Investors back Fintech provider that brings much needed transparency, efficiency and competition to the payments industry

APEXX, the first single marketplace for global payments, today announces it has closed an initial seed funding round and been awarded a grant by Innovate UK, activity totalling $4M (£3.2M).

The round was led by Forward Partners, a top London-based VC which specialises in applied artificial intelligence (AI) and have previously invested in EmpowerRD, Ably and Epic. The round was also supported by MMC Ventures and Alliance Venture, based in Oslo, Norway.

The global APEXX network is made up of payment service providers and banks which helps merchants to reduce the cost of cross border payment acceptance, increase sales with optimised payment transaction routing and manage multiple provider relationships through a single integration point. Using the cloud-based platform, merchants can compare costs and get expert advice on the payment providers that will best suit them. It can save merchants upwards of 15% on the cost of processing credit or debit card payments and alternative payments.

In July, Valerie Soranno Keating, ex- CEO of Barclaycard, joined APEXX’s board as Non-Executive Director. Since forming in April 2017, the Fintech platform has seen exciting growth and also received industry recognition in November, when they won Most Disruptive Payments Technology in the 2017 Payments Awards.

APEXX will use the investment to further extend their global network of acquirers, payment providers and merchants, and fund product development.

Matthew Bradley, investor at Forward Partners comments “APEXX presents a phenomenal opportunity. Its unique acquirer-agnostic platform and algorithmic payment routing rebalances existing payment relationships in favour of the customer. It’s a bold mission and I’ve never seen a company at this stage be so far entrenched in multiple global enterprises. The business fits squarely within Forward Partners’ Applied AI investment thesis and we’re excited to be investing alongside MMC and Alliance Ventures.”

Dan Bailey, investor at MMC Ventures said “Large merchants have for too long been stuck with a choice between convenience at the expense of opaque pricing and hidden fees, or complex networks of different acquirers. APEXX’s platform handles both the complexities of multiple acquirers and routing optimisation through one single integration. Peter, Rodney and Rob impressed us with their deep understanding of the payments stack and their vision to create a step change in both simplicity and efficiency for merchants. We’re excited to be partnering with Forward Partners and Alliance Venture to help APEXX achieve that vision.”

Peter Keenan, Co Founder and CEO at APEXX said “We’re thrilled to see APEXX moving from strength to strength. We’ve already launched the first single marketplace for global payments in the world, we have an experienced leadership team steering the company and a strong vision bringing transparency, efficiency and competition to the payments market. Investment from these leading VC’s will bring the expertise and funding needed to help us accelerate the growth of the business.”

APEXX’s founders have deep expertise in the payments market. Peter Keenan, formerly of ZAPP, HSBC and Currys, Rodney Bain of EVO payments, Bank of Ireland and Deutsche Bank, and Rob Atkin, founder and CEO of at XCORDIS Fintech development agency, as well as Societe General and NatWest.