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From Six Months to Global Payment Network: Volt’s Unconventional Path to $87M in Funding
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Steffen Vollert, Co-founder and Interim CEO of Volt, shared how his team built a global real-time payment network that has raised $87 million in funding. But their journey wasn’t the typical fintech story of careful infrastructure building – it was one of rapid iteration, multiple pivots, and learning that product-market fit is never truly final.
The Six-Month Sprint
While most fintech startups spend 2-3 years building their initial product, Volt took a radically different approach. “We really focused on what is the fastest path to deliver something that has enough value for merchants who actually put us on their checkout as a payment option,” Steffen explains. Within six months, they had a working prototype – an unprecedented speed in the fintech space.
This rapid development was driven by the team’s deep industry experience and laser focus on core value. Instead of building perfect infrastructure, they concentrated on delivering immediate merchant value. As Steffen notes, “We have cut every corner we could also based on the learnings of the ventures that we as founders had built before.”
The COVID Curveball
Just as Volt seemed poised for success, closing their seed round in January 2020, the pandemic hit. The founding team found themselves locked in different countries – Steffen in Poland, his co-founders in the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK. Rather than let this derail them, they restructured the company around their constraints, with Steffen building the tech and product team in Poland while other operations continued elsewhere.
False Starts and Real Traction
The path to product-market fit wasn’t smooth. Their first major integration in Christmas 2020 seemed like success, but quickly revealed deeper challenges. “There was a lot of, I would say, subpar APIs on the bank side which really didn’t allow us to perform and to deliver the product value that we wanted,” Steffen recalls.
This led to a crucial pivot. Instead of remaining just a payment gateway, Volt began partnering with licensed account issuers and securing their own licenses. This deeper integration into the payment value chain gave them control over the entire customer experience. By August 2021, they had achieved true product-market fit.
The Vertical Specialization Discovery
Perhaps Volt’s most interesting insight came from building their sales and marketing teams. They discovered that payment industry talent is highly specialized by vertical. “Many salespeople in the industry are so specialized, they really join companies with a focus for their vertical where they have their network,” Steffen explains. This led to a crucial realization: success required long-term commitment to specific verticals rather than trying to build a generic sales machine.
Building for Scale
Today, Volt is approaching 200 employees and processes real-time payments globally. They’ve expanded beyond Europe to Brazil and Australia, partnering with major payment service providers like WorldPay and Worldline. Their vision? “Real time payments everywhere,” as Steffen puts it. “We really want to build a real time account to account network on global scale to move money instantly overcome the legacy of systems like Swift.”
The Funding Journey
Volt’s fundraising journey reflects their unconventional path. Rather than chase any available capital, they prioritized investors who deeply understood their space. “For us it was much more important than the money itself… having partners on the other side to understand what we build, why we build it, why it’s tough, why it’s not going to be a straight line,” Steffen emphasizes.
This approach has helped them raise $87 million to date, with major investors including EQT, Augmentum, and IVP betting on their vision of global real-time payments.
For B2B founders, Volt’s journey offers valuable lessons: speed to market can trump perfection, product-market fit is an ongoing process rather than a destination, and sometimes the most valuable insights come from understanding the human elements of your industry – like how sales talent organizes itself around verticals. It’s a reminder that even in the technical world of fintech, success often comes down to understanding and adapting to the real-world dynamics of your market.
Actionable
Takeaways
Speed to MVP Beats Infrastructure:
Volt launched their initial prototype in just six months, compared to the industry standard of 2-3 years. Steffen explained, "We really focused on what is the fastest path to deliver something that has enough value for a merchants who actually put us on their checkout as a payment option." B2B founders should prioritize delivering core value quickly over building perfect infrastructure.
Vertical Focus Drives Team Success:
The team discovered that sales and marketing professionals in payments are highly specialized by vertical. Steffen noted, "Many salespeople in the industry are so specialized, they really join companies with a focus for their vertical where they have their network." B2B founders should commit to specific verticals long-term to attract and retain top talent.
Product Market Fit is Continuous:
Rather than a single moment, Volt experienced multiple "false" product market fits before achieving true traction. Steffen shared, "Every product advantage nowadays is temporary. You always need to be fast, you always need to be scrappy, you always need to think ahead." B2B founders should view product market fit as an ongoing process rather than a destination.
Strategic Channel Selection:
Volt deliberately chose to focus on large PSPs as distribution partners rather than pursuing SMEs directly. Steffen explained, "We really want to focus our resources on where we can move the needle for our revenue impact." B2B founders should evaluate distribution channels based on internal efficiency and resource constraints.
Investment Partner Alignment:
During fundraising, Volt prioritized investors who deeply understood their space over pure capital. Steffen emphasized, "For us it was much more important than the money itself... having partners on the other side to understand what we build, why we build it, why it's tough, why it's not going to be a straight line." B2B founders should seek investors who truly understand their market dynamics and challenges.
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