Dive Brief:

• The startup Tilia, which is backed by JPMorgan Chase, said it has raised new funding and appointed a new CEO, according to a press release issued Tuesday. The company’s executive chairman, Brad Oberwager, is taking over as CEO from the interim CEO, Aston Waldman, who will remain as chief financial officer, according to a spokesperson for the company. 
• The San Francisco-based company landed an investment from a South Korean firm as Tilia targets expansion by selling its digital payment services to creator-driven sectors, such as gaming, social media and other next-generation marketplaces.
• “Today’s payments infrastructure was built for traditional commerce — it hasn’t caught up with the new way of living and working in a digital, creator-driven economy,” Oberwager said in the release.

Dive Insight:

Tilia calls itself an “all-in-one payments platform for digital economies” and notes that it’s also a licensed U.S. money transmitter.

The CEO switch comes as Tilia has raised additional investment dollars from the South Korea fintech firm Dunamu. The payments unit of JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, made an investment in Tilia last year. In total, Tilia has now raised $22 million. A spokesperson for Tilia declined to say how much was invested by each investor.

Oberwager has experience in selling startups to larger companies. He led technology and consumer-focused companies before they were acquired, including More.com, which was bought by HealthCentral in 2000; Blue Tiger Network, which was acquired by CarParts Technologies in 2003; and Bare Snacks, purchased by PepsiCo in 2018, according to the release.

The new equity financing is expected to aid Tilia in scaling its business of providing payments to the online gaming industry as well as creator platforms and other social commerce and digital marketplaces.

As part of the executive suite overhaul, Tilia has also appointed its first chief business officer, Catherine Porter, according to the release. 

Oberwager and Waldman are also both associated with Linden Research, which is the parent company to Tilia. Tilia was spun out in 2019 and the company didn’t have a CEO prior to Waldman, the spokesperson said.