Upward, a fintech infrastructure platform, has announced an $8 million Series Seed+ funding round and a strategic partnership with Mastercard. This dual announcement marks a significant step in the company's mission to reduce the cost and complexity of launching digital financial products, empowering businesses to bring customer-centric offerings like branded card programs to market in a matter of weeks.
Quick Intel
Upward raised an $8 million Series Seed+ round co-led by Dundee and Breakwater Ventures.
The company announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard.
The platform allows businesses to launch Mastercard-branded card programs in just weeks.
Upward provides turnkey infrastructure for credit, payment, and banking products.
The funding will expand infrastructure and engineering for the gig and creator economies.
The goal is to tear down barriers between innovation, flexibility, and speed in fintech.
Building the Future of Financial Infrastructure
The core of Upward's offering is a unified, developer-friendly platform that combines banking, payments, cards, and compliance capabilities. This integrated approach is designed to allow companies, particularly in the gig economy and creator sectors, to launch branded financial products without navigating complex regulatory and technical integrations with multiple vendors. By consolidating these services, Upward aims to make financial innovation faster and more flexible, enabling businesses to transform their visions into revenue-generating products in record time.
Strategic Partnership with Mastercard
The partnership with Mastercard is a key component of Upward's growth strategy. It will integrate Mastercard's network and program benefits, such as the Easy Savings® and Business Builder programs, directly into Upward's infrastructure. This collaboration is focused on empowering Upward's customers to launch credit card programs efficiently, with a particular emphasis on supporting the small business and creator communities by providing them with enhanced tools and financial access.
Fueling Growth and Execution
The $8 million investment round, which includes new capital and the conversion of convertible equity, will be used to aggressively expand Upward's technological infrastructure and grow its engineering and partnerships teams. The capital injection is squarely focused on execution—bringing the company's turnkey platform to a wider array of companies across the fintech, creator, and gig workforce sectors, thereby accelerating the adoption of embedded financial products.
With this new funding and a powerful partnership in place, Upward is positioned to significantly lower the barriers to entry for financial product innovation. By providing a simplified, all-in-one infrastructure solution, the company is enabling a new wave of businesses to build and scale smarter financial products that are deeply integrated with their core offerings.
Upward is a fintech infrastructure company that makes it turnkey easy for businesses to create, launch, and scale innovative financial products. By combining card issuance, banking, compliance, and payments into a single platform, Upward helps companies unlock new revenue streams with innovative financial products.
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