Ivy, the company providing a global API for instant bank transfers, has successfully secured $20 million in a Series A investment round led by Valar Ventures. This development follows a $7.7 million seed round led by Creandum just a few months prior.
“The rapid succession of seed and Series A rounds reflects the value we provide to our customers. This capital raise signals strong market conviction in what we are building,” said Ferdinand Dabitz, co-founder of Ivy.
Ivy is focused on building a network of instant bank transfer networks as over 60 countries are currently rolling out instant bank payments infrastructures, such as Pix, UPI, FedNow, and Open Banking. Ivy’s goal is to integrate these diverse regional systems into a unified gateway, providing businesses with access to real-time payments.
Eliminating intermediaries like credit cards or digital wallets, instant bank transfer technology enables direct transfers from one bank to another, structurally reducing transaction costs and fraud risks and increasing settlement speed.
“Through Ivy, we directly save costs on every transaction, which has a positive impact on our balance sheet. The risk management tools, in particular, have proven to be extremely effective,” said Ludwig Krayl, Head of E-Commerce at Mactrade.
Ivy’s comprehensive payment platform includes smart routing, risk management, and value-added services like instant payouts and payment links. Its smart routing engine uses machine learning technology to select, in real-time, the bank details with the highest probability of a successful transfer, improving conversion and success rates while reducing fraud risks.
Currently connected to over 500 million bank accounts in over 50 countries, Ivy serves various industries including e-commerce, travel, marketplaces, and FinTech, and works with payment service providers through their API. This results in benefits such as lower transaction fees, instant settlement, and independence from cards and wallets.
“Ivy is creating for account-to-account what Visa and Mastercard created for cards: a global access point for merchants and consumers. Driven by a powerful payment platform and sophisticated smart routing that increases success rates for businesses,” said Andrew McCormack, General Partner at Valar Ventures.
Prominent angel investors in Ivy include eight unicorn founders and industry leaders like Maximilian Tayenthal (N26 founder), Koen Köppen (Mollie CEO, former Klarna CTO), Jeppe Rindom (Pleo founder/CEO), Martin Blessing (former Commerzbank CEO), and Nico Rosberg (Formula 1 World Champion).
Comprising professionals from Klarna, GoCardless, PPRO, AmazonPay, and Worldpay, Ivy’s team is recruiting in sales, technology, and product development, seeking talented individuals eager to revolutionize global payment processing.
