Embedded finance provider Weavr is shutting down its open banking payments app Comma as a standalone product but is leveraging its underlying open banking technology in Weavr’s embedded finance offering.
London-based Weavr said the B2B open banking payments platform Comma, which it acquired in March this year, would close on November 30 this year.
Weavr said the closure of UK-based Comma, founded in 2019, would not result in any job losses.
In a LinkedIn post, Comma founder and Weavr vice-president of strategic opportunities Tom Beckenham said:
“We’re announcing the shutdown of the Comma app for all customers.
“We always believed that payments should be integrated into software, and we have now moved to become an API-only solution.
“Unfortunately this move is going to leave a lot of customers disappointed particularly in the accounting sector.
“There was a lot of support for the Comma app. It was the first payments app that truly embraced open banking.
“As sad as I am about this announcement, it’s a choice we had to make.”
The closure of Comma as a standalone app was inevitable after Weavr purchased it, given that Weavr is a pureplay embedded finance provider and does not do direct-to-consumer.
Speaking to Tech.eu, Alex Mifsud, co-founder and CEO, Weavr, said:
“There is no point in us offering a fantastic application when we are not equipped to support an end customer directly.
“Customers really liked it. If it had been a crap product then would have been a no-brainer.”
Comma’s customers were a “few hundred SMEs”, who connected the app to their accountancy systems to approve repeat payments.
Mifsud said it was a “hard” decision to close the app, as no CEO likes to “kill off revenues and kill off customers that are happily using the product”.
In total, Weavr has around 110 staff including around 15 people who work on the Comma app.
Mifsud said Weavr contemplated teaming up with a third party that would offer Comma as a standalone product but decided against it owing to time constraints, which were partially dictated by supplier contracts.
“It wasn't going to happen in the time that we had to make a decision about it,” he added.
Weavr added:
“We believe payments should be seamlessly integrated into the software people routinely use every day.
“From accounting to expense management and beyond, many software products can offer enhanced user experiences with the addition of financial services.
“Now, as part of Weavr, Comma is evolving into an embedded finance solution other software companies can embed into their applications to provide the same functionality.”
In 2021, Weavr undertook a $40 million funding round and in total has been backed with $55 million funding, including backing from investing heavyweight Tiger Global.
Mifsud said Weavr was now working with several major multinational firms and said embedded finance is at the “first step of 100 steps”.
Lead image via Weavr: Photo Uncredited.
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