# Richie Serna

> Richie Serna is the CEO and co-founder of Finix, a full-stack payments infrastructure company he built from the ground up in San Francisco. A Harvard-educated son of Mexican immigrant parents from Santa Ana, California, Serna left management consulting at Booz & Company, taught himself to code, and joined Balanced - the first payments API for marketplaces - before founding Finix in 2015. Today, Finix has raised $205.5M in total funding (including a $75M Series C in October 2024) and has become a direct-connection payment processor competing with Stripe, Adyen, and Braintree, serving software platforms and marketplaces processing billions of dollars annually.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-Founder at Finix
- **Organizations:** Finix, Balanced, Booz & Company, JP Morgan, City of Los Angeles Mayor's Office
- **From:** Santa Ana, California, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** A.B., Cum Laude, Government, Harvard University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Finix in 2015 and grew it to $205.5M in total funding, Led Finix to become a full-stack acquirer processor, competing directly with Stripe, Adyen, and Braintree, Raised $75M Series C in October 2024 from Acrew Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Leap Global

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Graduated Harvard University with A.B. Cum Laude in Government
- **2010** — Investment Banking Intern at J.P. Morgan
- **2010-2011** — Worked in the LA Mayor's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development
- **2011-2013** — Management Consultant at Booz & Company Financial Services group, New York
- **2013** — Moved to San Francisco, lived in a Hacker House at $30/night to learn software engineering
- **2013-2015** — Software Engineer at Balanced - the first payments API designed for marketplaces
- **2015** — Balanced acquired by Stripe; led customer migration to Stripe
- **2015** — Co-founded Finix with Sean Donovan
- **2017** — Raised first term sheet after pitching 70+ investors over 6 months
- **2019** — Finix had 15 employees and growing customer base
- **2021** — Finix raised $102M total; team grew to 100+ employees
- **2023** — Finix became a full-stack acquirer processor with direct card network connections
- **2024** — Finix expanded to Canada for cross-border payments
- **2024-10** — Raised $75M Series C led by Acrew Capital, co-led by Lightspeed and Leap Global
- **2025** — Finix launched Q1 2025 payment features; 22M+ non-developer businesses served

## Achievements

- Co-founded Finix in 2015 and grew it to $205.5M in total funding
- Led Finix to become a full-stack acquirer processor, competing directly with Stripe, Adyen, and Braintree
- Raised $75M Series C in October 2024 from Acrew Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Leap Global
- Expanded Finix to Canada in 2024 for unified cross-border payments
- Built Finix from 15 employees (2019) to 170+ employees
- Graduated Harvard University cum laude in Government
- First career engineer at Balanced, the pioneering payments API for marketplaces
- Participated in Rosenblatt Securities Fintech Summit for five consecutive years (2021-2025)
- Processed billions of dollars annually through Finix's payment infrastructure

## Latest updates

- **2025-01** — Finix launched Q1 2025 payment features focused on making it easier for customers to accept and pay out funds
- **2024-10** — Closed $75M Series C led by Acrew Capital; Citi Ventures and Tribeca Venture Partners joined as new investors
- **2024-08** — Launched no-code suite including Checkout Pages, Payment Links, Virtual Terminal, and Tokenization Forms
- **2024-03** — Finix expanded to Canada, enabling unified cross-border US-Canada payment management

## Links

- Website: https://finix.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richie-serna
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/RSerna2010

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/richie-serna
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-23