Visa Supports Technology Start-up Currencycloud With $80 Million Funding

In a major breakthrough, leading financial technology start-up, Currencycloud has announced that it has raised a whopping $80 million in funding backed by Visa.

Currencycloud has been selling payment software for banks and fintech firms in a bid to process their international transactions. The start-up is based in the United Kingdom.

The company’s recent bid for funding was co-led by SAP’s venture arm Sapphire and Visa. It has also received backing from various other leading companies that may include Google, BNB Paribas, Siam Commercial Bank, and Japanese bank SBI. Soon after the deal, Visa’s treasurer Colleen Ostrowski is likely to join the start-up’s board.

Mike Laven, Currencycloud’s chief executive officer, said the firm counts Visa as a key investor. Currencycloud has inked a partnership with Visa to offer its clients access to Currencycloud’s technology, added Laven.

Currencycloud is also working with several alleged challenger banks in the UK that may include Monzo, Startling, and Revolut. And, they have earned scores of users who have been banking with them via only an app and debit card.

Laven said,

Their end-user customers, for the most part, will never see that we’re there. We’re a piece of embedded finance in the tech stack. It’s not as sexy, but it’s an incredibly good business.

Currencycloud has channelized efforts towards re-imagining how money circulates all across the world economy and pushing it into future platforms, asserted Laven in an official statement.

According to reports, the firm has reportedly raised over $140 million from investors and has already processed more than $50 billion dollars in payment ever since it came into existence.

Currencycloud’s headquarter is located in London. The firm provides 85 APIs that will include everything right from foreign exchange to inbound money collection, and multiple currency digital wallet services.  Laven also revealed that as many as 350 companies began using the APIs by the end of 2019.

The decision of Visa to fund Currencycloud came immediately after the company acquired Plaid. Plaid offers APIs to connect fintech apps to individual bank accounts for $5.3 billion.