Dwolla has been awarded the 2019 FinTech Breakthrough Award for Best B2B Payments Product.
Over 3,500 nominations were submitted this year from all over the world.
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“The really cool thing about this award is that Dwolla is not only the Best B2B Payments Product, but our payments platform powers the innovations of many other winners like GroundFloor, Kasasa, Laurel Road,” said Dwolla founder and CEO Ben Milne.
You can read more about Dwolla’s award here: https://fintechbreakthrough.com/winners/#
Founded in 2008, Dwolla currently facilitates the movement of millions of dollars every day with over a billion dollars in transactions to date. The company has changed and evolved as it refined its product market fit, found its groove in the startup community, and updated its branding and core values.
Milne and his team pivoted from its transaction fee model after much soul-searching in 2016 and found its fit with its backend transactions platform in the financial industry. SPN caught up with Milne to find out what’s new for the company since its shift from consumer-facing to a B2B SaaS business.
Dwolla’s new revenue model has helped the company earn customers and help them scale. “We’re committed to serving as a reliable partner in this industry and focused on helping our clients scale using our backend payment processing solutions. We took our tech to banks where they need to move a lot of money efficiently and quickly, and we help businesses of all kinds initiate payments through the ACH Network,” said Milne.
(The automated clearing house (ACH) is a network for participating financial institutions to transfer funds electronically. The ACH system is designed to facilitate the transfer of high-volume payments, in large batches).
Milne explained that the Dwolla technology helps customers move money quickly with real-time payments and real-time transfers. Some examples of Dwolla’s applications include payments between tenants and landlords, employee expense reimbursements, and real estate and wealth management investments.
Data protection and security are paramount at Dwolla, and the company uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt data, as well as tokenization to ensure that only those who should have access have it, and those who don’t are not getting in. Dwolla follows NSA best-practice standards to protect its customers’ financial data and also employs independent, third-party assurances that it is taking the appropriate measures to maintain security.
Businesses using Dwolla can choose from three plans – the basic pay-as-you-go API integration, payments integration for businesses ready to scale, or an enterprise custom solution.
Dwolla serves customers all across the U.S. as well as some larger international company subsidiaries.
“We have seen a wide diversity of applications with our product,” said Milne.
Some of the company’s notable customers include Goat, a collectible shoe reseller, Homebase, a smart property management platform, and Rally Rd., an app that allows members to invest in individual blue-chip collector automobiles.
Milne cited Rally Rd. and Masterworks as unique niche applications by Dwolla’s diverse client set. Clients of Rally Rd. can buy fractional ownership in really expensive cars, such as Ferraris. Dwolla facilitates the secure payment transfer from the buyer’s bank account to the receivers. Collectors can invest in different types of assets seamlessly. Masterworks is an investment platform for enthusiasts seeking fractional ownership in high-end art.
Milne shared that Dwolla had a strong 2018, and the team is excited about the horizon. Dwolla has a team of 90 in its downtown Des Moines office, has an office in San Francisco, and employs several remote employees throughout the country.
“We want to be close and connected to the Des Moines community. We built out a new space and will continue to expand where we are,” said Milne.
Milne describes the company’s culture as one of extreme diversity in both its customers and its team.
He said, “We’re as diverse as the internet in terms of who we work with and who we hire. We attract talent from different backgrounds, perspectives, demographics, and regions of the country. In addition to talent right here in the Midwest, we’ve had people come from Denver, Boston, and California.”
Milne added that Dwolla is hiring as it expands its engineering, sales, and marketing teams. The company continues its expansion of product offerings and enhancements to better serve its client base.
“We’re listening to our customer needs, providing them with new features, and helping them expand into new markets. We are innovating from helping move money simply for clients to helping them keep up as they scale simultaneously,” said Milne.
Dwolla is hosting Monetery May 21-22 in Des Moines. Monetery is a tech summit that brings together CEOs, founders, investors, and inventors. Visit https://monetery.com/ to learn more and to register.
Visit https://www.dwolla.com/ to read more about this company.
