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Straddle 101 - Internal
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      • Payments vs Transfers
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      • How to avoid breaking APIs
        • Breaking changes in JSON APIs
      • How to: Friction Logs
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    • Payment Systems
      • ACH
        • ACH Basics
        • Flow of Funds
        • ACH Primer
          • Why do businesses choose ACH?
          • ACH vs wire transfers: what’s the difference?
          • What is Nacha and is your business compliant?
          • What is an ACH debit?
          • What is direct debit?
          • What is ACH credit and how does it work?
          • How does an ACH deposit work? A behind the scenes look
          • How an ACH transfer works: a complex process explained
        • Nacha Quick Reference Guide
          • ACH Returns Quick Reference

Manifesto

Identity‑powered. Multi‑rail. Real‑time.

1. The Problem

Decades‑old rails, siloed data, and misaligned incentives have frozen payment innovation. To launch even a basic account‑to‑account flow, businesses juggle multiple vendors—identity, account linking, fraud tools, compliance—and still face the Payments Trilemma:
WTF?
Rail
Speed
Cost
Security / Fraud Risk
Operational Burden
ACH
Slow (1‑3 days)
Low
High returns & reversals
Batch windows, NACHA rules
Wire
Real‑time
Very high
Strong
Manual initiation, no APIs
Card
Seconds
High interchange
Chargebacks
Complex PCI scope
RTP / FedNow
Seconds
Moderate
Irrevocable → fraud exposure
Limited bank reach & tooling
There are no rows in this table
Because each rail enforces its own data model and risk rules, no one gets a unified view of the customer. Businesses are forced to pick two of the three: speed, cost, or security.
image.png

2. Our Vision

Money should move like data—instantly, and securely.
We imagine a world where any company can light up best‑in‑class payments with a single API key and where identity travels with every transaction, turning fragmented rails into a programmable, trusted network.

3. Our Principles

Principle
What It Means
Why It Matters
Identity is the atomic unit
Every paykey is bound to a real identity and linked account(s).
Eliminates pull‑fraud, enables irrevocable push payments, and lets risk models share ground truth.
The full stack is the only stack
Straddle bundles KYC, open banking, orchestration, monitoring, and compliance in one service.
Fewer vendors, zero glue code, aligned incentives.
Be opinionated
Default configurations bake in regulatory best practice, sanction screening tiers, and velocity limits.
Customers get bank‑grade compliance without becoming payments experts.
It just works across rails
Our engine dynamically routes over ACH, RTP, FedNow, card, and on‑chain networks based on cost, cutoff, and risk.
Solves the fragmentation of US payment rails
Payments as a flywheel
Drop‑in components let products embed identity‑powered checkout, payouts, and account funding.
Companies from startups to enterprise can ship faster and scale safer with Straddle
There are no rows in this table

4. What Changes with Straddle

Speed & Cost → Yes, Both Multi‑rail routing matches real‑time speed with ACH‑level economics—without hidden interchange or third‑party mark‑ups.
Security Built‑In, Not Bolted‑On Shared identity, device, and account telemetry stop fraud before funds leave the originating bank.
Compliant by Default FinCEN, OFAC, and Nacha rules are part of the product
Developer Experience that Respects Developers REST + webhooks + SDK, sane webhooks, real sandbox data, and a single /charges endpoint—no “/achTransfer” vs “/rtpTransfer” fragmentation.

5. The Outcome

Businesses launch faster, reconcile less, and keep more margin. Consumers enjoy the certainty of real‑time, fraud‑proof payments. Innovators build products once deemed impossible on legacy rails—ranging from instant wage access to programmable escrow—and they do it without ever opening a NACHA rulebook.
Straddle collapses the payment stack to two parties: you and the customer. Everything in between—identity, connectivity, orchestration, compliance—lives in an invisible infrastructure layer you reference with a single line of code.
We’re turning the Payments Trilemma into a solved problem so the next generation of fintech, marketplaces, and platforms can focus on what they do best: creating value.
Join us in making payments finally work for the internet era.

 
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