Texas-based paytech Forward has secured $16 million through a seed funding round co-led by Elefund, Commerce Ventures and Fiserv.
Founded in 2022 by former Fiserv partner solutions head Brandon Lloyd, the company aims to collaborate with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firms to increase their revenue by “two to three times” through the integration of payments as a product.
“We believe many software companies who have ‘integrated payments’ should be generating greater revenue from these products, and Forward is here to help them do that,” states Lloyd.
Forward co-founder and CTO, Derek Victory, shares this perspective, asserting that for SaaS firms “payments should feel like an extension of their brand, not a disjointed hand-off”.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the newly acquired funding will be used to expand the paytech’s customer base and advance its technology development. The enterprise plans to integrate machine learning and AI into its solutions.
“The capital will enable Forward to meet accelerating demand from software partners while applying artificial intelligence to the risk functions of payments,” according to a company statement.
Commenting on their investment, Dan Rosen, Commerce’s founder and managing partner, says that Forward has “built a product that will re-define the category, and have empathy and passion for helping SaaS companies succeed in their payments journey”.
