We're welcoming Ansa to Rain today. Founder @sophgoldb joins as our Head of Payments. Ansa (@cheaperpayments) made it easy for merchants to launch and accept stored value via Mastercard. Coming soon: new experiences for sports teams, venues, hotels, cruise lines, and more.

Ansa (@cheaperpayments) is now part of Rain! Ansa figured out how to make stored value spendable via Mastercard, so any merchant could launch a Starbucks-like wallet. We'll build on that innovation to launch new payment experiences and go deeper into agentic payments. Welcome to the newest Rainmakers, including @sophgoldb as @raincards' Head of Payments! Read more here: rain.xyz/resources/rain-acqu…

🚨 BREAKING: Stablecoin Cards Unicorn @Raincards has acquired Ansa to build "Starbucks Rewards for everyone else." Rain is the Visa principal member and processor behind most of the big stablecoin card programs. Its January Series C valued it at $1.95bn, up 17x in 10 months, with an active card base up 30x in a year. When a stablecoin company launches a card, odds are Rain is underneath it. Ansa built the Starbucks wallet for everyone else. Starbucks holds over $1.6bn of customer money loaded onto its cards and app. Ansa's stored value platform lets any coffee chain or regional merchant run similar programs. Customers preload a balance, the merchant gets the float and the loyalty. Lovely tech, built by proper payments nerds (CEO Sophia Goldberg literally wrote The Field Guide to Global Payments). All of it ran on traditional card rails. Put stored value on stablecoin rails and a prepaid balance becomes programmable money. Rewards can move onchain, balances can settle instantly, and loyalty can work across borders and, eventually, across merchants. Rain bought Uptop (onchain rewards) last November. Now Ansa. Load, hold, earn, spend: the full consumer loop on one stablecoin-native stack. On its own, Ansa was a really nice business serving regional merchants. Inside Rain, stored value gets stablecoin rails, onchain rewards, and a Visa principal member underneath it. That's exciting because it points at a vision where stablecoins are more than just an alternative to a bank account underneath a card. Marketing budgets are about to become money movement. Both were on stage at @FintechNerdCon last year. I suspect this year's conversation just got more interesting.

Only cash I keep on me is my @cheaperpayments socks

There are some terms in payments that mean so many things that it’s borderline infuriating to align what the hell someone is talking about (*ahem* calling all payments fees interchange). “Wallet" is my personal favorite + the core of what we do at @cheaperpayments

New 🎧 How Money Moves Podcast: Payments Around the World with @cheaperpayments' @SophiaGoldb and @RapydGlobal's Eric Rosenthal thisweekinfintech.com/how-mo…

Thrilled to announce our $14m Series A today, led by @rquintini and the team at @RenegadePtnrs with participation from @BainCapVC , B37 Ventures, @BoxGroup , and @WischoffVC !

Congratulations to @sophgoldb, @jt_cho and the rest of the team at @cheaperpayments on raising their Series A to continue to disrupt closed loop payments. Great to see that @ChristinaPhili5 and other women investors contributed >95% to the round. Read more from @bayareawriter in @TechCrunch: techcrunch.com/2024/04/30/wa…

Sent a cold DM to @sophgoldb in Nov 2021. Before she had a cofounder or landed on the vision for the company or the name. One of my favorite parts of true early stage investing is watching a tiny idea evolve into something meaningful. No hype yet, no BS. Loyalty and payments for merchants is going to become a lot more inviting for consumers with @cheaperpayments. One very proud investor at seed and Series A. More from me and Sophia here:

Read more here: medium.com/@sophiagoldberg/d…

And we’re just getting started 🪐🚀 honored for @cheaperpayments to make the Top 50 Most Promising Startups of 2023 #TheInformation50 theinformation.com/projects/…

Hosting game nights the 2nd Monday of each month, DM for invite! We debate hot topics like is a stop sign art or not art (Wavelengths) and hoard pudding (Sushi Go)

I had a blast talking all things @cheaperpayments, The Field Guide, and learnings from Adyen with @ReggieCYoung and the @lithic team! Give the episode a listen below

Perfect weather for a @cheaperpayments team offsite 🌞

Congrats to @cheaperpayments for making it onto @BusinessInsider's list of the most promising fintechs! Ansa allows small businesses to create digital wallets for their customers, avoiding credit card fees and rewarding loyalty, which can be a real game-changer. businessinsider.com/top-best…

Great to see our portfolio co @cheaperpayments featured at the top of @BusinessInsider's top fintech startups to watch! Check out what @sophgoldb and team are building at ansa.dev/ businessinsider.com/top-best…

Looks like I’ll need to order more desks.

What do coffee shops, creator platforms, convenience stores, micro mobility, and streaming platforms all have in common? Low-dollar transactions and hyper-dedicated customers. I call this segment HULT merchants: habitual use, low transaction-value.

🎉 Ansa is out of stealth! Excited for @thefintechfund to work with @sophgoldb and JT Cho to make cheaper payments a reality @cheaperpayments. techcrunch.com/2023/04/26/fo…