Stax to become FinTech’s newest unicorn with latest funding round

By Edlyn Cardoza

An all-in-one payments platform, Stax recently announced its latest funding raise of $245 million. Led by sibling co-founders Suneera Madhani, CEO, and Sal Rehmetullah, president, Stax celebrates this significant milestone at a time when less than 3% of venture capital goes to minorities and less than 1% of venture capital goes to businesses with women of colour CEOs.

“As a minority woman and executive in fintech, I’m no stranger to discrimination and doubt,” said Suneera Madhani, CEO. “My brother and I built this company from our parents’ home back in 2014. Since then, we’ve grown 500% in the past three years and processed more than $23 billion in payments for 22,000 businesses nationwide. We share this milestone not just with our team, but every person of color trying to hustle, build their own business and make history.”

Stax’s latest funding round and unicorn status represents a significant step forward for minority-led companies looking to make their mark. The payments platform will use the new capital to expand product capabilities, enhance its customer offerings, grow its team, and expand internationally.

“At Stax, we help businesses grow and scale, all while having the flexibility to adapt their payment technologies to meet their customer needs,” said Sal Rehmetullah, President. “With our new capital and unicorn status, we can ensure our customers have all the tools they need to process and manage their payments. Businesses are just starting to realize how powerful payments can be in scaling their organization, and we’re here to ensure that process goes as smoothly as possible.”

Investors include Greater Sum Ventures (GSV), HarbourVest Partners and Blue Star Innovation Partners, all of which have long invested in the payments industry and will serve as strategic partners to Stax. Rob Wechsler, founder and CEO of Blue Star, will join Stax’s board of directors. After completing a secondary round, Stax raised an additional primary round of capital to reach the $1 billion valuation.

“Stax is a rapidly-growing company that is changing the way businesses conduct and scale their payments, which is why we chose to invest in them,” said Rob Wechsler, founder and CEO of Blue Star. “The COVID-19 pandemic escalated the need for dynamic, flexible and digital payment options all the way from small businesses to enterprise organizations and the software vendors that serve them. Fintech is rapidly evolving, and Stax is adapting just as quickly, ensuring their customers can do the same.”

Ross Croley, founder and CEO of GSV, added: “We believe that Stax has an incredible opportunity to transform integrated payments for businesses everywhere. With our longstanding focus on the intersection of software and payments, we’re pleased to continue our partnership with the Stax team to create value and lead fintech innovation.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Stax having just acquired automated surcharging platform CardX this past November.