Assessment
Relay is used by small businesses that want banking plus money organization tools. It reports more than 110,000 businesses served and more than $1B in managed customer deposits, and its best use cases are multi-account cash-flow management, bill pay, and advisor collaboration. Starter plans are marketed with clear fee language, and its main competitors are Mercury, Bluevine, and Novo.
Yoseph West is co-founder and chief executive. The May 2024 Series B of $32.2M was led by Bain Capital Ventures. Banking services are provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC.
It fits an SMB that wants Profit First-style account buckets and day-to-day money ops. It is a weaker fit for a fintech building BaaS products, and for a company that needs international multi-currency treasury as the core product.
Rating by criterion
We score each of the eight criteria out of 100.
Sector criteria
Open multiple checking and savings accounts to separate operating cash. Relay markets account organization as a core workflow.
Use debit and credit cards with expense tools. Cards and spend controls are next to the accounts.
Run bill pay, invoices, and payable workflows from the same platform.
Connect bookkeeping and advisor workflows. Relay markets accountant and bookkeeper collaboration.
Vendor criteria
Expect continued SMB product work after the Series B.
Apply in minutes for a standard SMB account. Onboarding is designed for small businesses rather than enterprise RFPs.
See plan fees on public pricing pages. Relay emphasizes no hidden fees.
Standard SMB terms apply through Thread Bank partnership rather than custom bank contracts for every customer.
Against its peers
These are the other companies in business banking and treasury, with their ratings.
User comments
Buyer-oriented points below are drawn from Relay’s home page, about page, and Series B post.
- Upside
- Upside
- Downside
Where customer reviews couldn't be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums and product documentation. We omit sites where vendors pay to be featured or pay for a review, plus any review the site flags as incentivized.
Based on: Relay home page; Relay, Series B post.
Fact file
| Co-founder and CEO | Yoseph West |
|---|---|
| Customers | More than 110,000 businesses |
| Managed deposits | More than $1B |
| Series B | $32.2M, May 2024 |
| Bank partner | Thread Bank, Member FDIC |
Competitive landscape
SMB business banking products a US owner would compare with Relay.
Relay: 80
Lili targets freelancers and small businesses with checking, bookkeeping, tax-savings buckets, and invoicing, where Relay is built around many accounts for cash planning.
Comparisons
Key leadership
Yoseph West co-founded Relay and is its chief executive. He previously led marketing at Hubdoc through its acquisition by Xero.
How this review was created
This profile gives our own assessment of Relay to companies selecting a Business banking & treasury provider. The Fintech Index receives nothing for featuring a firm, for sponsorship, or for advertising, and Relay gave us no payment for the profile.
The rating equals the average of eight criteria, with every criterion running from 0 to 100. Four address buyer needs in this sector, and four address the company together with its commercial terms.
Ratings are our editorial judgment, made from public information: pricing and legal pages, product documentation, compliance disclosures, public reviews and filings. Fact-checking took place on November 6, 2026.
Source pages
- Relay home page: https://relayfi.com/ (As of November 6, 2026)
- Relay, about: https://relayfi.com/about (As of November 6, 2026)
- Relay, Series B post: https://relayfi.com/blog/series-b/ (As of November 6, 2026)
- BetaKit, May 2024: https://betakit.com/bain-leads-second-round-in-relay-financial-as-smb-focused-fintech-closes-44-million-cad-series-b/ (As of November 6, 2026)