20 Things You Didn’t Know About Railsbank
Railsbank is a fintech company that provides its clients with fast and easy access to digital banking services, but on a grand scale. The startup provides an open Banking API platform that is becoming one of the more popular trends, for both regulated and unregulated companies, banks, and fintech institutions. The scope and breadth of the customizable API platform offered is immense. If you’re not yet familiar with this up-and-coming fintech startup, here are 20 things you probably didn’t know about Railsbank that you might find beneficial.
1. Railsbank offers a simple to use API for developers
According to FinTechCity, Railbank’s products and services are available for developers in global financial institutions to help them embed global financial services into the apps used by their clients. This enables companies to embed customized financial services that are the most appropriate into their apps to enhance customer satisfaction.
2. Railsbank has a simple pitch and even easier to use products
One of the things about Railsbank that stands out is its simple pitch. They guarantee that those qualified to obtain their products and services can access the total package of global financial capabilities in one platform. They also guarantee that they can register within less than thirty seconds and have a live account in less than fifteen minutes. It’s one of the most straightforward pitches of all time, and they deliver on their promises.
3. Railsbank provides multiple embedded financial services options
Railsbank offers a complete suite of features that are embeddable in client apps. These include banking as a service, cards as a service, credit as a service, operations as a service, and insights as a service. From all appearances, Railsbank is a software-as-a-service provider that goes over the top with the features available through its single platform API.
4. Railsbank enables the creation of a virtual debit card
We were also impressed with Railsbank’s subscriptions feature. According to the Railsbank website, This allows clients to create single-use virtual debit cards. The cards are intended for use n managing SaaS and other subscriptions, such as Netflix, and other recurring subscription fees. The single-use virtual debit cards mean that there is no need to have a physical card, but rather, the data from the virtual account, for processing one specific type of payment. One of the greatest benefits of this option is that it helps to protect sensitive financial data for their customers. The platform allows Railsbank subscribers to create single-use virtual debit cards instantly. It’s a feature that has tremendous potential for building customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Railsbank is a versatile fintech startup
According to Crunchbase, Railsbank offers a broad scope of services for its clients It is listed under seven industry categories. It provides banking services, developer APIs, It is in the finance as well as financial services categories and because it provides technology products and solutions it is also a fintech company that also falls under the payments and software industries.
6. Railsbank is still a young company
Railsbank is still in its early stages of development in many aspects. It was founded in 2015 and operational since 2016. It has only been in operation for five years. The founders are Clive Mitchell and Nigel Verdon. Mr. Verdon has launched four organizations in his career and this is the first entrepreneurial endeavor for Mr. Mitchell.
7. Railsbank is a British enterprise
Michell and Verdon launched Railsbank in the United Kingdom. The legal name of the company is Railsbnk Technologies Ltd. The headquarters of the operation is in London, England.
8. Railsbank has made one acquisition
Railsbank so far has made one acquisition. It acquired a company called Wire Card Solutions on August 28, 2020. The company provides customized and innovative card products and services including debit. This was a strategic move that expanded the suite of products that Railsbank has available for its clients. Details of the agreement for the acquisition have not been disclosed, nor has the cost of the acquisition been made public.
9. Railsbank offers an all-in-one solution for its clients
Companies that offer products or services to consumers benefit from the Railsbank API platform with a broad range of financial services at their fingertips. The completely customizable products and services allow them to provide their customers with a wide range of wholesale banking services technology that includes sending and receiving and converting money, issuing cards, managing credit, direct debit, and IBANs. The list of services within the open finance platform allows product managers, marketers, and developers to create financial product prototypes, launch them, and scale their vision. Also included are services for financial operations and regulatory licensing. It is an exhaustive collection of necessary services that makes it possible to consolidate their needs into a platform offered by one provider rather than subscribing to each technology product separately, or from a variety of different providers. Railsbank offers affordability and convenience for its clients.
10. Railsbank has a sixteen member executive leadership team
The executive leadership team of Railsbank is composed of sixteen members. Claire Green is in charge of business development and fintech. Clive Mitchell is a co[founder and in charge of growth at Railsbank. Jonathan Reddin is in charge of business development – banks. Jane Thorburn is a project manager. Nigel Verdon is a co-founder and the chief executive officer. Joanna Jenkins is the global compliance director-growth and expansion. Adam McGreggor is the chief platform officer & CISO. Pete Buckney is the chief technology officer. They are joined by 8 other members of the executive leadership team, but these 8 make up the core executive crew.
11. Railsbank has a four-member board of directors
The board of directors at Railsbank is composed of four members who serve as advisories. Mike Jordan joined the board as an advisor in August of 2016. Mr. Joran has founded one organization and he is the CEO of Bink. He currently serves on two boards in advisory roles. Jon Koplin joined the board as an advisor in 2016. Steven Couttie is a board advisor who serves on one board as an advisor. Chris Adelsbach joined the board as a member in September of 2016. He is a venture partner at Techstars overseeing 63 portfolio companies with 1 exit.
