US fintech scale-up Highnote secures $90 Million in Series B funding led by Adams Street Partners
Highnote, a leader in modern card issuance and program management, have announced the closing of $90 million in Series B funding and the launch of its acquiring solution. The funding was led by Adams Street Partners with participation from existing investors including Oak HC/FT, Costanoa, WestCap, and Pinegrove Venture Partners.
“Highnote’s transformational platform and impressive growth trajectory motivated us to lead this funding round,” said Robin Murray, Partner at Adams Street Partners. “We are excited to support the company’s vision to lead innovation in embedded finance.”
With the launch of its acquiring solution, Highnote now supports full pay-in and pay-out functionality for customers on the same platform as issuing, leveraging a unified, core general ledger, and resulting in unmatched cost and time-saving benefits. With Highnote’s modern embedded finance platform, enterprise customers and B2B platforms can manage all internal, vendor, and customer-facing financial transaction activity on a single, unified, reconciled payments platform.
The API-based acquiring platform allows companies to accept card payments online via plug-in checkout software or custom features they design. Built by the team who developed Braintree, Highnote’s acquiring platform is directly integrated to the major payment networks – creating streamlined data access, transparency, and better economics for customers. With certification by all major US card brands, Highnote’s expansion into acquiring positions the company as a unique solution for SMBs and enterprises looking for a holistic approach to embedded payments.
“We are excited to partner with Adams Street in our next phase of growth and about our entrance into the acquiring space, which accelerates the expansion of our world-class embedded finance and issuing platform,” said John MacIlwaine, CEO of Highnote. “The acquiring landscape has evolved over time and represents an opportunity for next generation customers to accelerate growth through embedded acquiring in addition to embedded issuing.”
“Acquiring on Highnote’s unified platform is a game-changer for us,” said Vlad Sadovskiy, CEO of Netevia, a leading embedded finance company specializing in innovative payment solutions. “Hyper-verticalized businesses that are adopting our B2B platforms need API driven, seamless integration of all payment scenarios. Highnote is radically reducing the friction and complexity for us to deliver that to an ever-broadening set of clients.”
With this additional funding and the completion of its groundbreaking unified issuing and acquiring platform, Highnote is positioned to serve the most demanding and innovative use cases in embedded finance – from fast-growing vertical solution providers to enterprise brands and marketplaces and financial institutions seeking a flexible, robust, scalable platform for growth and competitive differentiation.
