Astra’s Instant Payment API Hits $100 Million in Annualized Payment Volume

Astra Inc., a provider of bank-to-bank transfer technology for financial institutions, fintech startups, and enterprises, announced late Thursday that fintech developers have processed more than $100 million of annualized gross payment volume and 650,000 in real-time transfers through its Instant Payment solution since May.

Instant Payment leverages Visa Direct as well as technology from Cross River Bank, a provider of embedded-finance technology, to enable fintechs to process withdrawals, payouts, and disbursements using the debit card payment rails. Earned wage access, gig worker platforms, and driver payouts (a la Uber) for trucking are some of the key use cases Astra supports already, according to Astra chief executive Gil Akos.

A key benefit of Astra’s Instant Payment solution is that fintechs don’t have to choose a payment gateway to match the specific payment type. Such matching leads to multiple vendor integrations and added operational complexity, Astra argues. As a result, a payment can originate from any depository account and be sent directly as a credit to a debit card, which Astra says increases the efficiency and speed of transfers for both senders and receivers.

“There is a ton of use cases requiring instant funding for a best-in-class product experience. There are as many product use cases requiring instant disbursements,” Akos says by email. “Having both as flexible transfer options through a single API gives developers a powerful pair of tools for real-time settlement.”

A key point of differentiation for Astra’s Instant Payment solution, compared to similar ones from competing vendors that enable Visa Direct disbursements, is that developers don’t have to build out the remainder of the technology stack, argues Akos. “There are other vendors that enable Visa Direct disbursements, but most operate as a basic payments gateway, leaving the developer to build the rest of their payment stack and functionalize it with a lot of payments operations,” he says.

Another benefit, Akos says, is faster time to market. Fintechs can go live with Astra’s service in 30 days, as opposed to what Akos characterizes as a typical six-month integration timeline. Other benefits, he says, include PCI-compliant software development kits and APIs, along with support for a wide range of payment flows and user profiles for disbursements. In addition, Astra handles the complexity of settlement mechanics, reconciliation, and pre-funding automatically behind the scenes.

Astra says it offers cost-plus pricing for its Instant Payment solution, which is designed to scale as its customers grow.

“We’re always looking for new ways to creatively collaborate with our partners to develop innovative solutions that solve ineffectual pain points,” Keith Vander Leest, head of payments for Cross River, says in a prepared statement. “We’re proud of our success with Astra, offering fintech developers streamlined and expanded embedded payment optionality that provides true scalability.”   

Cross River has worked with Astra since late 2021 to make Astra’s APIs available to fintechs for processing instant transfers between debit cards and funding accounts.