Astra

What Astra does

Astra is a US-based payments infrastructure company that provides a vertically integrated API platform for moving money instantly between bank accounts and debit cards. The platform consolidates payment processing, routing, risk management, compliance, and treasury workflows into a single API and supports multiple payment rails (Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, ACH, RTP, and FedNow), enabling products such as Instant Disbursements (push-to-card via Original Credit Transaction), Instant Account Funding (card-to-card deposits), Accelerated Bank Transfers (faster ACH with fraud controls), and rules-based payment automations (sweeps, refills, recurring transfers). Astra serves product teams and enterprises building embedded finance products across digital banking, Banking-as-a-Service, fleet and logistics, payroll and earned-wage access, lending, crypto, marketplaces, and SaaS verticals; named customers include DoorDash, Fold, Till Financial, Blend, Nbkc, Unit, Cross River, Outgo, Sardine, and Juno.

The company generates revenue primarily through transparent "cost plus" usage-based fees on transactions processed through its API, with an option for customers to apply programmatic transaction fees that they retain as their own revenue line. Astra operates an API-first, developer-led go-to-market combined with enterprise field sales, supported by self-serve sandbox onboarding, SOC 2 Type II / PCI DSS / GDPR / CCPA certifications, and a partner channel through BaaS platforms (Cross River, Treasury Prime, Unit) and data providers (Plaid, MX). Founded in 2021 by Gil Akos, Sam Morgan, and Zach Nolan, Astra is venture-backed (FPV Ventures led the $10M Series A in 2022 alongside a $30M CoVenture line of credit; Nyca Partners invested $10M in February 2026) and reports over $1 billion in cumulative lifetime payment volume processed.

Name

Astra

Legal name

Astra, Inc.

Website

https://astrafi.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Astra is a US-based payments infrastructure company that provides a vertically integrated API for instant money movement across bank accounts and debit cards, serving fintech, banking, fleet, payroll, lending, and crypto customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Payment Infrastructure

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (52232), Activities Related to Credit Intermediation (5223)

akta.pro primary industry

Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets) (FSAGALAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Payment Gateways & API Connectivity (FSAGABAB), Merchant-of-Record (MoR) & Payment Facilitation (PayFac) Infrastructure (FSAGABAE), Bank-to-Bank Transfers & Pay-by-Bank (Consumer & Merchant) (FSAMAFAC), Marketplace & Platform Seller Payouts (FSAMAKAE)

Keywords

• Payment infrastructure
• Instant disbursements
• Money movement API
• Banking-as-a-service
• Embedded payments

Headquarters

HQ city

Menlo Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Transaction/Usage-based Fees: Astra charges transparent 'cost plus' usage-based fees on transactions processed through its API. Customers can optionally apply programmatic fees per transaction to generate additional revenue streams.
2. Optional Transaction Fees (Customer Revenue): Astra enables its customers to optionally apply fees to instant transfers, creating a new revenue line for customers while Astra retains its base transaction fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Astra provides a vertically integrated instant payments API platform that consolidates payment processing, routing, risk management, compliance, and treasury workflows into a single unified API. The platform enables businesses to move money instantly between bank accounts and debit cards via multiple payment rails (Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, ACH, RTP, FedNow), with built-in fraud detection, compliance, and no prefunding requirements from customers.

Product overview

Astra offers Payments Cloud, a vertically integrated instant payments platform consolidating payment processing, routing, risk management, compliance, and treasury workflows into a single API. The platform is built around three core payment products: Instant Disbursements (real-time push-to-card payouts), Instant Account Funding (card-to-card instant deposits), and Accelerated Bank Transfers (faster ACH with built-in fraud protection). An automation layer adds rules-based money movement features including percentage transfers, sweeps, refills, and recurring routines. The platform supports multiple payment rails (Visa Direct, Mastercard Send, ACH, RTP, FedNow) and is designed for embedded finance use cases across banking, fintech, payroll, lending, crypto, and logistics verticals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Payments Cloud Vertically integrated platform that consolidates payment processing, routing, risk management, compliance, and treasury workflows into a single unified API, designed for enterprises to build and scale embedded instant payments operations.
• Instant Disbursements Real-time payout solution enabling businesses to push funds from bank accounts directly to any debit card with instant funds availability via Original Credit Transactions (OCT), supporting 24/7/365 disbursements.
• Instant Account Funding Service enabling users to fund new debit cards, brokerage accounts, and wallets with real-time settlement. Supports card-to-card transfers between any two accounts 24/7/365 without ACH delays or capital pre-funding requirements.
• Accelerated Bank Transfers ACH transfer acceleration solution with improved fraud detection and faster settlement speeds (up to T+1). Includes risk mitigation controls, velocity tuning, and anti-fraud optimizations for same-day clearing.

