Tilia announces raising $22m, strengthens leadership team

By Leandra Monteiro

Tilia LLC, an all-in-one payments platform for digital economies, announced additional financing as well as the appointments of Brad Oberwager as CEO and Catherine Porter as the company’s first Chief Business Officer.

To support Tilia’s continued expansion, the company has raised a total of $22 million in strategic funding with Seoul-based FinTech Dunamu now joining existing investor J.P. Morgan Payments. The investment will help Tilia to further scale its platform and address the growing market need for trusted, dynamic payments in online games, creator platforms, social commerce and other digital social worlds.

Brad Oberwager is a seasoned entrepreneur with a successful track record founding and leading multiple technology and consumer-focused companies, including More.com, Blue Tiger Network and Bare Snacks. Over the past 2 years, Oberwager has served as Executive Chair at Tilia, and in his expanded role as CEO, he will leverage his deep knowledge of Tilia’s business alongside his decades of company-building experience to guide the company through its next phase of growth. In addition to his role at Tilia, Oberwager will continue to serve as Executive Chairman at Linden Research, Inc. With Oberwager as CEO, Tilia has appointed Aston Waldman as chief financial officer.

“Today’s payments infrastructure was built for traditional commerce – it hasn’t caught up with the new way of living and working in a digital, creator-driven economy,” said Brad Oberwager. “At Tilia, we have a massive opportunity to unlock new revenue streams for both online creators and the platforms they build in, whether they are gaming worlds, social platforms, or next generation marketplaces. As I take the helm at Tilia, my focus will be on providing a payments system that enables these expanding digital economies.”

Joining Oberwager on Tilia’s executive team, Catherine Porter brings more than two decades of experience leading strategy, sales, marketing, and business development for consumer and enterprise technology companies. Before joining Tilia, Porter led global partnerships and FinTech innovation at Meta, including building the Diem ecosystem in partnership with other Diem members. As Chief Business Officer at Tilia, Porter will be responsible for leading business and corporate development, licensing efforts, strategic planning and team growth.

“I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to build payments networks, even at the biggest global tech companies,” said Catherine Porter, Chief Business Officer of Tilia. “I joined Tilia because it has the track record, the technology, and the regulatory expertise necessary to create a trusted and safe financial system for every online economy, and we have only scratched the surface of what’s possible.”