Fintech startup Aeropay has secured $20 million in Series B financing that will be used to expand into new verticals and grow its team in Chicago.
Founded in 2017 by Daniel Muller, Aeropay aims to make payments more affordable, faster and more secure. The company has said its revenue has grown tenfold over the past year and that it's processing more than $1 billion in volume annually.
Los Angeles-based fintech venture capital firm Group 11 led the startup's Series B round, which was announced on Thursday, with participation from Chicago Ventures and Continental Investments Partners.
"When we see a good opportunity to raise capital to grow the business, we do it," Muller told Chicago Inno. "We have great participation from our existing investors like Continental Investment Partners and Chicago Ventures, so there's continued faith in what we are building."
The company reached cash-flow profitability in the fourth quarter of last year, which Muller said created a favorable fundraising environment because it allowed his team to tell a healthy financial story to investors and "de-risk" Aeropay.
The account-to-account payment provider has become a platform of choice for many cannabis firms and will be expanding to new industry segments following the raise.
"We realized the bank-based payments-to-payments method was sorely needed in other verticals. Online gaming was a natural segue for us last year, and we're growing quickly in that industry," Muller said.
He added that Aeropay continues to see cannabis as a key vertical moving forward.
Muller plans to add 10 to 20 employees in the near future, many of whom he expects to be located in Chicago. The company currently has 70 workers, including contractors, with most of those individuals working out of Chicago.
Aeropay operates out of office space in the Loop District on Wacker Drive.
