, Cross River Bank partnered with Forward, an embedded payments company, to offer payouts-as-service solutions featuring same-day automated clearing house (ACH) payouts through Forward's proprietary API technology.&nbsp;Cross River Bank also teamed up with UK-based BaaS provider <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/421515">Railsr</a> in January 2019 to launch a common API for their platforms to be used globally.The company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/1643">American Express</a> (Amex) to enable FinTechs to issue credit cards through Cross River Bank, on the Amex network, while also providing select Amex benefits to the FinTechs.&nbsp;

Cross River Bank

Synctera was co-founded in 2020 by Peter Hazlehurst, the former head of Uber Money, who previously led the development of Google Wallet. The company offers an API-based infrastructure platform for community and regional banks to find and partner with FinTechs. This enables FinTechs to leverage the former’s licenses to embed FDIC-insured mobile checking, debit cards, savings accounts, and payment innovations, among other features. The API platform offered to the banks will then be sold to the FinTechs to code on. Although the end customers interact with the FinTechs, they legally belong to the bank.<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8117">Synctera mainly charges the banks </a>based on the interchange fees they earn (half of the interchange fees, as of January 2022) from the services provided. It does not charge them an initial amount to use the platform. Moreover, the platform also embeds fraud-as-a-service and charges FinTechs on a per transaction basis (4 cents per transaction) should they choose to use it. It subsequently shares that revenue 50/50 with the banks.The company launched the “t-minus10” project in January 2022, which offers a live sandbox for FinTechs to build apps, test, and go to market, enhancing their access to banking partners. It subsequently launched a “Smart Charge Card” (APIs to build, launch, and issue charge cards) and “White-label Banking App” (a codebase for developers to build embedded banking products or neobank apps) infrastructure in October 2022.Key customers and partnershipsIn February 2022, Lineage Bank (a community bank in Tennessee) and GoGetr (FinTech aiming to promote health and wealth management) became the first companies to launch a banking solution using the Synctera platform. As of March 2023, the platform was working with around 50 fintechs, of which 14 were live (including Wayapay and Float). Synctera reportedly had over 20 implementations set for launch in the following two months.Synctera announced a new card issuing and management infrastructure offering (Card-as-a-Service), in July 2021, which it developed in partnership with Mastercard and leading card issuing infrastructure disruptor, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/64287">Marqeta</a>.In August 2024, Synctera partnered with<a href="https://thepaypers.com/payments-general/synctera-partners-marqeta-to-introduce-fleet-cards--1269833"> Marqeta&nbsp;</a>to develop a fleet card solution that helps companies create and manage their own fleet card and banking products.

Synctera

Based in the UK, Weavr, formerly known as Open Payments Cloud, was spun out of payment provider Ixaris in 2019. Weavr offers the infrastructure for enterprises to embed banking services across various industries, including education, fitness, logistics, etc. Weavr’s “Meta” platform combines multiple banking and payments partners in one platform through application programming interfaces (APIs). Using the APIs, enterprises can embed virtual banking services such as card payments, fund transfers, and international banking accounts.Weavr expanded its operations to Singapore in November 2022, as part of its global expansion plans.In March 2023, the company acquired Comma Payments in a primarily equity-based transaction to integrate the latter’s technology. The integration will allow customers to transition from making payments via existing bank accounts to using Weavr-provided accounts with enhanced controls and payment options.Key customers and partnershipsAs of February 2023, Weavr had served over 1,500 enterprises, including Wectory, AllGravy, Corplife, Finway, Thanks Ben, and MySkillCamp.&nbsp;In October 2019, Weavr partnered with payment service providers Global Processing Services (GPS), Paynetics, and iDenfy to enable developers to create and run sophisticated and streamlined payment experiences for their European customers through Weavr.In June 2023, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.weavr.io/blog/weavr-and-visa-to-deliver-embedded-finance-to-the-global-stage/">partnered with Visa</a> to integrate its financial plug-ins with Visa's payment capabilities to create embedded finance solutions that are easy to deploy and cost-effective.

Weavr

MX offers an open finance portal, data connectivity application programming interface (API), and MX platform API for banks, credit unions, and other financial service providers. The company’s solutions allow its clients to utilize financial data to reduce fraud, approve loans faster, and improve their customer experiences. In addition to APIs and connections, MX also offers a range of capabilities, including data aggregation, analytics, financial feed insights, wealth and investment services, and verification services.MX looks to enable banks and financial institutions to launch next-generation services and apps that automate and personalize financial experiences.Key customers and partnershipsAs of January 2021, the company noted that it worked with more than 1800 banks, credit unions, and FinTech companies, and its platform reached over 200 million end-users. Moreover, it also powered 43 of the top 50 digital banks as of the same period.&nbsp;As of November 2024, the company maintained connections with more than 13,000 financial institutions and FinTechs. Moreover, the company had processed transactions worth USD 170 billion, averaging around USD 150 million per day.In November 2024, the company partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2024/american-express-forms-data-sharing-partnership-with-mx/">American Express</a> to enable the latter’s customers to securely connect their accounts with third-party financial institutions and FinTech apps through MX's platform.In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8753?industryIds=53">February 2022, MX partnered</a> with&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/361160">Rize</a>, to enable users to access Rize’s banking infrastructure to build, launch, and scale financial products through a single API, thereby reducing the development time and cost.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bankable is a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure provider allowing financial institutions and corporations to utilize its API to integrate banking services. It provides a platform for its enterprise customers to offer modular banking services, including ledger management (process data from multiple banks to support cash management for global corporate affairs), digital banking, payment cards, and e-wallets. The company expanded its platform by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19662">acquiring Arex Markets </a>in June 2023, to embed working capital solutions (such as flexible invoice financing, corporate credit cards, lodged cars, and revolving credit).The company has a global presence, with operations spanning from the US to the Middle East as of January 2021. Bankable noted that the expansion of its global footprint also helps its European and US FinTech clients expand their operations internationally.Key customers and partnershipsIn January 2020, the company partnered with the diversified FinTech infrastructure provider <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/85350">Plaid </a>, which enabled Bankable’s customers to use Plaid’s tech to connect to more than 15,000 banks in the US and Europe.

Bankable

Platforms that allow FinTechs to integrate banking services such as opening and maintaining accounts, facilitating card payments, etc.


Platforms that enable FinTechs to integrate a range of payment-related services such as one-time payments, subscriptions, and receipt management for domestic and cross-border transactions.


Companies that enable organizations to embed anti-money laundering (AML), identity verification, and know-your-customer (KYC) solutions.


Platforms that allow FinTechs to integrate lending services,  by typically applying AI/ML technology to a spending analysis to analyze creditworthiness.

Companies providing APIs and integrations for FinTechs to access securities markets, facilitate transactions and clearing, and provide insights to help end-users manage their finances.

May specialize in promoting inclusiveness in financial services, primarily in the investment and lending spaces

AI/ML can improve the quality of their offerings, such as using AI/ML to reduce biases

Used for payment completions, accessing banking and transaction data, and providing financial insights, among others

Tilled

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