Digital banking solutions provider Blend has forged a partnership with instant payments-as-a-service company Astra. The partnership will integrate Astra’s Card to Account payment solution directly within Blend’s Deposit Account application flow. This will enable Blend customers to drive digital engagement beyond the initial application capture, lowering abandonment rates and helping consumers complete applications faster.
“Today consumers expect a frictionless, real-time product experience, and that starts at account opening,” Astra CEO and Co-Founder Gil Akos said. “Financial institutions and fintechs need to deliver a best-in-class onboarding flow to win new customers – instant account funding is the perfect solution, leading to improved activation rates of 30% or better on day one. We’re proud to partner with Blend to offer this experience to their customers.”
Funding by card is an increasingly popular option given the relative inconvenience of other methods, such as ACH transfers. By comparison, funding new accounts via debit cards is a faster and more seamless process (no routing or account numbers to remember). And because cards only enable transactions up to the available balance, card funding also helps avoid potential overdrafts when using ACH transfers, a risk for consumers who may have limited funds or irregular cash flow.
Further advantages include accelerated onboarding, more activated accounts, reduced abandonment, a smoother application experience, and less manual intervention.
Blend noted in a statement that card funding is also one of the more popular ways for consumers to fund new accounts. The company pointed to one of its customers, a major credit union, that reported that 82% of their new deposit accounts were funded using Astra card funding. Another credit union customer of Blend said that 66% of its consumers preferred funding via Astra card compared to other methods. Card funding for Blend Deposit Accounts is now generally available for all customers.
Astra offers a platform for instant payments that enables product teams to embed payments into their solutions. The company’s API facilitates seamless fund transfers between bank accounts and cards, providing a fast, secure, and built-for-scale alternative to traditional fund transfer methods such as ACH.
Astra launched its first, end-to-end instant payment solution with FedNow in the fall of 2023. In December, the company announced a partnership with merchant connectivity platform Knot to enable seamless card switching with instant funding. Founded in 2016, Astra is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Blend demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2016. At the conference, the company demoed its Data-Driven Mortgage solution which leverages high-fidelity data sources to drive down origination costs, maintain digital compliance, and provide a positive user experience for borrowers.
Last month, Blend announced its acquisition of applied AI company nuvu, and expanded its partnership with DataIQ. In May, Blend secured an investment of $150 million from technology-focused private equity firm Haveli Investments.
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2012, Blend is a publicly-traded company on the NYSE. Trading under the ticker BLND, the company has a market capitalization of $678 million. Nima Ghamsari is CEO and Co-Founder.