Seattle startup, Upward, raised $8 million and announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard to accelerate and simplify how businesses deploy financial products.
Founded in 2021 by early Remitly executives, Upward provides infrastructure enabling businesses to embed payments, cards, and banking products without managing separate integrations for banks, processors, or compliance systems.
The 20-person startup focuses on customers serving independent workers, creators, and small businesses, segments often underserved by other fintech competitors, according to Aaron Gregory, co-founder and CEO.
Gregory served as general counsel at Remitly, where he helped the Seattle-based digital remittance company go public in 2021. He co-founded Upward with Danielle Hill, former head of global operations at Remitly.
Upward reported it processes more than $10 million in monthly payment volume.
Companies such as TipHaus and Solo, both based in Seattle, use Upward to embed instant pay and money-management features for independent workers. Scout, a name-image-likeness platform for college athletes, uses Upward to manage payouts to athletes at schools including Alabama, SMU, Louisville, and Clemson.
Unlike traditional “banking-as-a-service” providers that rely on multiple vendors, Upward stated it rebuilt its infrastructure from scratch, combining cards, payments, banking, and compliance into a single, developer-friendly system.
The partnership with Mastercard enables Upward’s customers to quickly launch Mastercard-branded card programmes, including access to Mastercard’s Easy Savings and Business Builder programmes.
“For too long, businesses that wanted to offer a financial product have had to choose between innovation, flexibility, and speed,” Gregory stated. “This investment and our Mastercard partnership will help to tear down those barriers, empowering our customers to launch and operate smarter, customer-centric financial products faster than ever.”
Upward is part of a growing “embedded finance market” with an estimated total addressable market of approximately $185 billion, according to BCG.
The funding round was co-led by Dundee Venture Capital and Seattle-based Breakwater Ventures Fund, with participation from Techstars, Altari Ventures, Cascade Seed Fund, Milwaukee Venture Partners, and Outside Ventures. Total funding to date reaches $12 million.
The $8 million raise positions Upward to capitalize on the embedded finance trend that has transformed how non-financial companies offer payment and banking services. Rather than referring customers to separate financial institutions, businesses increasingly integrate financial products directly into their platforms, creating seamless experiences that generate additional revenue streams whilst improving customer retention.
The Remitly pedigree of Upward’s founders provides credibility and valuable experience navigating complex regulatory and operational challenges in financial services technology. Remitly’s successful public offering in 2021 demonstrated the founders’ ability to scale a fintech company through regulatory compliance, international expansion, and eventual public market scrutiny.
Gregory’s background as general counsel proves particularly relevant given the regulatory complexity of financial services. Banking regulations, payment processing rules, anti-money laundering requirements, and consumer protection laws create substantial compliance burdens that often deter companies from offering financial products. His experience navigating these challenges at Remitly likely influenced Upward’s design philosophy of building compliance into the platform rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Hill’s operational expertise from leading global operations at Remitly complements Gregory’s legal and strategic background. Operational excellence proves crucial for financial services platforms where transaction reliability, settlement accuracy, and customer service responsiveness directly affect client trust and regulatory standing.
The focus on independent workers, creators, and small businesses reflects strategic targeting of underserved segments experiencing rapid growth. The gig economy has expanded dramatically, with millions of workers operating as independent contractors rather than traditional employees. These workers face unique financial needs including irregular income, lack of employer-sponsored benefits, and difficulty accessing traditional banking products designed for salaried employees.
Creators, including content producers on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Patreon, similarly operate as independent businesses requiring financial tools supporting multiple revenue streams, international payments, and business expense management. Traditional banking products often fail to accommodate these workflows.
Small businesses, whilst served by established financial institutions, frequently encounter complexity and expense when attempting to offer their own financial products to customers or employees. Upward’s infrastructure aims to make sophisticated financial features accessible to smaller companies without requiring massive technology investments.
The $10 million monthly payment volume metric demonstrates traction whilst remaining modest relative to established payment processors handling billions monthly. For a young company with 20 employees, this volume suggests promising growth trajectory whilst acknowledging the company remains in early scaling stages.
The customer examples, TipHaus and Solo serving independent workers and Scout managing college athlete payments, illustrate diverse applications for Upward’s infrastructure. The college athlete NIL market has exploded following rule changes allowing athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness. Managing payments to hundreds or thousands of athletes across multiple schools creates exactly the kind of complex payment challenges Upward’s infrastructure addresses.
The decision to rebuild infrastructure from scratch rather than aggregating existing services represents a significant technical and strategic commitment. Building proprietary infrastructure requires substantial engineering resources and time but potentially creates competitive advantages through tighter integration, better performance, and reduced dependency on third-party providers whose service disruptions or business changes could affect Upward’s operations.
