MIAMI (September 15, 2022) – Payall, the first-ever bank processor for cross-border payments and international money transfers, today announced it has closed a $10 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Payall’s global single shared platform is a technology breakthrough that fuels compliance automation, risk mitigation, first-ever payer detail transparency and specialized, inclusive payment orchestration for cross-border payments offered through banks and other regulated financial entities.
Additional participants in the round are lead seed round investor Motivate VC along with PS27 Ventures and Bridgeport Partners, with SAFE conversions from RRE Ventures and Transcard. In addition, payment, security and technology entrepreneurs, innovators and investors, including Chuck Bernicker, Nish Bhalla, Matt Gillin, Stefan Happ, Kabir Syed and Chris Winship, also participated in the funding round.
“a16z is rightly famous for the landmark assertion that ‘every company will be a fintech company,’” says Gary Palmer, Payall founder and CEO. “We agree 100% with this thesis and believe regulated financial services businesses worldwide should be enabled with fintech capabilities to participate fully in cross-border payments and international money transfers—safely, securely and compliantly.”
“We're committed to supporting the next generation of default global companies and see a massive opportunity for Payall to become the compliance backbone for all cross-border payments," says Anish Acharya, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. "Until now, international banking transactions have been disjointed, cumbersome and largely perceived as high-risk. We are excited about Payall's vision to restore trust and transparency to foreign banking processes and strongly believe in Gary's ability to execute."
Payall’s proprietary software and business processes collect new, data-rich artifacts that overcome the high risk of cross-border payments—with a solution that’s 100% turnkey, 100% compliant and 100% user friendly. Funds processed through the Payall platform move globally at the speed of data. Recipients, including unbanked persons, receive their money in minutes—most frequently in seconds—via the payment channel of their choice, such as mobile money, prepaid card or bank account.
“We automate the error-prone manual tasks associated with cross-border payments and international money transfers,” Palmer continues. “Our approach eliminates the extensive costs and time financial institutions previously incurred and mitigates substantial risk in one of the most challenging areas of global banking.”
With its global correspondent banking-as-as-service approach, Payall enables regulated financial services entities worldwide to participate in the massive global money movement opportunity—regardless of their size or location—even if they've been shut out of traditional correspondent banking networks. The solution eliminates nostro vostro accounts and dependency on foreign institutions for KYC and AML. It also automates compliance and processes to protect financial institutions and their customers and enables first-ever transparency to foreign payer KYC, sanctions checks, commercial activity documentation and novel artifacts to prevent illicit activity.
“Payall’s approach is thoughtful, innovative, tech-forward and could only be brought to market by a team that fully understands the challenges of this complex undertaking and has the deep domain knowledge and technical skill to address those challenges,” comments Frank R. Martire, Jr., who leads private investment firm Bridgeport Partners.
Adds PS27 Ventures’ CEO Jim Stallings, “Payall is a unique and disruptive solution at a time when the market needs it. And Gary Palmer is an innovative, multi-exit founder with a great track record. We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with him."
Payall was represented in the deal by Joe Berklund and John Taylor of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. “I’m extremely appreciative of MMM’s exceptional work on our behalf,” comments Palmer. “The team’s venture capital expertise combined with lightning responsiveness helped us complete the funding round swiftly and efficiently, and we thank them for their unwavering support.”
Payall
Founded in 2018 and based in Miami Beach, Florida, Payall is the world’s first bank processor for cross-border payments. Combining the disciplines of payment processing, banktech and regtech, Payall’s unique technology powers a new paradigm for global correspondent banking-as-a-service and de-risks this massive, growing category. By partnering with Payall, regulated financial institutions around the world can quickly, securely and seamlessly implement and execute cross-border payments—enabling market-specific opportunities for financial institutions to compete with or drive fintech solutions. www.Payall.com
a16z
Founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (known as "a16z") is a venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic: We invest in seed to venture to late-stage technology companies, across bio + healthcare, consumer, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games and companies building toward American dynamism. a16z has $33.3B in assets under management across multiple funds. www.a16z.com