Tilia Continues Investment Momentum, Announces $22M Amidst Rapid Customer Growth, Appoints Brad Oberwager CEO

Tech and payments industry vet Catherine Porter hired as Chief Business Officer to capture growing market opportunity to power digital economies

SAN FRANCISCO, March 14, 2023 – Tilia LLC, the all-in-one payments platform for digital economies, today announced additional financing as well as the appointments of Brad Oberwager as CEO and Catherine Porter as the company’s first Chief Business Officer. To support Tilia’s continued expansion, the company has raised a total of $22M in strategic funding with Seoul-based fintech leader Dunamu now joining existing investor J.P. Morgan Payments. The investment will help Tilia to further scale its platform and address the growing market need for trusted, dynamic payments in online games, creator platforms, social commerce and other digital social worlds.

Brad Oberwager is a seasoned entrepreneur with a successful track record founding and leading multiple technology and consumer-focused companies, including More.com (acquired by HealthCentral in 2000), Blue Tiger Network (acquired by CarParts Technologies in 2003) and Bare Snacks (acquired by PepsiCo in 2018). Over the past 2 years, Oberwager has served as Executive Chair at Tilia, and in his expanded role as CEO, he will leverage his deep knowledge of Tilia’s business alongside his decades of company-building experience to guide the company through its next phase of growth. In addition to his role at Tilia, Oberwager will continue to serve as Executive Chairman at Linden Research, Inc. With Oberwager as CEO, Tilia has appointed Aston Waldman as chief financial officer.

“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,” said Brad Oberwager. “At Tilia, we have a massive opportunity to unlock new revenue streams for both online creators and the platforms they build in, whether they are gaming worlds, social platforms, or next generation marketplaces. As I take the helm at Tilia, my focus will be on providing a payments system that enables these expanding digital economies.”

Joining Oberwager on Tilia’s executive team, Catherine Porter brings more than two decades of experience leading strategy, sales, marketing, and business development for consumer and enterprise technology companies. Before joining Tilia, Porter led global partnerships and fintech innovation at Meta, including building the Diem ecosystem in partnership with other Diem members, and building the traditional payments ecosystem for all Meta products worldwide. She has also worked at other category-leading companies including OpenTable, LinkedIn, Google, and Oracle. As Chief Business Officer at Tilia, Porter will be responsible for leading business and corporate development, licensing efforts, strategic planning and team growth.

“I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is to build payments networks, even at the biggest global tech companies,” said Catherine Porter, Chief Business Officer of Tilia. “I joined Tilia because it has the track record, the technology, and the regulatory expertise necessary to create a trusted and safe financial system for every online economy, and we have only scratched the surface of what’s possible.”

Scaling to Meet the Unique Needs of the Growing Digital Economy

The new funding comes amidst growing demand for Tilia’s payments engine, which is designed to adapt to the needs of any digital economy, and unlock new forms of monetization for creator and social-driven platforms. 

• UGC creator payments – Tilia’s infrastructure powers user-generated content transactions and microtransactions, allowing direct payouts to creators and their collaborators. Pathways to monetize UGC are made possible through Tilia, with profits distributed easily and efficiently.
• Minting and managing virtual tokens – Tilia mints branded tokens that are U.S. compliant and have a fixed conversion rate to fiat currency. This unlocks the ability for users and creators to buy and sell digital goods and services, which have the potential to be portable across platforms in the future without worrying about functionality or regulation.
• Secure, pseudonymous transactions – Tilia’s platform bridges the digital and physical worlds, enabling KYC-compliant transactions while allowing users to operate under their online identities and avatars. This approach uniquely enables thousands of trusted transactions every day while protecting user identity.

"With Tilia, community members who download user-generated content can directly support their favorite creators, further accelerating the shift towards player-led innovation and economies,” said Scott Reismanis, CEO & Co-founder at mod.io, UGC platform for game studios that leverages Tilia to give its users seamless options.

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About Tilia LLC

Tilia LLC is the all-in-one payments platform for digital economies. Through its payments infrastructure technology and as a licensed money transmitter in the U.S., Tilia is unlocking the full potential of online economies by providing secure, regulated transactions at massive scale. For more information, visit www.tilia.io.

‍Contact

Katie Dunne | tilia@thehatchagency.com