Financial news

The round was led by IFC with participation from Prime Ventures, Partech Africa, US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and a consortium of other investors.

IFC says it has been one of TerraPay’s key investors since 2019. William Sonneborn, IFC’s Global Director of Disruptive Technologies and Funds, says, “Low-cost cross-border payments are critical to financial inclusion and global trade.”

“We are delighted to announce our continued support for TerraPay, as they deliver efficient payments instantly and securely, between individuals, businesses, and financial institutions, while also strengthening regulatory and compliance infrastructure. They are building a unique global highway for inclusive payments,” adds Sonneborn.

Making your money move easily, globally

Founded in 2014 by Ambar Sur, Ani Sane, Ram Sundaram, and Akbar Hussain, TerraPay is a fintech mobile-first international payment network founded with the vision to send money to any mobile.

It is a global collaborator to banks, mobile wallets, money transfer companies, businesses, and financial organisations, expanding and fostering an open global financial ecosystem. It is registered and controlled in 27 global markets.

TerraPay enables companies to offer transparent customer experiences by providing a continuous, safe, and real-time worldwide passage for all payments, regardless of how small or large.

Currently, the company’s payments infrastructure and solutions platform offers business/merchant pay-outs, purchasing and issuance services, among other services. 

The London-based company has a network of partners and customers in more than 108 receiving countries and 205 sending countries with 62 settlement currencies.

“With a single integration, we connect our partners to this deep-rooted global network, backed by strong compliance and security standards,” says TerraPay.

TerraPay has built partnerships with global money transfer companies including Western Union, Visa, Xpress Money, MoneyTrans, Paga, Ria, Instant Cash, Ripple, and MoneyGram.

Capital utilisation

TerraPay says it will use the funds to further invest in its global expansion plans, especially across the LATAM and MENA regions, strengthen its existing pay-out network to 150 countries by 2024, and support and accelerate its growth.

The money will also be invested in the company’s marketing and adoption of alternate payment methods for mobile wallets like Request-to-Pay, an interoperable mobile wallet solution, at a larger scale.

Additionally, TerraPay wants to increase the global reach of its infrastructure for regulation and compliance, including important licence applications.

Ambar Sur, founder and CEO of TerraPay, says, “The continuous support from our investors and lending partners has enabled us to expand our infrastructure, enhance our network coverage, and accelerate investment in our operations, product development, and technology.”

“We look forward to continuing our valuable strategic partnership with our investors and delivering continuous value to all our stakeholders, including customers, partners, investors, and employees,” adds Sur.

The investors

Prime Ventures claims to back Europe’s future technology leaders. It has invested over €750M to help founders scale their businesses and realise their vision and ambition.

Pieter Welten, Partner at Prime Ventures, says, “TerraPay’s global payment infrastructure is addressing real-world problems in emerging markets and its innovative payments solutions have the scalability, flexibility and usability its partners need.”

“Cross-border payments represent a huge, global market opportunity and therefore we strongly believe the company will continue its profitable, fast growth trajectory in the coming years.”

Cyril Collon, General Partner of Partech, says, “TerraPay has built what is today the leading global payments infrastructure allowing individuals and businesses across 200+ countries to settle any payment instantly in a secure & reliable manner.”

“Powering real-time transactions, small or large value, across the globe, requires innovative & inclusive pay-in and pay-out solutions with the highest compliance and security standards, and this is exactly what TerraPay has delivered every single day since we invested,” adds Collon.