Global FinTech Paysend Closes $125 Million Funding Deal

Global FinTech Paysend closed a $125 million Series B funding round led by One Peak, with participation from Infravia Growth Capital, Hermes GPE Innovation Fund, and existing investors including Plug and Play, the company announced in a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

The card-to-card and global payments platform will use the funding to help Paysend grow its presence internationally and advance the innovation of new products and services. The startup is focusing its efforts on tapping the $133 trillion cross-border payments market. 

Paysend was founded in London in April 2017 by Abdul Abdulkerimov and now reaches more than 3.7 million consumers, 17,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 110 receiving countries.

“Paysend’s vision is to develop the next generation integrated global payment ecosystem for consumers and SMEs. Our innovative technology is connecting 12 billion cards worldwide to pay and send instantly anywhere, anyhow and any currency – we call this Money for the Future. This saves time, saves money and connects millions of people and businesses around the world,” Paysend CEO Ronnie Millar said in the press release.

The company points out that 70 percent of global payments still happen using cash, which is not only time-consuming but expensive, with fees as high as 5.2 percent per transaction. Paysend’s card-to-card service reduces fees by as much as 60 percent and offers instant transfers, which are 92 percent of the total transfers.

“There remain significant barriers to entry for consumers and SMEs to pay and send money globally; our platform aims to democratize the service by providing a one-stop-shop to pay and send money to families, suppliers, employees and partners in any currency anywhere in the world at a significantly reduced cost,” Miller added.

Paysend launched its global account to European users in February, offering a fee-free mobile money account with a multi-currency wallet. The startup said that its analysis shows that people can save some £1.25 billion in fees when spending internationally.

Domenico Scaffidi, head of market infrastructures for FinTech software maker Volante Technologies, said in an October 2020 PYMNTS interview that the fast-paced modernization of payments is in part due to improved cloud technology.