Weavr brings open banking to embedded finance
Following the announcement of impressive growth in the past year, Weavr has confirmed the acquisition of B2B open banking platform, Comma Payments, in a first-of-its kind deal within the world of embedded finance.
The acquisition, which is largely equity-based, will see Weavr retain most of Comma’s current workforce, including the company’s CEO and founder, Tom Beckenham, and its chief technical officer, Gianluca Pengo. As a result of the acquisition, Comma’s unique technology enhances Weavr’s Plug-and-Play Finance proposition for embedded finance.
With Comma, Weavr has become the first embedded-finance provider to bring together banking as a service (BaaS) and open banking into an optimised embeddable payment solution for B2B applications ranging from payroll, accounts payable, and other forms of mass payments.
Anne Boden famously told MPs that current implementations of open banking are “clunky, and you would not want to use them”. Comma has uniquely addressed this problem, making payments via open banking a smooth and time-saving experience. Together with Weavr’s current BaaS capabilities, the combination will enable customers to progress seamlessly from making payments via their own existing bank accounts to do so through Weavr-provided accounts that offer richer controls and payment options than those given by many banks to small businesses.
Comma has been a pioneer in the open banking sector by providing solutions that eliminate the need for manual payments that plague millions of small businesses. The company’s award-winning technology can be embedded into B2B financial software to enable data driven payments for the first time. Businesses can save time and cost by making bulk payments for processes such as accounts payable and payroll processes, while greatly reducing the risk of manual errors.
Speaking on the acquisition of Comma, Alex Mifsud, co-founder and CEO of Weavr commented: “This is the latest, and perhaps most exciting, step in Weavr’s recent growth journey and puts the company in the best position possible to deliver even more value for our ever-expanding customer base. Comma has created the best B2B open-banking payment solution we’ve ever seen, which is now available to our users.
“Clearly, open banking and BaaS represent the two most innovative trends in finance right now, and it’s exciting to finally bring them together into one powerful solution. As a company committed to breaking new ground in this field, we’re delighted to be the first to offer a solution of this kind and feel confident that our customers will immediately benefit from greater functionality and a more seamless onboarding process.”
Speaking on his decision to join Weavr, Tom Beckenham, Comma’s founder and CEO, commented: “We’ve watched Weavr’s growth closely and saw synergies with their plug-and-play model that could have greatly benefited our customers. We are delighted to be joining forces and to be part of the journey. With Comma teaming up with Weavr, the combined company can begin to offer a first-of-its-kind service that will greatly benefit customers across multiple sectors”.
The announcement of the Comma acquisition further bolsters Weavr’s continued momentum over the past year. The company recently announced that, since receiving a $40m Series A funding round in early 2022, it has more than tripled its user base and experienced a huge surge in transactions through its platform, with growth of over 340% in just 12 months. Now, the company is set to further grow these figures with a unique and enhanced offering.
