Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, Doubles Down on Payments Infrastructure Pioneer Finix, Joining the Company's Board of Directors and Investing Additional Capital
Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Founding Partner of Inspired Capital, and Founder and Chairman of PSP Partners, has invested additional capital into fast-growing payments infrastructure provider, Finix, and has joined the company's board of directors.
Finix, the leader in embedded payments infrastructure, announced today that Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, founding partner of Inspired Capital, and founder and chairman of PSP Partners, has joined the company's board of directors. The company also announced today that it has raised an additional $10M, led by Inspired Capital, along with PSP Growth, the venture and growth equity arm of PSP Partners. These announcements come just a month after Finix announced a $35M Series B financing, which included Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Inspired Capital. Alexa von Tobel, Ms. Pritzker's partner at Inspired Capital, will also be joining the board as an observer.
Ms. Pritzker, a serial entrepreneur and respected civic leader, served as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration, and currently serves on the boards of Harvard and Microsoft. Ms. Pritzker's interest in Finix was driven by its position as a pioneer in the $2 trillion global payments market.
"Finix is an innovative, potentially market-changing company, and we are very bullish on its future," said Penny Pritzker. "In addition to the company's cutting-edge technology, Alexa and I believe Finix has a strong leadership team committed to transforming how companies are able to facilitate and process payments. Finix gives companies the flexibility to configure the perfect payments stack for their business and deliver a seamless payment experience, quickly and cost effectively -- and to run the entire experience through a single platform of record."
Finix was founded with the idea that software companies can generate entirely new revenue sources, build better user experiences, and increase merchant retention by bringing payments "in-house" – using managed payments infrastructure. There aren't many tools that let you achieve all three at the same time. In the same way modern companies use web services from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to manage their web sites, innovative software companies can use Finix's infrastructure to own, manage, and monetize their payments. Finix is both a timely and fitting solution, as payments volume by software companies is expected to grow by 30% annually over the next decade.
"Penny and Alexa bring a wealth of experience and direct knowledge of the many industries we serve given their backgrounds as investors and entrepreneurs. We're extremely excited to have them join our board," said Finix CEO and co-founder Richie Serna. "From my early conversations with Penny, it was clear she deeply understands how valuable payments are to the global economy, and was in particular excited by Finix's focus on building tools that allow small business owners and their staff to earn a living in ways they were not able to just a few years ago."
Last summer, Finix announced its first product, a payment facilitation platform, and has quickly become the industry standard for embedded payments infrastructure. Since then, the company has grown to process billions of dollars in annual payments volume for a growing and diverse customer base including mobility management platform Passport Labs, Inc, private club management software platform Clubessential, small businesses cash-flow platform Kabbage, and more. Finix plans to announce new solutions and partnerships in the coming months.
To learn more about this and other changes to Finix's board and Series B financing, visit our blog post.
About Finix
Founded in 2015 by Richie Serna and Sean Donovan, Finix is the smartest way for businesses to own, manage and monetize their payments. Finix is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco, with an additional office in Cincinnati, Ohio, that has received over $65M in funding from Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Inspired Capital, Homebrew, Visa, Activant Capital, and others.
About Inspired Capital
Inspired Capital is a $200M early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City. Inspired backs founders with transformative ideas, brilliant teams, and relentless determination. The firm was founded by Alexa von Tobel, who previously founded LearnVest, and Penny Pritzker, founder and chairman of PSP Partners who served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce. By leveraging deep experience across consumer and enterprise technology, the firm invests in tech-advantaged, capital efficient businesses, striving to help them become category-defining companies. For more information, visit www.inspiredcapital.com.
About PSP Partners and PSP Growth
PSP Partners is a Chicago-based private investment firm founded by its Chairman Penny Pritzker, an entrepreneur, civic leader, and philanthropist, and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The firm is comprised of a highly experienced team of investment professionals and business builders focused on partnering with entrepreneurs, business owners, and management teams to build market-leading businesses and develop valuable assets. With investment strategies focused on established businesses (PSP Capital), emerging/growth companies (PSP Growth) and real assets (Pritzker Realty Group), PSP Partners invests across stages and asset classes with an emphasis on four primary segments of the economy – business & technology services, housing, industrials and food and agriculture – that are well-aligned with its expertise and experience. For more information, visit www.psppartners.com.