DoorDash Taps Astra to Fast-Track Instant Deposits for Drivers

DoorDash’s banking product for delivery drivers, DoorDash Crimson, now includes instant deposits powered by Astra’s Payment Cloud.

With this capability, DoorDash delivery drivers can use Visa Direct and Mastercard Send to add funds from external accounts in real time, Astra said in a Wednesday (July 22) press release.

Astra’s Payment Cloud is a vertically integrated platform that powers real-time money movement for businesses through a single application programming interface (API), according to the release.

The integration of this payments infrastructure into DoorDash Crimson includes payment execution, workflow automation, optimized card authorization, embedded risk controls and automated treasury functionality, per the release.

“We chose Astra because their platform architecture combines instant payments with automated treasury capabilities in a single system,” Nancy Yang, director, strategy and operations at DoorDash, said in the release. “The ease of integration and consistent performance gave us confidence we could support DoorDash Crimson at scale.”

Astra CEO Gil Akos said in the release that Astra’s payments infrastructure delivers the reliability and speed required by companies like DoorDash that process millions of transfers.

“We built the Payments Cloud to provide infrastructure that makes real-time money movement dependable and straightforward for teams building modern financial products,” Akos said.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Banking Both Sides: Instant Payouts Turn Receivers Into Customers” found that instant deposit has become something workers actively shop for when they are picking gig platforms and employers.

Thirty-one percent of gig workers said it is urgent that they receive disbursements instantly, according to the report.

Gig, creator and marketplace platforms are the most aggressive adopters of instant payouts in absolute terms, with nearly one-third of senders offering instant payouts always or most of the time, per the report.

“The disbursement market is moving to instant with or without any individual bank’s participation,” the report said. “Recipient demand is real, sender response is accelerating and the rails are in place.”

Astra announced in a February blog post that it secured a $10 million strategic investment from Nyca Partners to scale the Payments Cloud.

“Instant capabilities are no longer nice-to-have,” Akos said in the post. “Velocity creates value and enabling real-time payments is the difference between winning and losing customers.”