Teller Raises $4M Seed for Bank Account API Access Platform

Teller, a startup building direct API connections to bank accounts as an alternative to screen-scraping methods used by competitors like Plaid, announced a $4M seed funding round on January 27, 2020. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Founders Fund and SciFi. Teller's platform enables fintech developers to access bank account data, initiate payments, and verify balances through a single API integration, positioning it as critical embedded finance infrastructure.

Unlike incumbents that rely on screen scraping or credential-based access, Teller pursues direct integrations with banks. The funding was intended to expand bank coverage and grow the engineering team. The raise came at a time of heightened interest in open banking and financial data connectivity infrastructure, particularly following Visa's announcement to acquire Plaid for $5.3 billion.

Teller's approach to bank connectivity underpins the broader BaaS ecosystem by enabling third parties to build financial products on top of existing bank relationships.