Astra Inc. Reports Record Annual Growth of 392% for Automated Transfers and Scales Customer Base By 10x in Q2 2021
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Astra, a technology company that offers advanced bank-to-bank transfer solutions, today announced record-breaking volume growth of 392% as it continues to provide faster and more reliable transfers through a single API integration.
Since the launch of Astra’s Automated Bank Transfer API earlier this year, Astra completed more than $20 million of automated transfers with a 99.997% success rating, a 1,000X improvement over standard ACH failure rates. Additionally, 90% of these transactions were completely automated and required no action from the user. The company also finalized numerous strategic partnerships with industry-leading companies including Daylight, Unifimoney, Overflow, and Fold, the top bitcoin rewards debit card, as well as the top international remittance provider and over 20 of the most exciting fintech startups in the U.S.
“New financial services are coming to market faster than ever, and with them, increasing financial complexity for users. Additionally, fintech products face mounting pressure to maximize deposits with fewer user sessions. The confluence of these two trends makes Astra’s position as a provider of financial automation so crucial in today’s market,” said Gil Akos, co-founder and CEO of Astra. “Working with us, a developer can integrate virtual accounts or automated transfers into their existing product in a matter of days, and consumers can leverage that automation to have their money go where it should without any additional action required. Automation provides a true win-win for both consumers and developers.”
Designed to provide conductivity between any two financial accounts, Astra has found traction with companies looking to increase the deposits from their users using technology like sweep transfers, as well as with those looking to improve throughput for debit cards using automated refill transfers, all of which are scalable and accessible through a single integration. Astra also provides risk mitigation as a built-in service, ensuring that all transfers originating from their platform will complete as intended or cancel without any negative impact on the customer and no loss of funds.
“Time-to-value is critical, especially for early stage companies like ours. With other payment providers we were looking at months before we would have been able to onboard new customers. With Astra, we were able to get from our first conversation with the team to live in production in 10 days!” said Ethan Teng, Head of Product at Daylight.
“The financial transfer market in the U.S. has exploded, and between traffic on the ACH network and AFT transfers, $80T transacted in 2020, almost none of which was automated,” said Sam Morgan, co-founder and COO of Astra. “As for complexity, the average number of financial relationships per person has increased from two to five in just three years, making the ability to move funds between accounts with low friction essential.”
Accelerated adoption of the Astra platform has attracted the support of top venture firms including Slow Ventures, Allegis, BDMI, and Hustle Fund.
“Transfers are the lifeblood of the fintech industry,” said Will Quist, Partner at Slow Ventures, “The volume and importance is growing exponentially with the proliferation of new financial applications and services. While there are some point solutions available, Astra has built the most complete platform and, importantly, built it for developers. Their lead in providing account-to-account connectivity positions them extremely well for a future where your finances happen in more places, especially as the need for universal logic amongst your accounts grows.”
About Astra
Astra is a leading provider of advanced bank-to-bank transfer technology for financial institutions, fintechs and enterprises. With headquarters in San Francisco, the company was founded in 2016 by co-founders Gil Akos and Sam Morgan. Astra’s proprietary, vertically integrated API allows developers to easily embed financial automation within their existing products. For more information, visit https://astra.finance/.
Contacts
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Janine Savarese
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