Iowa-based modern payments platform provider Dwolla raised $21m in funding.
The round was led by Foundry Group with participation from Park West Asset Management LLC, Union Square Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Firebrand Ventures and Next Level Ventures, and CEO of Traeger Jeremy Andrus. Other investors in the company include Andreessen Horowitz, High Alpha, Thrive Capital and Ludlow Ventures.
Since 2009 it had only raised just over $50m before this round, and this $21m is its biggest-single round to date.
The company intends to use the funds to conduct growth initiatives with international payments, expansive partner relationships through a partner API and further accelerate its product roadmap focused on a real-time payments experience. Over the last 12 months, Dwolla has pushed out several new product expansions including Real-Time Payments, Push-to-Debit and low-code Drop-in Components.
Led by Brady Harris, Dwolla provides organisations with a platform and low-code API that simplifies the process of integrating with the various payment networks. The funding follows most recent product expansions, offering innovative solutions such as Real-Time Payments, Push-to-Debit and low-code Drop-in Components.
Since 2016, businesses have white-labeled the company’s technology to program payments in real time, the same day or to a debit card. While there are a lot of options out there in the market today for companies that want to incorporate payments, and specifically bank transfer-based payments into their stack, Dwolla’s unique approach is that it’s made this particular service more efficient, and easily customizable for those that want to add more features into the process.
It has been quietly seeing a lot of growth after the pandemic. Dwolla has seen an 80% increase in transaction volume since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, Dwolla processed $11bn in gross payment volume. In 2020, that number grew to $20bn. This year, the company is expecting to exceed $35bn in 2021. In total, the company has some 3 million end users on its platform, which are channelled through some 500 customers using its services. Those customers include real estate companies, educational institutions and retailers and brands like GOAT, Ibotta, and Rally among others.
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