Fifth Third Backs Payload’s Embedded Payments Expansion

Payload has secured a strategic investment led by Fifth Third to expand its embedded payments platform, Payload said in a Wednesday (Aug. 19) press release.

Payload was founded in late 2019, processed its first payment in January 2020 and processed nearly $500 million in May alone, according to the release.

The company has become a leading processor of earnest money deposits for the residential real estate market in the United States and Canada; has been embraced by legal payments, professional services, property management, homebuilding and franchises; and has been selected by a growing number of software companies to be embedded in their products, the release said.

Payload will use the new capital to expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, accelerate the rollout of new payment rail integrations, and deepen the platform’s reach across software ecosystems and industry verticals, per the release.

Payload CEO and Co-Founder Ryan Rybolt said in the release that Payload was launched with the thesis that “the way businesses move money was fundamentally broken and that the best fix was to make payments invisible inside the software they already use.”

Payload Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder Ian Halpern said the company built the platform from the ground up to be both simple and capable and that the result is “a platform where a developer can go from first API call to processing live payments in hours, and get enterprise-ready security, real-time event handling, and the flexibility to create exactly the payment experience their customers expect.”

Fifth Third Head of Commercial Payments and Treasury Management Bridgit Chayt said in the release that Payload’s platform delivers for customers and that Fifth Third sees “enormous opportunity ahead as businesses demand smarter, faster and more seamlessly integrated ways to move money.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Buy, Don’t Build: The Next Wave of Embedded Finance” found that embedded finance allows organizations to maintain full control of the customer journey and unlock new opportunities for loyalty and growth.

Another PYMNTS Intelligence report, “FinTechs Tap Embedded Payments to Deepen Customer Relationships,” found that embedded finance has become a competitive differentiator that enables FinTechs to weave payments and other financial functions directly into their digital ecosystems, creating more complete customer relationships and increasing lifetime value.