Global payments services provider Verrency is stepping up its pitch to Australian and international banks after completing the final tranche of a A$20 million 'Series A' capital raising.
Among the local and offshore investors subscribing to the latest funding round were Sydney-based Alium Capital and Singaporean seed investment specialist, Voveo Capital.
Verrrency is a Melbourne based company, founded almost three years ago by David Link - the former head of Accenture Australia's financial services practice.
Link said the company was planning another round of funding aimed at US institutional investors later this year and had appointed SenaHill Partners of New York to market the issue.
The company is believed to be in separate talks with each of the four major Australian banks to adopt its patented API payments platform.
While Link declined to give details of how advanced the negotiations had progressed, he confirmed the discussions with each of the Big Four.
"We're certainly in discussions in some form or another with all of them," he told Banking Day on Tuesday.
"I can't say anything more than that, right now."
The Verrency business is already making waves in the United States where the company is poised to announce a deal to deliver its API platform to one the country's five largest banks.
Verrency recently opened a service office in San Francisco - a strong indication that the deal might be with Wells Fargo - the fourth largest banking group in North America.
Link yesterday confirmed to Banking Day that a major American institution had entered an agreement to begin using Verrency as a payments services provider, but he said details of the deal would remain confidential until the "top 5 bank" was ready to make an announcement.
Other international banks hooked into the Verrency's API platform include Colombia's Banco Davidienda and the Dubai-based Emirates NDB.
Verrency operates as a pure digital service provider to banks and other card issuers with a focus on connecting their customers' accounts to emerging payments services and products.
These include auto-rounding, real-time budgeting notifications and instant loyalty rewards.
Verrency has also developed a marketplace service that allows banks to connect to more than thirty product and development partners including loyalty and travel consolidator, Aimia and US securities clearance provider, Drive Wealth.
While Link has built the API platform with a global client base in mind, he says it is designed to service the regional needs of banks in specific geographic markets.
"We're plumbing - we basically enable banks to do more with less in a sector where the number of payments methods is expanding rapidly," he said.
"The customers we have signed agreements with see our technology as a long-term infrastructure play.
"We are an industrial-grade layer that sits over their existing technology which can open the floodgate to an array of innovative partners while protecting their legacy investments."
Fintechs and neo-banks are also a target market for Verrency, which recently sealed a deal with Sydney-based digital ADI, Volt Bank.
Volt founder and chief executive Steve Weston said the cost of hiring technology and payments specialists to develop a "best in class" inhouse platform was almost prohibitive.
"We would be kidding ourselves if we believed we could develop best-in-class processes for every banking function," he said.
"Verrency has world class people, so it made strategic sense for us to partner with them."