Solutions by Text (SBT), a Dallas-area startup founded in 2008, has successfully raised $110 million in new growth financing. This funding round, co-led by Edison Partners and StepStone Group, with Stifel Venture Bank providing a lending facility, aims to integrate real-time payments into text messaging channels, enhancing the bill pay experience for businesses and consumers alike.
SBT’s CEO, David Baxter, emphasized the company’s compliance-first approach, which is crucial in the highly regulated consumer finance sector. “Texting is ubiquitous with consumers, but it has not matched up with the rigorous business requirements of finance regulators and carrier networks,” Baxter stated. He highlighted that SBT has bridged this gap, driving significant returns for financial customers and propelling the company on a rapid growth trajectory.
The raised capital will support SBT’s expansion with large financial institutions, boost its payments and artificial intelligence capabilities, and explore inorganic growth opportunities. Since Edison Partners’ initial $35 million investment in 2021, SBT’s bookings and revenue have grown over threefold. In 2023 alone, the company saw a 95% increase in messaging volume and is on track to more than double that growth this year.
Kelly Ford, General Partner at Edison Partners, praised SBT’s consistent overperformance and its ability to build unparalleled trust among regulators, carriers, and financial institutions. “We saw a founder-led, capital-efficient business with a competitive moat that went deep on regulatory and carrier compliance and wide on financial industry solutions and third-party technology integrations,” Ford noted. She expressed excitement for the continued partnership and the potential for accelerated growth.
Baxter highlighted that 60% of SBT’s new customers had avoided text messaging out of fear of regulatory violations. However, SBT’s robust compliance features, such as provisioned short codes and long codes/10DLCs, have provided a secure and effective solution, enabling clients like Best Egg, eBay, US Bank, and others to engage with their customers in real time.
