Open banking infrastructure provider Yapily raises $51 million

In a market that’s seemingly hotter than pan-fried catfish, London-based open banking infrastructure startup Yapily, has reeled in $51 million in a first close of a Series B funding round. The funding is slated to be put towards further development of the company’s open banking infrastructure technologies and expand across Europe with the aim of 95% of the continent covered by year’s end.

Currently active in the UK, Italy, and Germany, to meet this ambitious goal of (almost) complete continental coverage by the end of the year, Yapily is targeting France and Spain next, with global aspirations set for 2022.

According to Worldpay’s 2021 Global Payments Report, in 2020, it’s estimated that bank transfers account for 8% of all global e-commerce payments. With account-to-account payments entering their own, as one of the underlying infrastructure providers of this form of payment, Yapily stands to make a killing. That is, if they can come out on top. There’s some stiff competition from the likes of Railsbank, who just raised $70 million, and TrueLayer also bagging $70 million back in April, to name a few.

Having said that, the firm does count Intuit QuickBooks, GoCardless, American Express, BUX, Volt, Moneyfarm and Vivid Money amongst its client base, so clearly, Yapily is running neck and neck in the race.

“Europe is leading the world in open finance, and consumers and businesses will start to see more innovation from industries such as mortgages, pensions and insurance, with easier access to financial data and payments infrastructure,” commented CEO and founder Stefano Vaccino. “With more frameworks coming into effect around the globe, the time is right to double down on our growth plans by entering regulatory-led markets and enabling companies to build better and fairer financial products and services.”

Sapphire Ventures led the Series B round, and existing investors Lakestar, HV Capital, and Latitude all participated.