Data Analyst

Preset roles are either too broad or too narrow. Now you can build access around the actual job - down to what each person can touch in every account. Bringing someone into your business finances takes trust. You're handing over access to accounts, transactions, and cash balances - and you want them to have exactly what the job requires. Not more. The problem is that most banking tools don't give you that choice. Preset roles are either too broad or too narrow. Custom role options look flexible, but the same permissions follow a person into every account. Your bookkeeper ends up in your payroll account. Your office manager can see your full cash position when they don't need to. So you either hand over more than you're comfortable with, or you stay the bottleneck on tasks your team could be handling. Relay's new Custom Roles close that gap. Why handing over access has always felt like an all-or-nothing call. When access controls are rigid, the problem compounds fast. Say you run a business with five accounts: operating, payroll, tax reserves, a savings buffer, and a card account for recurring expenses. Your office manager needs to see incoming payments and upload receipts. Your bookkeeper needs to work in the operating account and sync to QuickBooks, but you don't want her touching payroll. A contractor you've brought on for AP work can submit bills for approval but shouldn't be able to release money. None of those situations fit a preset. And with most custom role options, you can set what a person can do but the same permissions follow them into every account. There's no way to say: full access here, view-only there, no access to this one. You end up making a judgment call. You grant more access than you want and accept the risk, or keep doing everything yourself because it's easier than building a workaround. And when access doesn't match the work, delegation slows down. Routine tasks stay with the owner because no one else has the right permissions. Payments wait for approval. Reconciliation gets pushed to later. The business grows, but the day-to-day work still funnels through one person. The problem isn't that you don't trust your team. It's that your banking access wasn't built to reflect how people actually work. The job shouldn't have to fit the role - the role should fit the job. Custom Roles in Relay lets you build team access around the job, not around what the closest preset allows. You can create a role from scratch or start from a preset and adjust it. Every permission can be turned on or off individually, from viewing balances to moving money, managing cards, and handling invoices. Then you can decide how those permissions apply in each bank account. The same role can have full access in one account, limited access in another, and no access in a third. Your bookkeeper can have full access to the operating account and no access to payroll. Someone handling AP can submit bills in one account without being able to see your cash position anywhere else. An office manager can deposit checks and upload receipts without a balance showing up on their screen. You build the role once. Assign it to everyone in that function, and if something changes (a permission needs to be added, or someone leaves the team), you update the role and it automatically applies to everyone assigned to it. It's also easier to maintain consistent access controls as your team grows. Custom Roles are included on all Relay plans at no extra cost. Your accounts don't all work the same way, and access shouldn't either. Here are three situations where Custom Roles changes how you bring people into Relay: Your bookkeeper is in Relay, but your payroll account isn't her business. She needs to categorize transactions and sync to QuickBooks from your operating account. That's it. With Custom Roles, you give her everything she needs in the operating account and nothing in payroll. One role, one invite, and no awkward conversation about what she can and can't look at. Your office manager handles day-to-day admin, but not financial decisions. He needs to deposit checks, upload receipts, and submit bills for approval. He doesn't need to see your total cash position or move money. You build a role around exactly those tasks and leave everything else off the table. Your team is growing and roles are changing. When someone new joins in the same function, they get the same access as everyone else in that role, no rebuild required. When someone leaves, you remove them without touching how the role works for the rest of the team. No other small business banking tool goes to this level. Most banking tools now offer some version of custom roles. The difference is where customization stops. Some only let you add permissions, not remove them. Others let you customize permissions, but those settings apply the same way across every account. Relay lets you control individual permissions within each account. Someone can view balances in one account, move money in another, and have no access to a third, all within the same role. Build access that fits the way your business actually works. Bringing your team into Relay shouldn't mean accepting a role that's close enough. Custom Roles lets you define access around what each person is actually there to do, from the org level down to what they can touch in each individual account.

Relay secures $50 million USD to bring more small businesses to its banking platform. Toronto FinTech firm aims to build "financial command centre" for self-made small businesses. Toronto-based FinTech startup Relay announced on Tuesday that it has closed $50 million USD ($69 million CAD) from Silicon Valley's General Catalyst to accelerate customer acquisition. This money comes out of General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund (CVF), which Relay co-founder and CEO Yoseph West said provides non-dilutive growth capital tied directly to customer acquisition performance. "This investment is the spark that will ignite our brand footprint and market presence." Yoseph West, Relay West told BetaKit over email that Relay will put this money towards performance marketing, sales, and partnerships that allow the company to reach more small businesses. Meanwhile, it will concentrate its existing capital on product development as it continues to build out its small business banking and money management platform. He said General Catalyst will be repaid from the lifetime value generated by those customer acquisition investments, up to a fixed cap. "The model is designed to align the cost of capital with measurable growth outcomes while allowing Relay to preserve equity capital for product innovation and long-term strategic investment," West told BetaKit over email. This financing comes two years after Relay closed $32.2-million USD ($4.4-million CAD) in Series B funding. The company, which did not share its exact sales, said it is on track to more than triple its revenue since then by the end of 2026. It also closely follows Relay surpassing 150,000 small business customers and $1.3 billion USD in managed deposits through Thread Bank. West said these milestones reflect "not just customer acquisition, but increasing engagement and trust." Founded in 2018, Relay focuses on self-made small businesses in the US market. The company describes itself as a unified financial platform that helps entrepreneurs monitor and manage their cash flow by connecting accounts, bills, capital, cards, and invoices in one place. The 250-person company aims to build what West describes as "the financial command centre for self-made small businesses." "Relay has proven its deep understanding of what small business owners actually need to succeed, with a product that clearly resonates based on the strength of its customer acquisition machine," Andrew Ziperski, partner at General Catalyst's CVF, said in the news release. "We're excited to help them step on the gas with CVF and enable this next phase of growth." According to its website, the CVF helps late-stage companies that have achieved product-market fit acquire new clients without "solely relying on equity or debt." In practice, that means pre-funding businesses' sales and marketing budgets, and getting paid back via capped share of those new customers acquired, allowing recipients to scale without equity dilution, while also owning the downside if things do not pan out as expected. West said "Relay has continued to see strong growth momentum" since closing its Series B, but declined to disclose any specific profitability or revenue figures. During this time, Relay has also expanded beyond business banking and into broader money management and cash flow tools, including its recent launch of Relay Capital term loans, provided in direct partnership with Fundbox and its originating bank partner, Lead Bank. West said that Relay has additional product launches planned for later this year. Feature image courtesy Relay. Roborock Discover the next generation of cleaning innovation. Roborock redefines home robotics with AI-powered systems that sense, adapt, and operate seamlessly in real homes.