Yaspa Raises $12 Million to Expand Pay-by-Bank Solution in US

Yaspa raised $12 million in a funding round to expand its pay-by-bank solution in the United States.

Founded in 2017, the company already operates across the United Kingdom and Europe and recently incorporated a U.S. entity that is based in Atlanta, Yaspa said in a Wednesday (July 2) press release.

One of the sectors Yaspa serves is regulated gambling operators, for whom the company’s pay-by-bank solution offers lower cost, fewer chargebacks and seamless integration of player protections, according to the release.

Other sectors the company serves include trading, electronic point of sale (ePOS), eCommerce and utilities, per its website.

Yaspa CEO James Neville said in the release that the new investment “enables us to take our proven technology into a new market at pace — hiring a local team, building strategic partnerships and adapting our platform to meet the specific needs of operators.”

“We’re looking forward to supporting businesses that want to lead on compliance, player safety and user experience as the market matures,” Neville said.

Discerning Capital, which led the round, said account-to-account (A2A) payments appeal to regulated gaming operators around the world, and the company plans to help Yaspa expand in that market, according to the release.

“The high-risk nature of gambling payments makes it an area in need of innovation, and we believe Yaspa addresses two of the biggest issues: chargebacks and player protections,” Discerning Capital partner David Williams, who will join the Yaspa board, said in the release. “We believe that any operator who evaluates Yaspa’s A2A product versus their existing payments provider will end up adding Yaspa.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “What Consumers Need for Pay by Bank to Catch On” found that 33% of U.S. consumers are very or extremely interested in using pay by bank as a payment method for placing a bet, gambling at a casino or on an app.

Consumers find pay by bank appealing because of its ease of use, security, lower cost and speed, according to the report.

It was reported in September that Yaspa was one of the FinTechs helping design the framework for Visa’s A2A offering in the U.K.