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Sparing merchants card-acceptance fees is the fuel that has propelled alternative payments options, such as account-to-account transactions. One startup benefitting from this trend is London-based Sway Money Ltd., which enables merchants to accept account-to-account payments using a QR code and an off-the-shelf mobile device.
Sway, which was incorporated in December 2021, has raised 111% of its targeted finding of £560,000 ($695,299). The funding round, which took place through Seedrs, an online equity crowdfunding company, totaled £627,157 ($778,932). Crowdfunding is a fund-raising practice in which capital is raised from a large number of small investors, usually via the Internet. Sway raised the capital from a reported 335 investors.
Sway’s technology enables account-to-account payments through the major payments platform Klarna AB, which connects Sway to banks through an application programming interface.
In addition to the capital raised, Sway saw its gross payment volume reach £100,000 ($124,120) within the first 6 months of operations. In addition, Sway processed more than £108,000 ($134,000) in April of this year. At the same time, transactions grew 48% from February to March 2023. More than 260 small businesses have used Sway to date.
With European merchants reportedly paying more than $59.5 billion in card fees annually, Sway says it hopes to disrupt the traditional card-acceptance pricing model by providing merchants what it sees as a simple and affordable alternative to both cards and cash.
