Fintech firm Currencycloud has received a £20 million investment from GV, formerly Google Ventures. The move marks a first for Google, having not previously engaged in European fintech funding.
Currencycloud is a provider of technology targeting money transfers, with a particular focus on using APIs to reduce the costs and difficulties currently associated with cross-border payments. The new funding will be put towards sustaining the company’s growth and global expansion.
The company works with over 200 customers in 35 countries, Klarna, Travelex, Standard Bank, Revolut and Azimo have utilised the APIs supplied by Currencycloud to build products. $25 billion has been sent through Currencycloud’s infrastructure so far.
GV General Partner Tom Hulme said: “We believe in empowering developers by making it easier for them to add scalable services to their products, ideally with simple APIs. Currencycloud is the leader in providing cross-border payment services in this manner, a real need as companies globalize.”
There has been increasing interest recently in fintech investment, with HM Treasury even proposing to reinvent RBS as a fintech fund to support and accelerate fintech start-ups through the perilous early phases of entering the industry.
A further initiative involving the UK has been set up between regulators in the UK, and in Ontario, Canada with the intention of simplifying the process for fintech start-ups from one market to access the other.
READ MORE: UK, Canada sign fintech startup deal
Mike Laven, CEO of Currencycloud said: “In recent years we have seen the rise of the building block economy. Companies can combine services such as AWS, Google Maps, Stripe and Twilio to build innovative new businesses fast and without the overhead of expensive proprietary systems. Currencycloud provides a set of multi-currency payment and conversion tools that are helping hundreds of companies globalize fast. We are seeing massive and increasing demand for these services, with volumes growing over 150% last year.”
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