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Forward announced a $16 million seed round on May 30, 2024, led by Commerce Ventures, Elefund, and Fiserv. The Austin-based fintech sells software and operational support to SaaS companies that want to embed payments in their products and take a larger role in the merchant relationship. The financing is a historical announcement; Forward’s current product descriptions are company statements, not independent confirmation of its scale or results.
What Forward announced in May 2024
Forward said the $16 million seed financing would help it serve more software partners and apply AI to payment-risk functions. TechCrunch reported that the company began beta processing in the fourth quarter of 2023 and that Fiserv was already a customer when the round was announced. The same report said Fiserv’s strategic partnership could give it reach into more than 1,500 SaaS companies and tens of billions of dollars in annual payment volume; that describes the potential reach reported at the time, not Forward’s own current processing volume.
Forward’s announcement quoted CEO Brandon Lloyd saying, “Most software companies get the technical part right, but fail to achieve their business goals.” The underlying pitch is that simply connecting a payment processor may not give a software company enough control over the customer experience, economics, or day-to-day payment operations.
Sources: TechCrunch, May 30, 2024; Forward’s May 30, 2024 announcement via PRWeb.
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What integrated payments mean for a SaaS company
With embedded or integrated payments, a merchant can accept and manage payments within the software it already uses, rather than being sent through a separate, visibly disconnected payment experience. For the SaaS provider, that can mean a closer role in the merchant relationship and a chance to monetize payments. It also brings more decisions and operational responsibilities than a basic software integration.
Forward positions itself as a software and services platform for payment facilitation. Its May 2024 description included program design, integration assistance, merchant support, and a path toward registered payment-facilitator operations. Co-founder and CTO Derek Victory said the goal was for “Payments [to] feel like an extension of their brand, not a disjointed hand-off.”
In the announcement, Forward claimed that SaaS partners could increase revenue two to three times by adding payments as a product. The company also cited a JPMorgan Chase analyst forecast that software would account for 50% of the U.S. payments market by 2030. These are, respectively, a company claim and a forecast quoted by Forward—not verified outcomes or a realized market share. TechCrunch also reported Lloyd’s statement that about $0.70 per transaction was returned to software companies on average at that time. That figure is historical and should not be treated as a current rate or a universal promise.
Sources: Forward’s May 30, 2024 announcement via PRWeb; TechCrunch, May 30, 2024; Forward, “Redefining Integrated Payments: Meet Forward,” May 16, 2024.
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How Forward describes its current offering
As of October 8, 2026, Forward’s website lists four plans—Protect, Maximize, Rails, and PFAC—with different combinations of risk protection, payment operations, white-label sales, developer tools, underwriting, monitoring, support, compliance, authorization, and settlement. The company says platforms can move between programs as their capabilities change. The plans and features below are Forward’s current descriptions, not independently audited guarantees; specific terms and pricing may depend on an agreement.
| Plan | How Forward positions it |
|---|---|
| Protect | Forward describes a program with risk protection and payment operations support. |
| Maximize | Forward presents this as a way to build a larger role in payment sales and economics, with company-defined features and assumptions. |
| Rails | Forward describes payment infrastructure and developer-oriented tools for platforms seeking more direct involvement. |
| PFAC | Forward positions this around a payment-facilitator-oriented operating model. |
The company’s capabilities page lists recurring payments, a card-present SDK, alternative payment methods, ACH/e-check, SoftPOS, third-party gateways, tokenization, hosted payment pages, compliant surcharging, dual pricing, pay-by-bank, account updater, and network tokens. A SaaS company should confirm which capabilities apply to its use case, geography, payment methods, and selected plan rather than assume every listed feature is included in every arrangement.
Forward’s pricing page also uses illustrative plan shares and revenue examples based on assumed scale and customer mix. Those examples are not quotes or industry-wide benchmarks. Its product updates index lists posts through May 2026, showing ongoing publication of product information, but those pages do not establish current revenue, processing volume, customer count, or financial condition.
Sources: Forward homepage, accessed October 8, 2026; Forward pricing page, accessed October 8, 2026; Forward capabilities page, accessed October 8, 2026; Forward Product Updates, accessed October 8, 2026.
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What to compare before choosing an embedded-payments model
Forward’s pitch is not enough by itself to determine whether a managed PayFac, another provider, or a more direct operating model suits a particular software business. Compare the structure of the offer and the work your team would need to own.
- Economics and pricing control: Ask how processing costs, provider fees, revenue shares, and other charges are calculated, and whether the platform can set or influence merchant pricing. Request assumptions behind any revenue illustration and model your own transaction mix.
- Customer relationship and branding: Clarify who owns merchant communication, onboarding, support, and the visible payment experience. Confirm what can be white-labeled and where the merchant may interact with the provider or other parties.
- Underwriting, risk, and compliance: Identify who reviews merchants, monitors transactions, manages disputes, and handles compliance obligations. A service description is not a substitute for a contract that allocates responsibility.
- Operations and support: Establish what the provider handles—such as payment operations, settlement, and merchant support—and what remains with your team. Confirm service levels and escalation paths in writing.
- Integration effort and product fit: Check supported payment methods, gateways, card-present needs, developer tools, and the work required to fit the payment flow into your software.
- Migration and control: Ask how the platform can move between programs or bring functions in-house, what data and payment relationships can move, and what contract or technical constraints apply.
The May 2024 coverage framed Forward as taking on Stripe, but the available sources do not provide a current, numeric head-to-head comparison. Treat the choice as a fit and responsibility question, not a conclusion that one provider is categorically better.
What the funding story does—and does not—establish
The seed round shows that Forward announced institutional financing and named Commerce Ventures, Elefund, and Fiserv as its lead investors. The contemporaneous beta and customer reporting supplies context for the launch period. Neither the funding announcement nor Forward’s current marketing pages independently verifies the company’s present scale, merchant outcomes, current transaction economics, or financial health.
For a SaaS operator, the useful takeaway is narrower: Forward is pitching a combination of payment software and operational support, with a stated route from managed services toward payment-facilitator operations. Whether that model improves economics or customer experience depends on the platform’s own volume, merchant profile, operational capacity, negotiated terms, and appetite for responsibility.
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