12. Railsbank uses a complex array of technologies
The website for Railsbank offers users a smooth and seamless experience, but there is a lot that is going on behind the scenes. The website actively uses 38 technologies to power its website, distributed across 27 technology products including iPhone Mobile Compatible, SPF, Viewport Meta, Google Analytics, Google Fonts, HTML 5, and dozens of others. The number of required technology products no doubt leads to a high overhead expense for its annual IT budget.
13. Railsbank maintains uniqueness among its competitors
We also discovered that Railsbank has an edge over its nearest competitors. It maintains a difference that makes it stand out in the crowd because it uses technologies that are protected from copying or imitation by law. Railsbank has wisely secured two registered trademarks in the scientific and electric apparatus and instruments category. What this means is that no other companies can use the same technology or technologies that too closely resemble those that are protected by trademark.
14. Railsbank has slipped in its monthly web visitors in the UK
Railsbank’s analytics show that it receives an average of 20,103 monthly visits to the website. This reflects a decline in traffic of just over seven percent in the United Kingdom, however, it has grown in traffic from India by 4.81 percent. It is ranked as number 809,222 based on the number of monthly visitors of all the websites registered on the world wide web. The data produced through the analytics show the ups and downs in visitor frequency and does a nice job of tracking who is visiting the website, how long they stay if they engage, and where they are from.
15. Railsbank is the most popular in the United Kingdom
Most of the traffic to the Railsbank website comes from people within the United Kingdom. This figure makes up seventy-four percent of the total web traffic. Visitors from the country of India make up fourteen percent of the total visits with a nearly five percent increase in numbers, four percent come from Macedonia, two percent from Ukraine, and two percent from Malaysia. These are useful statistics for future planning that show where the most interest in the products and services that Railsbank offers is highest.
16. Railsbank is a late-stage equity-backed business
Railsbank has participated in eight funding rounds of equity fundraising. The most recent was a series B round that closed on July 14, 2021. Railsbank has succeeded in attracting the interest of 22 investors. So far, it has raised a total of $121.3 million in equity funding. There are five lead investors. Among the prominent investors in Railsbank are Outrun Ventures, Central Capital Ventura, Betsy Cohen, Anthos Capital, Moneta VC, Global Brain Corporation, Firestartr, Mitsui Fudosan, and several other anonymous investors.
17. Railsbank has plans for expansion
According to Techcrunch, Railsbank’s most recent round of equity fundraising brought in an additional $70 million from investors. The influx of funding is earmarked to continue its international growth into new territories throughout the world. Additionally, the company plans to add more features to the product set it currently offers its clients. Railsbank is on a mission to democratize, reinvent and unbundle the credit card market. It is a fertile $4 trillion market that still offers ample opportunities for growth and expansion to take a larger piece of the pie. There is a constantly rising demand for fintech services such as those offered by the Railsbank platform.
18. Railsbank is an emerging unicorn
Railsbank declined to disclose the precise figures of its valuation, but CEO Verdon did allude to the fact that it is quickly approaching unicorn status. He indicated that the current valuation places the enterprise in the high hundreds of millions of dollars, but that it falls a little short of the required $1 billion to qualify as a unicorn status company. He describes his company as a “near unicorn,” which indicates that it’s not far from achieving that goal. We do expect to hear more about it shortly. Another few rounds of equity funding would likely push Railsbank over the top. The hesitancy to confirm the valuation of the enterprise is likely due to agreements with investors who prefer to keep the information private for the time being. Once Railsbank does achieve the billion-dollar mark it is likely that there will be a celebration and a press release to announce the accomplishment.
19. Railsbank is a privately held business
You won’t find shares available for Railsbank on any public stock exchange. The owners and investors have opted to keep the enterprise as a privately owned company for now. It appears that the fintech startup is doing quite well with its equity funding and the profits that it has generated so far. Our research has not turned up any indication that there are plans to file for an IPO shortly.
20. Railsbank is currently hiring
We were interested in learning more about the size of the Railsbank workforce. According to LinkedIn, Railsbank currently has a workforce of 297 employees. Although the current expansion of workers is just six open positions, it doe indicate international growth. Railsbank currently has positions open in Singapore, New York City, London, and Vilniaus, Lithuania. They’re set to begin the expansion process into new territories but it will likely be a slow and incremental development. Railsbank has built its infrastructure from the ground up and it appears that they are careful about expanding too quickly to avoid the obvious pitfalls. Railsbank also has plans to increase its presence in the United States as well as in other countries throughout the world.
