FinTech Rapyd is planning strategic acquisitions after raising £220 million.
The Series D financing, led by Coatue, sees several new investors including Spark Capital, Avid Ventures, FJ Labs, and Latitude.
Current investors General Catalyst, Oak FT, Tiger Global, Target Global, Durable Capital, Tal Capital and Entrée Capital also participated.
Rapyd’s platform embeds FinTech services into any application, enabling local payment methods through an API while managing diverse compliance and regulatory requirements.
Businesses can accept and send payments without having to build their own infrastructure through the Rapyd Global Payments Network which supports hundreds of local payment methods including cards, bank transfers, e–wallets, and cash.
“The demand for online payments has skyrocketed following the restrictions due to the effects of COVID, and as a company, we are well placed to provide businesses across the globe with the solutions they need and to get them up and running fast,” said Arik Shtilman, co-founder and CEO of Rapyd.
“To kick off 2021 with this substantial round of funding to further invest in our platform is a tremendous vote of confidence both in the growing need for local payment solutions that can be deployed at scale globally, and more specifically in our vision and company.”
Mckinsey reported that one of the primary impacts of COVID-19 has been the acceleration of changes in areas that are typically much more gradual – namely consumer behaviour – with five years of change compressed into less than one.
The change in purchasing habits has propelled consumers and businesses in both mature and emerging markets online and with that the need to accept and send payments using cards and alternative payment methods en masse.
“The payment landscape varies dramatically across countries. A company doing business globally might need to accept hundreds of local payment methods,” said Kris Fredrickson, managing partner at Coatue.
“Rapyd’s API, which abstracts away this complexity, is currently powering what we think are many of the world’s most exciting companies.”
The new financing will be used to double the engineering and product teams, as well as expand the ‘Self-Service’ element of Rapyd’s platform.
Following the acquisition and integration of European card acquirer Korta in early 2020, Rapyd is also exploring additional strategic acquisitions in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa.