Relay, a Canada-based digital banking platform for small businesses, announced on Thursday it raised US$19.4 million in funding, which includes US$15 million through its Series A funding round that was led by Bain Capital Ventures and seed round of $4.4 million led by Better Tomorrow Ventures, Garage Capital, Tribe Capital, Panache, and Amaranthine.
Founded in 2018, Relay is looking to fully automate the finance function for small businesses through banking that deeply integrates into the back-office systems business owners rely on. The company’s product increases financial visibility and security while significantly reducing time spent on administration. Relay also noted that it is “building banking that is tailor-made” for employer SMBs, offering more customized functionality and support than a traditional bank. Relay Co-Founder and CEO, Yoseph West, further explained:
“Eighty-two percent of businesses fail due to cash flow issues, and traditional banking doesn’t help — business banking is often confusing, expensive, and siloed from other systems. We’re building a challenger bank that helps businesses succeed by offering powerful tools to increase cash flow visibility and streamline time-consuming financial processes — in addition to being affordable and easy to use.”
Relay is on track to have processed $1 billion worth of transactions by the end of 2021. The company went on to add that the funds will be used to accelerate its mission to increase the success rate of small businesses by automating financial management for business owners.
“Relay will use this funding to increase customer acquisition, grow the engineering and product teams, and further integrate its platform into the small business back office.”
