The shift from physical to digital payments has created a massive divide in the U.S. economy – while consumers routinely tap their phones to buy coffee, dealerships selling $50,000 vehicles still wait days for wire transfers to clear or watch customers walk out to retrieve cashier’s checks. This friction in high-ticket transactions costs merchants billions in lost sales and processing fees annually, with auto dealers alone paying up to 3% on card transactions while facing chargebacks that can wipe out entire profit margins. Clerq bridges this gap with an account-to-account payments platform specifically engineered for high-ticket merchants, enabling instant bank transfers that combine the convenience of Venmo with the security and economics required for five and six-figure purchases. The platform has already achieved 6x revenue growth over the past year while processing hundreds of millions of dollars for Fortune 500 retailers and major dealership groups including Friedkin Automotive. By cutting payment fees by 75% compared to cards while eliminating the days-long settlement delays of traditional ACH, Clerq is positioned to become a dominant player in the $3T in annual high-ticket payment volume across automotive, powersports, and equipment verticals.
AlleyWatch sat down with Clerq Co-CEO and Cofounder Ben Markowitz to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic expansion plans, recent $12M funding round that brings the total funding raised to $21M, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Clerq raised a $12M Series A round led by 645 Ventures, with participation from existing investors FirstMark Capital, Fika Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and Dash Fund. The Series A also included new strategic participation from Friedkin and Yossi Levi, founder of Car Dealership Guy. Clerq has raised $21 million since inception.
Tell us about the product or service that Clerq offers.
Clerq is an account-to-account payments platform for high-ticket merchants.
What inspired the start of Clerq?
Truett Dwyer (cofounder) and I were investors in Fintech and Payments prior to starting Clerq and saw how card-first incumbents weren’t meeting the needs of high-ticket, margin-sensitive businesses. The scale and seemingly intractable nature of this problem inspired us to start Clerq.
How is Clerq different?
Clerq is purpose-built to meet the needs of its target merchants, starting with auto, powersports, and equipment (and more recently home & office and private travel). Our core payments product and risk management are tailored to these high-ticket industries.
Clerq has also focused on building out vertical-specific integrations and workflows, unlike most horizontal payment processors.
What market does Clerq target and how big is it?
Clerq started with the $1T+ U.S. auto vertical, where it’s already powering payments for several of the most recognized brands in the industry. With proven traction, the company has expanded into high-growth adjacencies including, but not limited to, powersports, home & office, and private travel. In total, the high-ticket verticals we focus on represent $3T+ of payment volume.
What’s your business model?
We primarily charge a percentage-based fee on processed volume.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Given the massive secular growth opportunity that we have in front of us and our strong capital position, we’re mainly focused on capturing market share. We’re not focused on macro business cycles right now.
What was the funding process like?
We were excited to meet 645 Ventures through one of our existing investors. We love how free-thinking they are and how supportive they are of their portfolio companies.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Despite having important potential areas where AI could supercharge our business, we did not overemphasize AI in our story that we shared with investors. Some investors are primarily focused on AI exposure now, so it required filtering our potential investor set accordingly.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
From Nnamdi Okike @ 645 Ventures – “At 645, we invest in founders who have purity of motivation and deep insights into their customers and markets. While many companies aim to introduce new payment methods into existing industries, often unsuccessfully, Truett and Ben developed a deep understanding of the payment challenges of automotive dealerships and developed a product that has been a game-changer for both dealers and their end customers. We’re excited to partner with them as they scale this platform within the automotive industry and into new industries, driving meaningful account share and creating significant value for their customers.”
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We’ve signed multiple, large enterprise contracts in our core verticals. We are focused on rolling these out and continuing to grab market share.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We see Clerq becoming the dominant alternative payments platform in auto and powersports and expanding into additional verticals.
What’s your favorite fall destination in and around the city?
The Hudson Valley is beautiful in the fall. Taking Amtrak up the Hudson is by far the nicest train ride in New York!
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