Integrating repayment, balance transfer, and bill payment features can be complex for fintech app developers. Often, they must navigate a disjointed array of fragile screen-scraping APIs to obtain data from users’ financial institutions, or even resort to cumbersome tools for managing large volumes of physical checks and paperwork.
Entrepreneurs Jose Bethancourt, Marco del Carmen, and Mit Shah shared that these challenges can be decisive, especially for smaller fintech teams. To address these issues and assist others, they founded Method, a platform designed to enhance debt management and repayment capabilities within fintech applications.
According to Shah, Jose and Marco faced the difficulties of financial account connectivity while working on their initial venture, GradJoy, which is supported by Y Combinator. GradJoy sought to streamline student loan management, yet Jose and Marco quickly recognised the constraints of current account connectivity systems.
Method operates by utilising consumer credit access protections instituted by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. By leveraging identity verification information from credit bureaus and telecom firms, combined with data from core banking systems, Method can consolidate an individual’s debts and execute balance transfers, bill payments, and payoffs on their behalf.
Fintech developers can implement Method’s capabilities into their applications via its API. Users simply need to provide their phone number.
Since its emergence from stealth mode in 2021, Method has connected over 30 million accounts for 4 million users, facilitating more than $500 million in liability repayments to date.
Given that Method handles sensitive information, users may have reservations. However, Shah asserts that Method collects only essential user data and does not sell information to external parties. Additionally, the company plans to introduce a portal allowing users to manage the data shared with Method’s partners.
Method competes with significant players such as Plaid, MX, Spinwheel, and Dwolla. However, many of these competitors depend on systems that require consumers to input their financial account credentials, which Shah notes can create friction.
According to Shah, Method is assisting millions of Americans in their financial journeys while enabling lenders and fintech firms like SoFi, Aven, Happy Money, and Figure to enhance conversion rates through improved user experiences. Consumers do not need to re-authenticate for different accounts, and once Method retrieves their liabilities, payments can be made using Method’s payment system.
Recently, Method expanded its offerings to include credit card support; it now underpins Bilt’s credit card linking feature, allowing Bilt customers to connect their cards to earn points on qualifying purchases. Looking ahead, Method intends to strengthen its banking partnerships and introduce credit card network integrations tailored for retail and travel sectors.
Shah indicated that many shoppers are hesitant to store their card details or lack the time to do so. With Method, both new and returning customers can view their current credit card portfolio by simply entering their name and phone number. This solution empowers merchants to enhance the checkout process and gain a comprehensive understanding of customers across different cards and payment channels.
To support this growth in products and services, the Austin-based Method, with a team of 35, secured $41.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Emergence Capital, with contributions from Avra Capital, Samsung Next, Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and Ardent. This latest financing takes the company’s total funding amount to approximately $60 million.
