WorldRemit nabs $40M at a $670M valuation to boost its money transfer business

Thursday, December 7, 2017

WorldRemit, a London-based startup with some 2 million users that offers a quick way for people to send money to each other with a focus on developing markets, has raised more funds to help it take on the likes of Western Union in the remittances market, estimated by the World Bank to be worth some $596 million globally this year, and ramp its user number to 10 million.

The company has picked up $40 million — a Series C round that sources tell us brings the company’s valuation to around $668 million (or ‘just under £500 million’ in the figure we were given in local currency by our sources).

The funding was led by a new, strategic investor: LeapFrog Investments, the firm founded in 2007 and backed by billions from the likes of Prudential, JP Morgan and the Omidyar Network specifically to make investments into financial and healthcare businesses improving services in emerging markets, specifically in regions like Africa and Asia. Previous investors Accel, TCV and an unnamed individual backer also participated.

This represents a decent leap for the startup, which was valued at $500 million when it last raised money — $45 million in February 2016.

Ismail Ahmed, who co-founded WorldRemit with Catherine Wines and is its CEO, said in an interview that the idea will be to use the funding in three key areas.

Photo courtesy of AMISOM Public Information.

Source: TechCrunch (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance
Tags
cash transfers, digital payments, fintech, remittances, startups