- Banking and payments API platform company Sila announced it raised $7.7 million in a seed round of funding co-led by Madrona Venture Group and Oregon Venture Fund
Banking and payments API platform company Sila announced it raised $7.7 million in a seed round of funding co-led by Madrona Venture Group and Oregon Venture Fund with support from Mucker Capital, 99 Tartans, Taavet Kinrikus (CEO and Co-founder of Transferwise) and investor and entrepreneur Jerry Neumann.
This round of funding will be used to accelerate growth and introduce new product features to provide software developers with easier access to the global financial system. And the company plans to catalyze a new era in financial innovation that will benefit consumers and businesses.
Sila had launched its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform in April 2019 to help companies utilize financial networks to build businesses all while abiding by the rules and regulations that have sustained the global banking network. Plus its platform drastically reduces the cost and time of going to market via its simple, secure, and scalable payments platform that lets applications move money in a regulatory compliant manner.
And software teams can add identity/KYC verification, bank account linking, and digital wallet deposits. The API includes a built-in stablecoin for operational purposes (SILA) — which is an ERC-20 token pegged 100:1 to the US Dollar with fully insured funds held by an FDIC member bank.
The combination of easy to use open APIs, SDKs in multiple programming languages, in-built compliance, and a transparent and programmable payment ledger enables the rapid programming of a variety of fintech and crypto use-cases. Plus current Sila customers range from startups to established businesses in industries such as finance, insurance, real estate, and blockchain. Soon Sila will be adding support for card payments, business ID verification, and international payments.
In connection with the funding Madrona Venture Group managing director Hope Cochran and Oregon Venture Fund lead investor Rick Holt are joining the Sila board of directors. And Oregon Venture Fund general partner Matt Compton is also joining as a board observer.
Key Quotes:
“The global financial system is broken – despite the global payments industry being $1.9T in revenue, it doesn’t serve consumers, small businesses, or the innovators trying to reach them. It is too expensive, inefficient, tightly regulated, and difficult to integrate into FinTech applications. This kills fintech innovation at a time when we need it more than ever. Despite money being effectively digital for decades, the world of finance has still not truly been disrupted by the Internet. The global financial system isn’t controlled by PayPal or Stripe, but by 30,000 global banks that still run on outdated payment systems like ACH. Our mission is to unite all the payment systems in one programmable layer to spur the next phase of financial innovation.”
– Sila CEO & co-founder Shamir Karkal
“Shamir and his co-founders bring a strong and diverse background in online commerce, FinTech, investment banking, risk management, legal and even nuclear power to tackle the largest market opportunity in the world – finance. So far we’ve only scratched the surface of the financial ecosystem as a whole, as every company that touches payments or transfers money, in any way, will need fintech integrations. Sila’s mission to provide the infrastructure to break down the regulatory and go-to-market barriers is the right approach to accelerate fintech innovation. Portland has become a hotbed for finance, starting in 2009 with Simple, and we’re excited to continue to develop the ecosystem here alongside Sila.”
-Rick Holt, Lead Investor at Oregon Venture Fund
“As we look around at areas of the economy that are ripe for disruption, enabling the flow of money with technology is at the very top. As a CFO, I have experienced the pain of not being able to move money quickly and efficiently – there are layers of fees, unnecessary time in transit and regulatory barriers to innovation. Shamir and the Sila team have created a software platform that enables founders and innovators to focus on their product – not wading through approvals at the federal and state levels. We are excited to back this team.”
– Hope Cochran, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group
