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Another fintech startup\u00a0has raised a growth round to tap into the multi-billion dollar market for money transfers. London-based CurrencyCloud<\/a>, which builds tools for\u00a0payment companies to use by way of an API to enable money transfers, has raised \u00a320 million ($25 million) in a Series D round of funding led by Google\u2019s GV.<\/p>\n The news comes one day after U.S.-based Veem (formerly Align Commerce)\u00a0raised $24 million<\/a> to expand its international remittance services. GV also participated in that funding round.<\/p>\n It brings the total raised by CurrencyCloud to around $61 million, with other investors in this round including previous backers\u00a0Notion Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Rakuten FinTech Fund, and Anthemis.<\/p>\n CurrencyCloud currently works with about 200 customers in 35 countries, which CEO and co-founder Mike Laven said translates to \u201cmillions\u201d of companies and individuals processing payments and about $25 billion in payments processed to date. Its customers range from startups like Azimo and Revolut through to larger companies like Travelex.<\/p>\n In the large and fragmented world of money transfers \u2014 large incumbents include Western Union and MoneyGram; the wide pool of startups include Veem, WorldRemit,\u00a0Xoom<\/a> (acquired by PayPal last year for $890 million), Azimo, Regalii, Remitly and TransferWise \u2014 CurrencyCloud\u2019s particular niche is that it\u2019s building the mechanics for how to move money between specific markets without ever selling that service to end users itself.<\/p>\n Instead, it packages its remittance infrastructure \u2014 finding exchange rates, transferring funds between two end points, and meeting local compliance at both ends \u2014\u00a0up by way of an API that\u00a0is used by hundreds of other remittance companies to create services for individuals abroad to send money to family back home (wherever that might be); or for businesses to pay\u00a0money to each other; and so on.<\/p>\n The issue of fragmentation, and the complexities of the interconnections to make money transfers work correctly, were one reason why GV was interested in backing the company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a huge problem to solve, not just switching currency but moving across borders and staying true to compliance,\u201d said\u00a0Tom Hulme, a partner for GV in London. As with the growth of so\u00a0many other markets, he noted, \u201cnow it\u2019s all about developers,\u201d meaning that complexity is being solved by technical solutions, and CurrencyCloud is providing the tools to help do that.<\/p>\n The opportunity is also\u00a0big enough that the small margin that CurrencyCloud makes on each transaction is, in aggregate, enough to propel the company\u2019s business forward.<\/p>\n The company is not disclosing current revenues or valuation in this round, but a few\u00a0years ago, when CurrencyCloud raised $10 million in 2014<\/a>, it noted that it made only $3 million on transfers of about $400 million in a\u00a0year, working out to 0.75% margin. Fast forward to today,\u00a0Laven told me that it processed $6 billion last year. Working out a similar percentage, this means revenues would have grown to $45 million (that\u2019s assuming the percentages have stayed constant).<\/p>\n This latest round will be used to continue building out CurrencyCloud\u2019s business, specifically by building out its business in the U.S. to court more customers on that side of the pond, both in terms of companies served and infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. cares more about transfers to Canada, Latin America than Europe does,\u201d he said. \u201cEurope cares about Great Britain.\u201d Both regions have equal interest in other regions like Asia and Africa, he added. The other aspect needed to grow the U.S. business is to improve what he called \u201c24\/7 infrastructure\u201d simply to make sure that there is support for customers wherever they may be.<\/p>\n The company had been aiming to raise only about \u00a316 million, he said, and in the end expanded that to \u00a320 million and could have easily added more, \u201cbut we didn\u2019t want to give up the equity.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Laven\u00a0said that while there\u2019s been a big question mark hanging over what might happen to startups in the U.K. in the wake of Brexit, from what he\u2019s seen, there is still a lot of opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u00a0think the climate is okay right now for raising money,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was no Brexit pushback. My feeling is that things are okay right now, no evidence of a wait-and-see attitude. We\u2019re a solid company with a good track record and people didn\u2019t have any concerns other than the normal due diligence concerns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Featured Image: Pakhnyushchy<\/a>\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/clouds.jpg?w=680\")
Another fintech startup\u00a0has raised a growth round to tap into the multi-billion dollar market for money transfers. London-based CurrencyCloud, which builds tools for\u00a0payment companies to use by way of an API to enable money transfers, has raised \u00a320 million ($25 million) in a Series D round of funding led by Google’s GV.
\nThe news comes one day after U.S.-based Veem (formerly Align… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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