Amid a tough year for fundraising in the tech and fintech sectors, UK-founded real-time payments network Volt has locked down a US$60mln (£47mln) funding round led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm IVP.
Volt’s chief executive Tom Greenwood called it “a testament to our progress and our vision for real-time payments everywhere” while taking to opportunity to position his company against legacy payment systems.
“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,” he told The Evening Standard.
“With any delay between transactions is a real cost associated with that. (Mastercard and Visa) recognise both the opportunity and the threat that real-time payments present,” he added.
The Series B funding round, which was also joined by CommerzVentures, EQT Ventures, Augmentum Fintech and Fuel Ventures, will fund expansion in APAC and the Americas while supporting existing markets in Europe, the UK and Brazil.
An Australian market entry is scheduled for later in 2023.
“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,” stated Tom Mendoza, partner at EQT.
Volt was founded in 2019 and currently operated in the UK, EU and Brazil.
A Series A funding round in 2021 brought in US$23.5mln.