Wise, a fintech startup that offers banking and payments services to modern businesses, has announced that it has raised $5.7 million in a seed round led by Base10 Partners’ Rexhi Dollaku.
Abstract Ventures, Backend Capital, The Fund, Two Culture Capital, and notable angels such as Michael Vaughan, Jonathan Weiner, Lawrence Chu, Inaki Berenguer and others also participated in the round.
“Modern businesses are increasingly digital, but their banking experience is still frustratingly physical,” said Arjun Thyagarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Wise.
“Businesses that bank with Wise get access to their hard earned cash faster, in a delightful, modern banking experience that’s designed for them – all without ever stepping foot in a bank branch.”
“We are excited to embed our banking functionality directly into digital platforms or ecosystems that create or service businesses, like Shopify. We will be launching more of these platform developer tools so that digital platforms can, for the first time, create a modern, delightful banking experience for their customers too.”
In addition to the funding, Wise is excited to welcome Raghav Lal – former Chief Credit Officer at American Express and General Manager of Small Business at Visa – as President.
Raghav commented, “Over the last two decades, I’ve proudly served small businesses. I look forward to working closely with Arjun, executing on Wise’s vision of embedding banking functionality into digital ecosystems, and ultimately helping small businesses accelerate their cashflow and succeed.”
“Wise is making huge strides in redefining banking for the real economy, and we are excited to be investing and supporting that change,” said Rexhi Dollaku, Principal at Base10 Partners.
“We believe Wise’s banking experience has the potential to create a category-defining company, and we are thrilled to enable our online platform partners to provide a better banking experience and ultimately serve their customers better.”