The Struggle of Tracking Customer Balances

Engineers tasked with tracking customer balances often find it a tedious and challenging task. Traditional ledger systems require a deep understanding of accounting vocabulary and processes, making it difficult for engineers to implement without specialized knowledge.

Fragment: Simplifying Payments with a Ledger API

Fragment is a startup that aims to revolutionize the way engineers build payments systems by offering a ledger API that makes real-time, double-entry accounting accessible and intuitive.

• The API provides engineers with the ability to create and manage financial products without the need for extensive accounting knowledge.
• Fragment simplifies the process of reconciling balances between the product and the bank, ensuring accurate and efficient accounting.
• The company's founders, Thomas Neckel and Omi Chowdhury, have a proven track record in building successful fintech companies, having previously created Scuid and Cove.io.

Addressing Reconciliation Issues in Fintech

Fragment addresses the issue of reconciliation problems, a recurring concern in the fintech industry. The company's solution eliminates the potential for discrepancies and finger-pointing between fintech products and banks.

• Fragment ensures that balances within the fintech product are in lockstep with the bank and balance sheets.
• This eliminates the need for manual reconciliation, allowing businesses to close their books faster and with greater accuracy.

How Fragment's API Works

Fragment's API empowers fintech developers to create financial products with ease. Engineers can use the API to:

• Compose fund flows, representing the steps involved in a transaction.
• Convert these flows into code for integration into their products.
• Track and manage the historical balances of their customers.

Early Customers and Funding

Fragment has already garnered traction with early customers, including TruckSmarter, Nala, and Pleo.

• TruckSmarter utilizes Fragment to manage fuel payments and finance purchases.
• Nala uses the platform to facilitate payments to Africa.
• Pleo, a B2B spend management platform, leverages Fragment to track balances for its 30,000 customers.

The company recently secured a $9 million seed round led by prominent fintech investors, including Stripe, BoxGroup, and Avid Ventures. This brings Fragment's total funding to $10.8 million since its inception in 2021.

Fragment's Competition and Future Goals

Fragment competes directly with companies like Modern Treasury, which also focuses on payments infrastructure. However, Fragment distinguishes itself by aiming to address the fundamental problem of exchanging value online, beyond just balances.

Fragment's Vision for the Future of Payments

Fragment's vision is to empower developers to build the next generation of payments systems, just as Stripe democratized payments infrastructure for companies like Amazon.

• Fragment's API aims to make financial infrastructure as accessible and programmable as other core technologies.
• The company plans to use its funding to expand its engineering team and invest in go-to-market resources.