Visa invests in Currencycloud, joins its board

Visa, along with Google Ventures, invested in an $80 million Series E fundraising round in cross-border B2B payments provider Currencycloud.

The London-based B2B cross-border payment provider raised funds from 10 different investors in its latest Series E equity round including Visa, Google Ventures, BNP Paribas, Siam Commercial Bank Group, Sapphire Ventures, Anthemis Group, SBI Group, Notion, Accomplice, and International Finance Group.

Currencycloud will use the funds to expand its portfolio of emerging payment methods such as mobile wallets, instant payments and cards. It will also expand its partner ecosystem so that more companies can leverage its new cross-border payment platform. Along with Visa’s investment, Colleen Ostrowski, senior vice president and treasurer at Visa, will join the Currencycloud board. Financial terms of Visa’s investment were not disclosed.

“I’m delighted to be joining the board of such an exciting technology company. Currencycloud is reshaping the way that the platforms of the future are moving money around the world, and there is huge potential for the company to drive further innovation in the cross-border payments industry,” said Colleen Ostrowski, senior vice president and treasurer at Visa, in a press release.

FT Partners served as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Currencycloud and its board of directors in the Series E round.

Currencycloud launched its most significant product update at the end of last year with its Currencycloud Spark solution, which provides multi-currency accounts for banks and fintechs to store, convert and pay in more than 35 currencies. Currencycloud has 85 different APIs across four different modules that cover the workflow of B2B cross-border payments: collect, convert, manage and pay.

Currencycloud was launched in 2012 and has since processed more than $50 billion in cross-border payments to over 180 countries. Its clients include Monzo, Revolut, Starling Bank, Standard Bank South Africa and Brookline Bank.

Currencycloud chief executive Mike Laven, stated that the company planned to increase its footprint in North America and plans to open an office in Singapore later this year, according to Reuters.

In 2017, Google Ventures led a $25 million Series D round for Currencycloud. This round had a total of six investors including Notion Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Anthemis and Rakuten FinTech Fund.

Currencycloud has raised over $160 million in debt and equity financing in 11 funding rounds, according to Crunchbase, a website that tracks investments in private companies.