Wirecard, a German fintech that raised several million dollars in 2020 only to collapse in a sea of scandals and bankruptcies, still makes title Today the case continues against various being And people Once connected to the business. Meanwhile, a Dublin-based startup called Nomup Some of Wirecard's regional payment licenses formed in 2023 are on a quiet growth trajectory to address payment problems in situations that larger companies like Aden and Stripe have yet to tackle.
Primarily focused on cross-border payments for merchants across Asia and the Middle East, Nomupay has now raised $37 million in funding to expand its business. The funding — from Endeit Capital, Uneti Ventures and previous backers — comes on the heels of Nomupay growing 100% annually over the past two years and an estimate that it will be profitable this year on ARR of around $20 million.
We understand that Nomupay's valuation has also increased to around $200 million. (It has now raised $53.6 million in total, including $90 million Invest in 2023(From investors that included Finch Capital, the VC who bought the licenses and founded Nomup to turn those licenses into a business.)
Nomupay's unique selling point is that it is building cross-border payment rails and enabling payments for users within countries that Peter Burridge, Nomupay's founder and CEO, claims are too complex for big players like Stripe and Adien in their primary regions. or ignored for being too small USA and Europe. Nomupay is striking while the iron is hot: Not only are businesses in its target region out of favor, but thanks to the e-commerce boom, they're demanding more.
Burridge refers to large payment providers as “monos” — monoliths that require buy-in to broad suites of services that consumers typically don't need, while not offering their benefits.
Nomupay's advantage is that the payments landscape has always been very fragmented, even within a single country, and more complex across multiple geographies making it more difficult to analyze.
“There are over 5,000 ISOs for visas alone,” he said. “They all use some sort of gateway or point of sale technology, they all compete with Adien and the rest to access card schemes and payment methods. I see us all as being able to compete with these big businesses.” [ISOs are Independent Sales Organizations, merchant services companies registered with card brands, which a partner to payment processors, allowing them to sell and service merchant services accounts.] Among specific countries, Malaysia alone has about 20 different payment methods and 20 different wallets that potentially need to be supported at the time of payment; These numbers get even more complicated when you add in more countries.
“We're solving problems that haven't been solved before,” he said. Burridge did not say how many total customers the company is serving across its network today, but they include the likes of Ikea, which runs payments for its stores in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand at Nomupey.
A goal of the equity injection will be to continue its M&A strategy. In Asia, the company said it has a presence in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand, and said it is currently in talks with a fintech in Singapore, initially to secure a finance license for the country. The company's other targets for expansion include Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam. Outside Asia, it also has operations in Ireland (Dublin); UK (London and Manchester, where it Acquired a startup called Total Processing bringing more functionality and customer service into the fold); Vilnius, Estonia; Türkiye (Istanbul); Dubai and New Zealand.
A vote of confidence from his new investors: Burridge noted that Uneti, which was founded by Adien's early employees, became an investor only after Endeit Capital of the Netherlands brought Uneti on board as an adviser to conduct due diligence. “They liked it so much they wanted to invest themselves,” he said proudly. “For us, it was a validation of the platform.”