Quantifiable outcome

• 200% increase in transfer volume within 60 days for Fold neobank
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers22 records

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Till FinancialcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 October 2023Strategic partnership where Astra powers instant transfers and account funding for Till's family banking products designed for kids and teens. The partnership integrates Astra's technology into Till's platform for seamless instant fund transfers.
• VisacoreTechnology or Integration · 1 August 2022Astra partnered with Visa to enable instant card-to-card funding through Visa Direct, accelerating growth and enabling real-time push-to-card disbursements.
• Cross River BankcoreTechnology or Integration · 1 December 2021Cross River Bank was Astra's foundational banking partner, enabling the development of money movement APIs. This partnership established Astra's core payment infrastructure capabilities.
• PlaidcoreTechnology or IntegrationPlaid integration enables secure bank account linking and identity verification for Astra's payment flows. Astra partners with Plaid for account connection and has also partnered with Plaid Identity Verification.
• MastercardcoreTechnology or IntegrationMastercard Send integration enables instant push-to-card disbursements via Mastercard network, complementing Visa Direct coverage.
• KnotminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership enabling seamless card switching with instant funding capabilities through Astra's API.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Stripe Treasury: Stripe's Treasury product enables platforms to embed financial accounts and money movement through Stripe's broader payments stack. It is a broad incumbent that overlaps with Astra's embedded payments and disbursements use cases as part of a much wider product portfolio.

Direct peers

• Orum: Orum provides payment connectivity and orchestration infrastructure with emphasis on instant verification and disbursement APIs. It targets similar fintech, neobank, and embedded finance customers as Astra with comparable multi-rail payment infrastructure positioning.
• Unit: Unit is a Banking-as-a-Service platform offering embedded banking, lending, and payment infrastructure APIs to fintechs. It is both an Astra partner and a direct competitor for BaaS customers seeking integrated payment and disbursement capabilities.
• Modern Treasury: Modern Treasury provides payment operations infrastructure for fintechs and platforms, with multi-rail payment initiation, reconciliation, and ledgering. It is the closest direct competitor to Astra in the API-first payment infrastructure category, competing for the same neobank, BaaS, and SaaS customer segments.
• Treasury Prime: Treasury Prime is a Banking-as-a-Service platform that provides embedded banking, payments, and money movement APIs to fintechs. It overlaps with Astra on BaaS payments infrastructure and is both a partner and competitor in the embedded finance stack.
• Increase: Increase offers instant payouts, high-yield banking, and payment infrastructure APIs for fintechs, with strong emphasis on real-time disbursements. It competes directly with Astra's push-to-card and instant account funding products and serves similar fintech and embedded finance customers.
• Finix: Finix provides payment orchestration and merchant-of-record infrastructure enabling platforms to monetize payments. It overlaps with Astra's payment routing, orchestration, and programmable fee layer for SaaS and marketplace customers.
• Dwolla: Dwolla offers an ACH-focused payment API for platform-to-bank transfers and disbursements. It competes with Astra's accelerated bank transfer and disbursement capabilities, particularly for fintech and SaaS customers prioritizing bank-to-bank flows.

Emerging players

• Highnote: Highnote is an embedded finance platform providing card issuing, ledgering, and money movement APIs to fintechs. While its primary focus is card issuing, its money movement and disbursement capabilities overlap with Astra's push-to-card and instant funding products.
• Lithic: Lithic provides card issuing and payment infrastructure APIs for fintechs, with adjacent capabilities in disbursements and account funding. It targets similar fintech and embedded finance customers as Astra and competes on certain use cases requiring card-based money movement.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/astra.finance
• Xx.com/astra_finance
• Facebookfacebook.com/astratechnology

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Astra