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Image credit: Silverflow

Amsterdam-based fintech startup Silverflow announced that it has raised $17M (approx €15M) in its Series A round of funding led by Coatue Management.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Crane Venture Partners and INKEF Capital, along with Global Paytech Ventures. In addition, angel investors Jason Gardner, founder and CEO of Marqeta, and Gokul Rajaram, a former Square product lead and current Coinbase board member, also invested in this round.

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Michael Gilroy, General Partner at Coatue, says, “The Founder-market fit is the first thing we noted when looking at the Silverflow team. The depth of experience within payments gives this team a unique perspective from which to solve a problem plaguing the industry – outdated infrastructure. The platform is built for the payments industry of today, and has the scalability, flexibility, and usability its partners need.”

Capital utilisation

The proceeds from this round will help the company to grow its team from 24 to 70 people over the next two years, expand its services in the US, and strengthen its balance sheet.

Anne Willem de Vries, CEO and co-founder of Silverflow, says, “The global payments industry is up for renewal, and we’ve built the modern payments processing platform to bring it up to date. We are delighted to be working with Michael and Coatue who are important new partners on our mission to accelerate technological innovation in the global payments industry, and as we continue to expand the team and business into the US.”

How was Silverflow born?

Silverflow started in early 2019 with Robert Kraal and Anne Willem de Vries discussing the company’s core idea. The company’s founding team consists of co-founder and CEO Anne Willem de Vries, co-founder and CTO Paul Buying, and the co-founder and CBDO, Robert Kraal. Kraal previously was at Adyen in 2010 as the COO and has over two decades of experience in the online payment segment. Similarly, De Vries also gained experience in card payments at Adyen, where he joined the cards acquiring team.

According to the company, the global payments landscape is built on legacy platforms despite billions of credit card transactions per year. Existing platforms are outdated, hard to use, and challenging to integrate with fresh innovation in the market. 

This is where Silverflow looks to make a difference. The platform looks to upgrade the current payment systems with the first cloud-native card payments platform.

“After talking to Visa & Mastercard and several PSPs (payment service processors) we were convinced we were on the right track. However, we quickly realised that we needed a technical co-founder for a project like this. We were introduced to Paul Buying by one of my neighbours, with whom I was participating in a machine learning course for professionals,” said De Vries in an interview with Silicon Canals.

The company believes it can immediately provide value, create efficiencies, and opportunities for all payment companies with a modern and “easy-to-use” cloud platform for global card processing.

“Technological innovation in the global payments industry”

Silverflow claims to be the first cloud-based payments platform that provides direct access to the card networks for payment services providers, merchants, and acquirers. Its product and scalable technology provides value, creates efficiencies, and drives new opportunities for all.

The platform’s customers benefit from a range of features and functionality compared to existing card processing solutions, from scalability to security, and including:

• A data-first mindset, with the ability to provide users a reliable data feed. This means that there is extensive data easily available over an API for actionable insights such as optimisation or systems management 
• Simplicity that makes integration straightforward, so users can rapidly process live transactions and benefit from a reduction in operational complexity
• Agility, so innovations in the market are quickly integrated and passed onto users

After launching the product earlier this year, Silverflow has quickly attracted customers including Deutsche Bank, PayU, and IXOPay.

In October 2020, Silverflow raised €2.6M in Seed funding led by UK-based Seed-stage investor Crane Venture Partners, with participation from INKEF Capital and notable angel investors and industry leaders from Pay.On, First Data, Booking.com and Adyen.