Currencycloud, a London-based start-up, offers a global payment platform built on smart technology. The majority of its partners include popular finance apps. Earlier this week, they announced that they had raised more than $80 million in Series E funding.
Currencycloud launched a Series A funding in 2011 which expanded by 2012. In the process, they were able to create an infrastructure for business-to-business (B2B) cross-border payments. CNBC reported that the investment round of the project was led by Visa, a multinational financial services corporation, and Sapphire, SAP’s venture capital arm.
TechCrunch reported that other big investors during the round include the French bank BNP Paribas, Japan’s SBO Group, Thailand’s Siam Commercial, and the Bank International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm. Meanwhile, Currencycloud had existing investors such as Google Ventures (GV) and Sapphire Ventures.
Currencycloud facilitates cross-border digital payments that are done through a set of remittance APIs.
The APIs allow businesses to integrate their existing services with Currencycloud’s platform so they can initiate remittances to other countries. The platform covers multiple cross-border transaction areas such as foreign exchange, inbound money collection, multi-currency digital wallet services, and outgoing payments.
At present, the platform has started a momentum because of the increased remittance flows between countries.
World Bank reported that in 2018, the remittance flows to middle and low-income countries hit a sky-high record of $529 billion. To date, over $50 billion has been transferred between 180 countries.
Some of the popular finance apps that use Currencycloud includes Moneze, Monzo, Starling, and Revolut.
With the new funding gathered, Currencycloud is looking to enter the Asian market because of its high adoption rate for finance apps. They are considering a new office in Singapore, a country with a stable and progressive plug-and-play business environment.
Singapore has been stirring up a commotion in the tech industry and has been attracting businesses—both local and abroad. It’s as if it has been giving out invitations to invest tech in the country. It has also been warmly welcoming start-ups.
For example, Datavard, a Germany-based SAP provider for more than two decades, decided to open a Singapore office in 2017. Ekrem Namazci, APJs’ regional managing director, identified Singapore as the next logical step for the company because of its leading high-tech advancement with a young population that openly embraces innovation.
With a new Singapore office in the plans, Currencycloud may have the opportunity to expand its services to more businesses in Asia with the possibility of opening its doors to more investors and customers.
