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An instant push-and-pull payment processor for regulated fintechs (Dave is a client) that grew from three people to a $100M net-revenue run rate on one $2.5M seed round, almost entirely through inbound from banks and card networks.
profitable · growing 35–40% a year · 150 employees · only $2.5M raised in the first nine years, then a $155M round
"Go after the minnows and eventually you get the whales": TabaPay's first ten customers were small fintechs whose founders the team knew, and today inbound from Visa and 20 partner banks brings the big accounts. Robinson's verdict on B2B outbound: "I don't think outbound works at all."
Fewer bars = easier, cheaper, or faster for an AI-assisted solo builder. Editorial judgments based on the case details.
TabaPay connects regulated fintechs to card networks and banks so they can move money both ways: instant disbursements and instant collections. Rodney Robinson had already sold an instant push-payment company to Mastercard (it became Mastercard Send) and ran that group for two years. Every customer he served wanted to both pay out and collect, but Mastercard did not want to compete with the big processors on pull payments. So about ten years ago he left with a long-time cofounder and a sales colleague to build the two-way version. The investor from his previous company put in $2.5 million, the only outside money for the first nine years. It took a year to assemble vendors, software and a sponsor bank, which required Robinson to pledge his house as a personal guarantee. The first ten customers were small fintechs whose founders the team knew. Today TabaPay has about 150 people, a $100 million run rate in net revenue, profitability, and 35–40% annual growth, and it has just raised $155 million to capitalize a bank it is acquiring. This is regulated infrastructure, not a lightweight software template.
For an infrastructure product sold to regulated fintechs, the first customers usually come through a concentrated network of founders, banking partners, and former colleagues. Map the specific job that is painful and expensive, then identify ten small companies with the same workflow and a reason to trust your team.
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Data credibility: CEO and cofounder Rodney Robinson states the figures himself on SaaS Club (host Omer Khan): $100M run rate in net revenue, 150 people, profitable, 35–40% annual growth, a single $2.5M seed round for nine years, a newly announced $155M round to capitalize a bank, 82 million settled transactions a month, 100M+ cards on file, gross retention in the high 90s and net retention of 130–140%. The host's intro calls it $100M ARR; Robinson's own term is run-rate net revenue. No financials are shown, and his margin wording is garbled in the transcript, so no margin figure is used.
For TabaPay, the first dollar arrived only after a year of assembling the product and reaching live operation. Robinson says the company began earning money roughly six to eighteen months after going live, and that its first ten customers were small fintech firms whose founders the team knew.
The flywheel began with distribution through a new fintech bank and emerging payment network segments that were underserved. Those partners could introduce TabaPay to companies already seeking instant push and pull capabilities.
Long stretches in infrastructure can feel quiet because customers notice the service most when it fails. Early founders should treat each live integration and support incident as feedback, then document the cause and response.
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