The investment round was co-led by Visa and Sapphire, SAP’s venture capital arm, according to a CBNC report. The other big investors in the round included International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s investment arm; French bank BNP Paribas; Japan’s SBI Group, which is now independent of SoftBank; and Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, TechCrunch reported.
Currecnycloud’s existing investors include Sapphire Ventures and GV (Google Ventures).
Enabling cross-border digital transactions
Currencycloud is a platform that provides payment software for finance apps including banking and fintech apps for international transactions. It facilitates these cross-border digital payments through a set of remittance APIs.
These APIs enable businesses to integrate their services with the platform and initiate remittance to other countries. They cover multiple areas of cross-border transactions including inbound money collection, multi-currency digital wallet services, outgoing payments and foreign exchange.
Further expansion
The service has gained momentum with increasing remittance flows between countries. According to a World Bank report, remittance flows to middle and low-income countries had reached a record high of $529 billion in 2018.
So far, over $50 billion has been transferred between 180 countries through Currencycloud’s platform, according to the TechCrunch report. According to a report by AppAnnie, globally, consumers accessed finance apps over 1 trillion times in 2019.
With this new funding, the start-up plans to tap into the Asian market, where finance apps adoption is relatively high, starting with a new office in Singapore.
The platform is already in use by popular finance apps including Monzo, Moneze, Starling and Revolut.