Solutions by Text Secures $110 Million Growth Round Led by Edison Partners and StepStone Group

Compliance leader on pace to double messaging volume this year, as highly regulated industries increase adoption of compliant text and text-based payment solutions

DALLAS, May 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Solutions by Text (SBT), a leading platform for compliance-first messaging and payments, today announced raising $110 million in new growth financing. Growth equity investment firm Edison Partners co-led the transaction with StepStone Group, a global private markets investment firm. Stifel Venture Bank, a division of Stifel Bank, provided a lending facility.

Since Edison Partners' initial investment in November 2021, both SBT's bookings and revenue have grown more than 3X through compliant messaging and payment solutions built for consumer finance businesses across origination, servicing, marketing and accounts receivable use cases. In 2023, SBT's messaging volume increased 95% from the prior year. This year, SBT is on pace to more than double messaging volume growth.

"We are so pleased that Edison Partners and StepStone share our conviction about the vast potential for an enterprise-scale compliance platform to orchestrate text messaging and payments in consumer finance," said David Baxter, CEO of Solutions By Text. "Consumers want an alternative to endless emails, confusing web portals, and lengthy rounds with call centers when engaging their financial providers. While texting is ubiquitous with consumers, it has not matched up with the rigorous business requirements of finance regulators and carrier networks. We have bridged this divide to drive massive returns for our financial customers and put us on an accelerated upward growth trajectory."

Text messaging proves to be one of the most effective ways to reach consumers. Ninety percent of consumers prefer text over other forms of communication, with the majority of text messages received and read in under five minutes. Despite this, and in the face of increasing regulatory complexity and carrier policies, 60% of SBT's new customers were not using text messaging for fear of violations over the last 12 months. The difficulty of compliance has also forced some customer engagement and messaging providers to exit the financial services sector. Currently, SBT is the only end-to-end enterprise compliance platform for messaging and payments solutions to serve the consumer finance industry.

SBT's compliant-forward platform is also enabling its customers to tap into new opportunities such as payments, where the dynamics are ripe for messaging. Nearly 17 billion bills are issued each year in the U.S. at an annual growth rate of 7%, comprising nearly $6 trillion in spend. Of this, 40% of bills focus on consumer finances. However, while 88% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers say they would make a text payment, only 9% have been given the opportunity (see: Datos report).

"When Edison first invested in SBT two and a half years ago, we saw a founder-led, capital-efficient business with a competitive moat that went deep on regulatory and carrier compliance and wide on financial industry solutions and third-party technology integrations," said Kelly Ford, General Partner, Edison Partners. "Since then, David and his team have consistently overperformed and further cemented unparalleled trust among regulators, carriers and leading financial institutions. It's been an incredible partnership that we're thrilled to continue through this next phase of profitable growth."

With this investment, SBT will continue accelerating growth with large financial institutions, expand its payments and artificial intelligence capabilities, and seek inorganic opportunities.

About Solutions by Text

Solutions by Text (SBT) is the pioneer of FinText™, empowering enterprise financial services companies to compliantly engage, interact and transact with their consumers in real-time. The nation's largest consumer finance organizations rely on SBT's robust compliance platform to mitigate legal and reputational risk while driving messaging and payments performance throughout the consumer lifecycle – from marketing and loan origination to servicing, collections and bill payment. SBT has been recognized as a Built In Best Place to Work and an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company. For more information about Solutions By Text, please visit solutionsbytext.com and follow on LinkedIn.

About Edison Partners

Edison Partners is a leading growth equity firm providing the financial and intellectual capital that CEOs and their executive teams need to grow and scale their companies. The firm's team brings more than 275 years of combined investing, operating and sector experience to each investment, accessible via the Edison Edge value creation platform, which is tailored to each business' strategy, stage and operating needs. Edison targets high-growth vertical SaaS, financial technology, healthcare IT and marketplace companies located outside Silicon Valley with $10 million to $30 million in revenue. Investments also include buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, and secondary stock purchases. Named as a Top Growth Investment Firm by GrowthCap for two years running, Edison's active portfolio has created aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion. Edison Partners manages $1.7 billion in assets. For more information on Edison Partners, please visit edisonpartners.com and follow on LinkedIn.

Media:
Gregory Papajohn
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SOURCE Solutions by Text