Swift

What do they actually do

Swift (Swift Finance, Inc.) provides a product for businesses to pay freelancers, sellers and creators using stablecoins (USDC/USDT). The site highlights a dashboard to monitor transfers and “managed wallets” to simplify payout operations, indicating a current focus on stablecoin-based payouts for global businesses joinswift.app.

At YC Demo Day (W24), TechCrunch described Swift as building a “unified API for risk-free instant funding,” with an initial instant-deposit API for brokerages and digital banks, reportedly running on Venmo, Zelle and FedNow. That framing emphasizes instant account funding and bank-to-bank transfers, while the public website today emphasizes stablecoin payouts, suggesting the go-to-market centers on faster, cross-border payouts and wallet management TechCrunch.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Brokerages and trading platforms: Customers lose trades or can’t meet margin calls when deposits take days; they need instant funding to avoid order failures and revenue loss. Swift’s first product was described as an instant deposit API for brokerages TechCrunch.
• Digital banks / neobanks: Slow account-to-account transfers make onboarding clunky and create support load; they want a single integration that makes incoming funding immediate TechCrunch.
• Online merchants / e-commerce platforms: Cart abandonments and delayed settlements hurt conversion and cash flow; they want embedded, faster funding options at checkout and quicker settlement. The company’s site now focuses on simplifying global payouts, which is adjacent to merchant seller disbursements joinswift.app.
• Marketplaces, gig platforms and seller networks: Slow or unpredictable payouts erode supply and trust; they need faster, reliable payout rails and simpler reconciliation. The broader issue is that bank transfers often still take days TechCrunch.
• Other fintechs and payment apps (wallets, BNPL, processors): Integrating multiple bank rails and building risk controls is time-consuming; they want one API that handles instant, low-risk transfers. Swift has been described as offering instant fund transfer services via a unified API Crunchbase.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder-led, high-touch pilots with brokerages and neobanks feeling immediate liquidity pain: direct outreach to ops/product leads, short white‑glove pilots with hands‑on integration, risk underwriting and clear SLAs to measure avoided failed trades or faster onboarding TechCrunch Crunchbase.
• First 50: Productize learnings into prebuilt connectors (e.g., broker cores, neobank stacks, ecommerce checkout) and a self‑serve sandbox; add a small SDR/BDR team to target look‑alike firms and use early case studies and vertical events to accelerate conversions. Offer tiered onboarding (DIY, assisted, white‑glove).
• First 100: Scale via reseller/technology partnerships with processors, marketplace platforms and banks; launch a partner program with referral economics and co‑selling playbooks, and automate onboarding/risk checks so partners can activate customers with minimal lift. In parallel, invest in public docs, a developer community and SLA‑backed account management to reduce churn and drive referrals.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Broadly, embedded finance/digital payments is a ~$100–150B revenue pool today, and Swift’s offering sits within these categories GMI ResearchAndMarkets. More directly, instant/real‑time payments is a tens‑of‑billions market (≈$38B in 2025) FutureMarketInsights.

Bottom-up calculation:

Near‑term, anchor on the instant payments revenue pool (~$38B, 2025). Add adjacent revenue tied to target verticals, e.g., e‑brokerages (~$14B global platform revenue) and a slice of merchant payment processing within digital payments (> $100B) for checkout funding and faster seller settlements FMI GMI e‑brokerage MarketsandMarkets.

Assumptions:

• Swift monetizes via fees on instant transfers/payouts rather than full-stack banking revenue.
• Brokerage and merchant segments can be accessed through APIs without acquiring bank licenses.
• No double counting across embedded finance and digital payments figures; focus is on payment-related revenues Swift can directly capture.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Stripe: Large payments platform with ACH/bank transfers, instant payouts and checkout; competes where merchants want faster bank-based funding at checkout and quick disbursements.
• Circle: Provider of USDC and payout/treasury APIs; a direct competitor for businesses using stablecoins to pay global contractors and sellers.
• Orum: Instant bank payments and intelligent routing across ACH, RTP and FedNow with risk decisioning; relevant for instant account funding and payouts.
• Sardine: Instant ACH with fraud prevention and risk guarantees used by fintechs for account funding and money movement.
• Payoneer: Cross‑border payouts platform for marketplaces and SMBs; alternative for paying global sellers and freelancers (non‑stablecoin).