Sila, a startup platform for banking and payments APIs, has raised $7.7 million in seed funding led by Madrona Venture Group and Oregon Venture Fund. 

The funding was supported by Madrona Capital, 99 Tartans, Taavet Kintikus, the co-fouder and CEO of Transferwise and entrepreneur Jerry Neumman. 

The proceeds will be used to accelerate growth and introduce new product features to give software developers easier access to the global financial system. 

"The global financial system is broken — despite the global payments industry being $1.9 trillion in revenue, it doesn't serve consumers, small businesses or the innovators trying to reach them," Sharmir Karkal, founder and CEO of Sila, said in a press release. "It is too expensive, inefficient, tightly regulated and difficult to integrate into FinTech applications."

The platform, which launched in April 2019, helps reduce the time and cost to go to market by allowing applications to move money in a manner that complies with government regulations. Software teams can add Know Your Customer verification, links to bank accounts and the ability to deposit into digital wallets.

The API also has a built-in stablecoin called SILA, which is an ERC-20 token pegged 100:1 to the U.S. dollar, with funds held in an FDIC-insured bank. 

Hope Cochran, managing director at Madrona, and Rick Holt, lead investor at Oregon Venture Fund, will join the Sila board. Matt Compton, general partner at Oregon, will join as a board observer.