The CEO of payments firm Volt has called time on the industry dominance of Visa and Mastercard as it raised $60 million (£47 million) in a fresh funding round.
Tom Greenwood, who founded Volt in 2019, said: “Visa and Mastercard have historically been the backbone of the economic system.
“Those systems were first implemented in the 1950s and 60s and the tech that underpins it is 70 years old…it’s antiquated.
“With any delay between transactions is a real cost associated with that. They recognise both the opportunity and the threat that real-time payments present.”
The series-B round was led by Silicon Valley stalwart IVP, alongside EQT Ventures, Augmentum Fintech and Fuel Ventures. Volt refused to disclose a valuation for the round.
The company, which was founded in the UK, hopes to establish itself as a leading global real-time payments provider and has already forged partnerships with payments giant WorldPay and e-commerce business Shopify.
Volt said the funding would be used to fuel its expansion to Australia, the US and Asia-Pacific countries. The firm said it had $15 million of annualised revenue.
Tom Mendoza, Partner at EQT Ventures, said: “It’s no secret that fundraising in 2023 has been challenging for many, but Volt demonstrates that emerging category leaders in large and growing markets will thrive irrespective of the macroeconomic environment. The EQT Ventures team are delighted to see another British fintech take on APAC, Australia, and the US, with the backing of a globally renowned cohort of investors.”
