Currencycloud, a London-based developer that provides APIs for currency transfer and remittance services, is being acquired by financial service provider Visa in a $963 million deal, according to a press release.
Visa says that the purchase will help strengthen its foreign exchange capabilities by allowing them to better service financial institutions, fintechs and partners, accelerate time-to-market and improve transparency for clients that want to offer flexible, digital first international payment services.
“Consumers and businesses increasingly expect transparency, speed and simplicity when making or receiving international payments. With our acquisition of Currencycloud, we can support our clients and partners to further reduce the pain points of cross-border payments and develop great user experiences for their customers,” Visa’s Global Treasurer Colleen Ostrowski said in a statement.
Currencycloud offers a broad set of APIs to enabling banks and financial services providers to allow currency exchange services, including real-time notifications on foreign exchange transactions, multi-currency wallets and virtual account management.
Founded in 2007, Currencycloud has raised over $160 million to date, including its most recent and largest investment, an $80 million Series E led by Visa in early 2020. The $963 million (£700 million) price tag is almost double the $500 million that Currencycloud was valued at the time of the Series E, according to TechCrunch.
The platform is supported by almost 500 banks across 180 countries, including startups Monzo, Moneze, Starling, Revolut and Dwolla. Visa plans on using the technology to improve its own currency systems and expand services to its existing customer base.
The purchase marks Visa’s second large acquisition in 2021, following its $2.1 billion purchase of Swedish open banking API platform Tink.
“The combination of Currencycloud’s fintech expertise and Visa’s network will enable us to deliver greater customer value to the businesses moving money across borders,” Currencycloud CEO Mike Laven said in the release.
“Re-imagining how money flows around the global economy just got more exciting as we join Visa.”
In other recent fintech news, open banking infrastructure developer Yapily raises $51 million. Donation-fintech Percent also raised $5 million with the goal of becoming the ‘Stripe of Donations.’