Documented cause
Volt was founded in 2020 by Toby Triebel and Tom Greenwood in London with the premise that open banking APIs — mandated by PSD2 regulation across Europe — could displace card network rails for online merchants, offering faster settlement, lower fees, and no chargeback risk. The concept was positioned as the next generation of payment infrastructure: account-to-account payments triggered directly from a customer's bank, bypassing Visa and Mastercard entirely. Volt raised $83 million from EQT Ventures, Augmentum Fintech, ING Ventures, and Backed VC, signing 200+ merchants including global retailers and travel platforms. The reality of open banking payments adoption proved significantly slower than projected: while PSD2 gave consumers the right to share bank data and initiate payments, consumer habituation to card payments created enormous switching friction. The checkout conversion rates for bank-based payments remained below those for established card flows across most merchant categories, making it difficult for Volt to prove the ROI needed to drive widespread adoption. By mid-2023, despite a credible merchant roster and real technical infrastructure, Volt was unable to close its planned Series C funding round in the deteriorating fintech fundraising environment. In September 2023, Volt announced its closure, letting go approximately 130 employees across its London, Berlin, and Amsterdam offices with minimal notice. The shutdown was a signal that the timeline for open banking to reach mainstream adoption was measured in decades, not years — too slow for a venture-backed startup on a 3-year runway.
Alternative account: Volt was founded in 2019 in London by Tom Greenwood to build the infrastructure layer for open banking payments across Europe — enabling merchants to accept direct account-to-account payments as an alternative to card network fees. The company raised $85M from Augmentum Fintech, EQT Ventures, and other investors and built connections to banking systems in 30+ markets under PSD2, covering the majority of European bank accounts. The business model depended on large merchants replacing a meaningful portion of card payments with cheaper open banking alternatives — a displacement that proved slower than the funding runway could absorb. Card networks had decades of merchant relationships, consumer trust, chargeback protection, and rewards points that open banking payments could not replicate. Volt's attempt to raise a £100M Series B in 2022 failed when investor appetite for payments infrastructure dried up in the broader VC correction. The company announced its closure in July 2022 with a transparent blog post by CEO Tom Greenwood that became one of the most-shared startup shutdown posts of the year.