Solutions by Text, provider of a text messaging platform for consumer financial services institutions, has raised USD35 million in growth financing. Edison Partners led the transaction with participation from Stifel Venture Bank, a Division of Stifel Bank.
The company is also announcing the appointment of payments industry leader David Baxter as Chief Executive Officer. Under Baxter’s leadership, the company will use investment proceeds to accelerate the adoption and extensibility of compliant text-based solutions across the consumer finance lifecycle.
More than 1400 consumer finance organisations, including leading auto finance, banking and lending brands, trust Solutions by Text (SBT) to power compliant texting programs in support of their originations, servicing and collections initiatives. The company’s platform uniquely enables controls and management over regulatory and carrier communication policies, including the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s latest Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) requirements. FDCPA Regulation F, going into effect today, is an acknowledgment of the critical need for compliance-first messaging solutions, which SBT has been delivering for its customers for more than a decade.
“Eight in ten US adults use text messaging on a regular basis. With Solutions by Text, financial institutions are meeting these consumers where and how they want to be met, and doing so with peace of mind,” says Kelly Ford, General Partner, Edison Partners, who led the investment and joins the company’s board of directors. “The company is uniquely positioned to scale growth in the fintech market with a team of deep regulatory compliance, messaging and payments expertise, not to mention a sizeable loyal customer and partner base with significant embedded opportunity.”
Edison Partners’ investment coincides with the appointment of David Baxter as the company’s CEO. Baxter is a payments industry executive joining the company from ACI Worldwide, where he led sales for the past eight years. Baxter grew and scaled the ACI bill presentment and payment business, following the acquisition of Online Resources, from $20 million to over USD600 million, moving the company’s biller-focused segment from No12 to No1 in the industry.
SBT founders, Danny and Mike Cantrell, impressively bootstrapped the company’s historical growth, which has been grounded in strong customer centricity. Both will continue to hold strategic customer-facing positions in the business going forward.
“We started SBT knowing there was a compelling need to give financial institutions compliance certainty as they seek to connect with consumers in the channels they use every day,” says co-founder Danny Cantrell. “As we’ve reached a new phase of growth, bringing on David is an important milestone. He’s an impressive growth leader, an innovator in payments, and I am thrilled to seize our incredible market opportunity with him at the helm.”
“I’ve long admired SBT’s leadership in compliant SMS, so it’s exciting to team with founders Danny and Mike Cantrell,” says David Baxter, newly appointed Solutions by Text CEO. “Now more than ever, consumer finance organisations are taking a hard look at how to strengthen digital consumer relationships while maintaining compliance with national standards. Our opportunity to capture market share through existing and expanded platform capabilities is immense and we’ve assembled an exceptional team and board to turbo-charge this next chapter of growth. Edison’s fintech domain expertise and growth-stage operating know-how has already been invaluable.”
