Sila, an API platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service while ensuring regulatory compliance, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Revolution Venture.
Madrona Venture Group, Oregon Venture Fund, Mucker Capital, and angels including Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus joined the round, which brings Sila's total funding to over $20 million.
Set up by Simple co-founder Shamir Karkal in 2018, Sila helps software developers incorporate regulatory compliant payment capabilities into their products.
The firm's banking APIs replace the need for integrating with legacy financial institutions, which it says saves customers months of development time and thousands in legal and regulatory expenses. The APIs provide a layer on top of the existing ACH network, with applications for identity/KYC verification, bank account linking, and digital wallet deposits baked in.
With hundreds of clients - ranging from startups to middle-market Nyse listed companies - signing up, Sila says it closed Q1 2021 by quadrupling transaction volume and doubling headcount.
The new money will be used to continue hiring and to bring in more partners and expand product features.
Says Karkal: "Sila’s mission has always been to make money programmable. Access to the US banking system, especially for innovators and entrepreneurs, is extremely complex and prohibitive. The Sila Money API platform provides easy, scalable, and compliant money storage and money transfer."