TCV Leads $180 Million Investment in Payoneer's Cross-Border Tech

Technology Crossover Ventures sees a mashup of several hot financial technology trends in international payments gateway Payoneer, sparking its participation in a new $180 million round of capital.

"We have followed Payoneer for many years," said Woody Marshall, general partner at TCV, in an email. "In many ways it's a classic 'TCV' investment opportunity, investing in a rapidly growing business that is backed by an experienced management team in a massive international market."

The New York-based Payoneer has made a couple of recent deals of its own as the broader market to automate international payments takes shape. It's collaboration with Tradedoubler this year digitizes commission-based payments between advertisers and online publishers. Payoneer manages payments to Tradedoubler's network of 180,000 online publishers, and is the sole provider for cross border payments to Tradedoubler publishers outside of Europe.

Payoneer this year acquired Armor Payments, a Silicon Valley-based company that sells web-based escrow services. Additionally, Payoneer this year opened new offices in India, Japan and the Philippines, and partnered with global marketplaces such as Rakuten.com, Linio, Cdiscount, and Tradedoubler.

Cross-border payments are picking up steam, as technology companies and banks take advantage of emerging options such as distributed ledgers to streamline payments in different currencies and regulatory environments.

The 20-year old Palo Alto-based TCV, which has invested about $9 billion in a mix of financial services, infrastructure and software startups, sees a number of "solid tailwinds" that can further boost Payoneer's business model, including "the proliferation of global e-commerce, and the continued adoption of electronic payment systems," Marshall said.