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- Highnote
Highnote Valuation, Funding & Investors
Highnote is valued at $750M as of January 2025.
Last Highnote valuation
$750M
Series B · Jan 2025
Last Highnote funding round
$90M
Series B · Jan 2025
Cumulative funding Highnote raised
$194M
across 5 funding rounds
Key investors in Highnote
Oak HC/FT
Costanoa Ventures
Westcap
Adams Street Partners
XYZ Venture Capital
SVB Capital
About Highnote
Highnote is a San Francisco-headquartered embedded finance platform enabling digital companies to integrate virtual and physical payment cards, ledgers, and wallets. Launched in 2022, it supports prepaid, debit, credit, and charge products for B2B and consumer applications, processing billions in volume for fintech clients.
Founded
2020
HQ
Website
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Usage-based
Valuation
$750M (Jan 2025)
Highnote Valuation
Highnote is currently valued at $750M, based on its Series B in January 2025.
The $90M round was led by Adams Street Partners and Omega Venture Partners, with participation from Oak HC/FT, Pinegrove Capital Partners, Costanoa Ventures and Westcap.
Highnote valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | Series B | $750M |
Highnote Funding History
Highnote has raised a total of $194M across 5 funding rounds.
Highnote's first fundraising round was a $12M seed round in October 2020. The most recent completed round was a $90M Series B in January 2025.
Highnote funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | Series B | Adams Street Partners (lead); Omega Venture Partners (lead); Oak HC/FT; Pinegrove Capital Partners; Costanoa Ventures; Westcap | $90M | $750M | Highnote is a San Francisco-based embedded finance platform specializing in modern card issuance, program management, and unified payments solutions that enable businesses to integrate virtual and physical card payments, ledger, wallet functionalities, and now acquiring capabilities into their products via a single API-driven system. The platform supports full pay-in and pay-out functionality on a unified core general ledger, certified by major US card brands, reducing operational complexities and costs for vertical platform providers and next-generation customers. Highnote closed a $90 million Series B funding round in January 2025, led by Adams Street Partners with participation from existing investors Oak HC/FT, Costanoa Ventures, WestCap, and Pinegrove Venture Partners (some sources report amount raised as ~$109M in amended filing). This round values the company at over $750 million post-money, bringing total funding raised to over $145 million across five rounds, including prior seed and $43M Series A in 2021. The capital supports expansion into U.S. merchant acquiring, scaling technology, and enhancing the embedded finance platform. Alongside the funding, Highnote launched its acquiring solution, offering customizable plug-in checkout for online card payments with direct integration to payment networks for enhanced data access. CEO John MacIlwaine highlighted the opportunity in embedded acquiring to accelerate customer growth. Investors like Adams Street praised Highnote's transformational platform, impressive growth trajectory, and positioning in the large, expanding embedded finance market amid limitations of traditional issuing platforms. The company, founded around 2020, targets B2B embedded payments and is backed by ten investors total. |
| Jun 2022 | Undisclosed stage | - | $25M | - | Highnote is a San Francisco-based FinTech company founded in 2019, specializing in card issuing and embedded payments for businesses, offering a unified platform that integrates issuing, acquiring, credit, and money movement. Investors in earlier rounds included Oak HC/FT and Costanoa Ventures. Highnote's later Series B in January 2025 raised approximately $100-109M (with a $25M extension), achieving a $750M valuation led by Adams Street Partners and Omega Venture Partners, used for U.S. merchant acquiring expansion and embedded finance enhancements. The company has grown to over 200 employees and focuses on enterprise growth, launching features like Instant Payments, stablecoin funding, and integrated credit. Customers such as Netevia committed billions in annual acquiring volume, and Ferry implemented real-time payments. The platform positions Highnote competitively in embedded finance against rivals, with strong capital efficiency noted at 4.79x valuation-to-capital-raised as of 2025. |
