Ordo, an open banking and request-to-pay platform, has raised £10 million in equity fundraising from private and institutional investors.
The latest Series A round was led by family investment company Equinox Systems and joined by other high net-worth individuals and angel investors, many of whom are repeat investors.
Equinox Systems has seen past investments in various successful businesses, including Certua, an embedded finance partner of Ordo.
Ordo was co-founded in 2018 by the former management team of Faster Payments. Having successfully opened up the Faster Payments Scheme to more banks and other participants such as Wise, the Ordo team set out to make open banking payments a reality.
Ordo enables businesses to request payments for single and recurring bills, via call centres, email, text or any other messaging platform a business uses, eCommerce and at point of sale, by orchestrating open banking over the Faster Payments rails, in real-time at low cost.
Now live with multiple solutions, the investment is fuelling expansion across a range of sectors including credit & lending, wealth management, finance providers, government, utilities, property, vehicle distribution and FX.
Ordo’s Neighbour2Neighbour campaign in lockdown in 2020 helped volunteers get paid back for shopping for the isolated during the COVID pandemic. Alongside its open banking single payments solutions, Ordo is now launching its comprehensive VRP (Variable Recurring Payments) enabled services for lenders and beyond.
With its Neighbour2Neighbour campaign reaping initial success in the peer-to-peer market, it is now concentrating on the B2B2C market with a third-party integration strategy, as well as B2B.
Having partnered with Pay360 by Capita, distribution channels also include Contis and Certua, meaning Ordo’s white-labelled easy integration solutions are available widely, quickly and at low cost.
Integration with Ordo is via API and can be done in a matter of days, with simple business level APIs utilising OBIE standard.
Craig Tillotson of Ordo said: “The global economy has had to withstand multiple shocks over the past couple of years, from a COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine, and the strain on consumer and business energy and food bills all pushing up inflation.
“It is testament to our robust platform and business approach that we have been able to continually and steadily raise the funds we’ve needed to sustainably grow, and I have a great team to thank for that.
“As I look to the future, both near and medium term, the case for request-to-pay and open banking capability has never been stronger. Ordo allows businesses to boost cash flow with instant receipt of cleared funds, and save direct and indirect costs without detriment to their customer.
“Open banking is an absolute must for businesses wanting to help their cash strapped or simply more cautious customers, and trim the costs needed to match decreased consumer spending.”
Alex Common, chief product officer at Pay360 by Capita, said: “Partnering with Ordo has enabled us to position ourselves at the forefront of the evolving payment landscape for the public sector.
“Since the partnership began, Pay360 has accelerated its service offering through our ‘smart’ digital payment requests services.
“This partnership has not only helped solve core sector challenges but has also supported our clients to offer their citizens frictionless payment experiences through Ordo’s innovative open banking payment solutions.
“As their partner, we’re delighted to see this expansion, and we look forward to seeing the public sector further embrace the benefits that open banking can bring.”