Forward Announces $16M Seed Round Led by Commerce Ventures, Elefund and Fiserv

Forward, a technology partner empowering SaaS companies to integrate and monetize payments, has announced $16M in seed financing. The round was led by Commerce Ventures, Elefund, and Fiserv. The capital will enable Forward to meet accelerating demand from software partners while applying artificial intelligence to the risk functions of payments to dramatically improve the client and merchant experience.

The company, founded by software industry veterans, partners with SaaS companies to increase their revenue by two to three times by adding payments as a product.

“Most software companies get the technical part right, but fail to achieve their business goals,” said founder and CEO Brandon Lloyd. “We believe many software companies who have ‘integrated payments’ should be generating greater revenue from these products, and Forward is here to help them do that.”

In addition to providing financing and technology, financial technology leader Fiserv (NYSE: FI) is utilizing Forward capabilities to expand and enhance the payment services it provides ISVs, including managed PayFac services.

“With our expansion into the managed PayFac space we are making it even easier for our clients to access payment services and go to market faster,” said Jon Halpern, SVP and Head of ISV at Fiserv. “Fiserv and Forward are moving the industry into the future with a collective commitment to power the ISV experience.”

“The Forward team has an incredible vision for the future of integrated payments, built a product that will re-define the category, and have empathy and passion for helping SaaS companies succeed in their payments journey,” said Commerce founder and managing partner Dan Rosen.

Ten years ago, less than 10% of credit and debit card volume was integrated with software, and analysts at JPMorgan Chase are now forecasting software market share of payments to reach 50% of the U.S. market by 2030.

“We want this seismic shift in the industry to benefit software companies,’ said founder and CTO Derek Victory. “Payments should feel like an extension of their brand, not a disjointed hand-off.”