| Dec 2021 | Undisclosed stage | - | $25M | - | Highnote is a San Francisco-based fintech company providing an embedded payments platform focused on card issuing, program management, and acquiring services for enterprises and B2B platforms. Founded by John MacIlwaine (former Braintree GM at PayPal) and Kin Kee, it enables SMEs to embed financial services like instant credit issuance and full-stack acquiring to compete with larger players. In late 2021, Highnote raised approximately $50-54M in combined seed and Series A funding led by Oak HC/FT and Costanoa Ventures, with participation from WestCap, XYZ, SVB Capital, and angels like Bill Ready (Google) and Renaud Laplanche (Upgrade). Funds supported scaling product/engineering teams, platform expansion, global growth, and market entry. Highnote continued growth with additional $25M convertible note in June 2022 and a $90-109M Series B in January 2025 led by Adams Street Partners at over $750M valuation, bringing total raised to $139-233M. The 2025 round funded U.S. merchant acquiring expansion and embedded finance enhancements, with 50+ enterprise customers and strong developer adoption. Competitive context positions Highnote as a leader in modern embedded finance, earning Forbes Fintech 50 recognition, with backers confident in its unified payments platform for internal/vendor/customer transactions. |
| Sep 2021 | Series A | Costanoa Ventures (lead); Oak HC/FT (lead); SVB Capital; XYZ Venture Capital; Renaud Laplanche; Bill Ready; Westcap | $43M | - | - |
| Oct 2020 | Seed | Oak HC/FT (lead) | $12M | - | Highnote raised $11.5 million in its seed round in October 2020, led by Oak HC/FT. The funds were used to develop and launch its virtual payment platform. Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity firm focused on healthcare and financial technology. Highnote is a San Francisco-based fintech company founded in 2019, specializing in card issuing and embedded payments for businesses. The company has raised a total of over $233 million across multiple rounds, with subsequent funding including a Series A of $42.6 million in September 2021 led by Costanoa Ventures and Oak HC/FT, and later Series B rounds reaching valuations over $750 million in 2025. |
Who has invested in Highnote?
10 investors have backed Highnote across its funding rounds, including Oak HC/FT, Costanoa Ventures, Westcap, Adams Street Partners, XYZ Venture Capital and SVB Capital.
Lead investors include Adams Street Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Costanoa Ventures and Oak HC/FT.
Highnote Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Lead | Oct 2020 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Sep 2021 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Sep 2021 | ||
| 1 | Lead | Jan 2025 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Sep 2021 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Sep 2021 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Sep 2021 | ||
| 1 | Lead | Jan 2025 | ||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 10 Highnote investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
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Start Free TrialHighnote Competitors
Highnote competitors include listed companies like Worldline, Fawry, Marqeta and Paysafe, and private ones like Lithic and slice.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | - | - | $800M | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $4.6B | ($5.2B) | $887M | 0.7x | ||
| Publicly listed | $166M | $73M | $1.2B | 5.2x | ||
| Private | $100M | - | $450M | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $625M | $14M | $1.6B | 1.4x | ||
| Publicly listed | $1.7B | $341M | $327M | 1.5x |
Highnote Public Comps
Highnote is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Sunyard Technology, Cuscal, Worldline, Jiangsu Tongxingbao, AMTD Digital, Abaxx Technologies, PensionBee, Optasia, Currenc Group and Bakkt.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $307M | $10M | 2.2x | - | 69.2x | - | |||
| $297M | $22M | 5.1x | 5.8x | 67.8x | 24.6x | |||
| $4.6B | ($5.2B) | 0.6x | 0.7x | (0.6x) | 3.8x | |||
| $159M | $47M | 2.7x | - | 9.2x | - | |||
| $59M | $18M | 19.5x | - | 62.9x | - | |||
| $749K | ($28M) | 600.9x | 136.9x | (16.1x) | (10.0x) | |||
| $57M | ($5M) | 6.6x | 5.5x | (81.4x) | 107.9x | |||
| $265M | $79M | 4.3x | 3.6x | 14.5x | 9.1x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Highnote competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Highnote
| When was Highnote founded? | Highnote was founded in 2020. |
| Where is Highnote headquartered? | Highnote is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, United States. |
| Is Highnote publicly listed? | No, Highnote is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Highnote's valuation? | Highnote was last valued at $750M in its Series B in January 2025. |
| How much funding has Highnote raised? | Highnote has raised $194M across 5 funding rounds. |
| What was Highnote's last funding round? | Highnote's last funding round was a $90M Series B in January 2025, led by Adams Street Partners and Omega Venture Partners. |
| Who are Highnote's investors? | Highnote's investors include Oak HC/FT, Costanoa Ventures, Westcap, Adams Street Partners, SVB Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Renaud Laplanche, Omega Venture Partners, Bill Ready and Pinegrove Capital Partners. |
| Which companies are comparable to Highnote? | Companies comparable to Highnote include Lithic, Worldline, Fawry, slice, Marqeta and Paysafe. |
See companies similar to Highnote
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