Modulr: Providing a different type of payment account

On a mission to move money efficiently to power business productivity, we take a look at Modulr and its latest funding round Founded in 2015, Modulr is the payments as a service API platform for digital businesses, which has grown to become a leading provider of embedded payments across the UK and Europe. Modulr has over 200 clients which it helps to automate, control and embed payments and is now processing an annualised transaction value of more than £100bn. The company is backed by industry leaders like PayPal Ventures and FIS Ventures, as well as leading venture and growth equity investors General Atlantic, Blenheim Chalcot, Frog Capital, and Highland Europe. With more than 300 colleagues and offices in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Amsterdam, Modulr is authorised by the UK’s FCA, the Central Bank of Ireland and the Dutch Central Bank as an Electronic Money Institution. Modulr enables businesses such as Revolut, Sage, Wagestream, and BrightPay to build payments directly into their own platforms without needing to build complicated payment systems, become regulated themselves or manage the complexities of payment network membership.

Growing the business to meet rising digital payments

Modulr recently announced that it has raised US$108mn (£83m) in series C funding. The company intends to use the funding to accelerate its global footprint, extending its client and partner coverage in existing and new market verticals in the UK and Europe. The funding is also anticipated to help Modulr further expand the use of Account-to-Account payments and Open Banking payments as well as providing actionable data insights and seeking to broaden its suite of services for current and future customers. Myles Stephenson, Founder & CEO of Modulr, explained: “Our ambition is to cement Modulr’s position as a leader in embedding financial technology into businesses across the UK and Europe. Our modern FinOps hub enables large enterprises, FinTechs and digital businesses to build, scale, and control money flows. We believe the opportunity is vast and continues to grow with the rise of digital payments. This latest funding round will help support Modulr to become a pan-European payments champion. Our regulatory and licensing permissions, tech stack, and modern and dynamic service offering make it possible for our customers to automate and monetise payments.”

Building payments platform

Modulr’s technology enables businesses to build payments directly into their own platforms without needing to build complicated payment systems, become regulated themselves or manage the complexities of payment network membership. Aaron Goldman, Managing Director and Co-Head of Financial Services at General Atlantic, commented: “Modulr has built a bridge between payments infrastructure and businesses who want to embed fintech into their products. Modulr enables clients to move money more efficiently, create accounts quicker, simplify processes and integrate what were historically thought of as ‘traditional financial’ services into their own product offerings. The company’s scalable, enterprise-grade architecture and seamless API have helped to establish its reputation and driven client wins spanning travel, accounting, payroll, challenger banking and vertical software across the UK and Europe.”