Rainforest Accelerates Growth With $20M Series A

Rainforest has closed a $20M Series A led by Matrix Partners, with participation from existing investors including Accel, Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, Ardent Venture Partners, and a number of strategic angels.

Explosive growth of AI combined with regulatory scrutiny around fintech creates the impression that fintechs aren’t getting funded. Through discussions with investors, they found the reality is more nuanced. In Rainbow’s case, investors were attracted to their:

• Core technology
• Deep expertise as payments founders, SaaS leaders, and consultants
• Unwavering commitment to quality and customer service
• Growth since their last raise

Matt Brown, Partner at Matrix: “Payments are still surprisingly siloed, inaccessible, and user-unfriendly. However, trillions in payment volume are shifting from old-school solutions to modern software platforms with embedded financial services. Rainforest is a dramatically better experience for buyers, sellers, and the platforms that connect them. I’ve founded and invested in companies with this software plus embedded financial services model over the last decade. I’ve seen dozens of approaches to payments, but none come close to Rainforest. They’ve built their core tech, not just a wrapper around others. They’re experts not just in payments, but in SaaS, platform growth, risk, and the many other areas you need to pull this off. Their impressive traction speaks for itself. I’m thrilled to support them as they continue modernizing embedded payments.”

Growth to date

Rainforest was built from the ground up to be the PayFac-as-a-Service provider that could compete against the giant modern processors and scaled merchant acquirers. And win.

Rainforest are also winning against smaller upstarts because of our responsiveness, transparency, and deep industry expertise.

Since their last round, they have grown in three big ways – all in service of helping software platforms drive revenue and improve retention while seamlessly accepting and sending payments.

Rainforest have continued to invest in our core product to reduce fraud and help platforms increase payments adoption.

• Implemented 3DS to protect merchants and reduce fraud
• Added support for Apple Pay to reduce checkout friction and help platforms grow payment volume
• Launched a suite of enhancements to our merchant onboarding component, including Plaid bank verification and merchant self-service options

The number of SaaS platforms live on Rainforest has grown by 5x and total processing volume by more than 17x.

Rainforest have continued to grow in the healthcare, trucking, and specialty retail industries while adding platforms in professional services, field services, and donation management.

They have signed multiple platforms with billions in annual processing volume and won platforms away from low-cost competitors.

Their growth continues to be driven primarily by word of mouth as SaaS leaders refer their peers. Even founders who chose alternative providers and regret their choice are now referring Rainforest. VC and PE firms – including firms who are not invested in Rainforest

They have also expanded their engineering, payment operations, platform success, and go-to-market teams. This fundraise puts Rainforest in a position to invest in the areas that most materially impact our platform partners’ success: product and support.

Rainforest will accelerate investment in their core product, including features and enhancements requested by our platform partners. Their roadmap includes:

• Additional payment methods
• Programmable funds flows
• Increased self-serve functionality in our embeddable components
• Expanded terminal options
• Automated interchange optimization

Rainforest are also expanding our Platform Success and behind-the-scenes Payment Operations teams to ensure that our signature white-glove support remains a constant amidst growth.