Highnote: The Power of Fintech for All

Building deep insights through lived experiences is something we value here at XYZ. Over the course of the past year, we’ve gotten close to the Highnote team, a group of exceptional and experienced innovators who have these unique insights in spades as long-time thought leaders in the fintech space. Ross has known CEO and Cofounder, John Macillwaine through the years here in SF, where John was previously VP and GM at Braintree (PayPal) and CTO at Lending Club, amongst other noteworthy executive roles in fintech— Ross had backed Lending Club during his time at Canaan Partners. CTO and Cofounder, Kin Kee, had also previously worked with John at Braintree and LendingClub.

This relationship coupled with our unique vantage point into card issuance and democratized banking, from doing the work in past investments, became the perfect opportunity to partner with Highnote as they build the world’s most modern card platform purpose-built for embedded card experiences. We take the perspective that consumer expectations are changing and that COVID-19 has vastly accelerated the demand from emerging fintechs to deliver modern financial products. Frictionless payments are table stakes and the full stack of embedded finance will be a massive market, projected to be $3.6 trillion in the US alone, that’s ripe for innovation.

Crucially, we believe that the power of fintech should be accessible and leveraged by all, not just by the big guys, and that the SMB market is vastly underserved. There is an acute need to provide gateway services and a flexible developer-first experience to small and mid-sized companies who want to better serve their customers — Highnote is the first card issuing platform specifically built for these SMBs. It’s fully integrated tech stack empowers companies to launch virtual card programs in weeks without sacrificing customer loyalty.

Fundamentally, the mission here is to help others go faster, which is what we’re all about here at XYZ.

That’s why we’re proud to announce that Highnote has raised more than $54 million from our good friends at Oak HC/FT and Costanoa Ventures, with our participation. If you’re looking to join a mission-driven team, visit www.highnoteplatform.com.