How Dwolla Disrupted the Digital Payment Industry About 250,000 people use Dwolla, a payment network that charges just 25 cents for transactions of $10 or more. Dwolla's transactions on pace to total $1 billion in 2013.

Ben Milne didn't set out to disrupt the U.S. online and mobile payment infrastructure. But when he founded Dwolla--a payment network that charges just 25 cents for transactions of $10 or more--that's exactly what happened. Today about 250,000 people, businesses and financial institutions use Dwolla, with transactions on pace to total $1 billion in 2013. Earlier this year the Des Moines, Iowa-based company raised $16.5 million in Series C funding and opened its fifth office, in San Francisco.

Milne, Dwolla's CEO, talked to us about his motivation, fundraising and when he realized he was onto something huge.

I was running an e-commerce company based in Newton, Iowa, that was making $1.5 million in revenue. And I was really upset that the company's credit card interchange fees were $55,000 a year. That's more than a lot of people pay in rent for commercial property; $55,000 a year is a really good manager to run a shop in Iowa, or a new product line.