Cross-border digital payments company InstaReM receives US$13M investment
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The latest round of investment brings the total amount raised to over US$18M from a consortium of some of the largest funds in the region
Singapore, 4 Jul 2017 – InstaReM, one of the leading digital cross-border payments companies, has received a US$13 million investment led by GSR Ventures, with participation from SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund (SBI-FMO Fund), Vertex Ventures, Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), and Global Founders Capital (GFC). To date, InstaReM has raised over US$18 million in the last 18 months.
InstaReM will use the investment to build its global payment infrastructure, which has grown eight times in volume since its March 2016 funding. The funds will also be used to develop new products and licensing activities in new markets.Within two years of its operations, InstaReM has already emerged as one of the dominant players in the AUD to INR and SGD to INR corridors.
On the close of its Series B funding, Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of InstaReM, said, “This is an important investment for the company to propel our next phase of growth and expansion. With GSR Venture’s strong network in China and the US, coupled with SBI-FMO Fund’s strong base in Japan and other emerging markets, we believe we have found the best partners for this phase of our journey.”
“We aim to make cross-border payments a level playing field for all operators in the eco-system. So, regardless if our client is a bank, telco, mobile wallet or a money transfer operator (MTO) – by accessing our payment infrastructure, they are able to send payments to over 50 markets with full transparency on cost and destination amount, enabling them to compete with global players,” added Prajit.
Global Expansion Plans
By Q4 2017, InstaReM will expand into all markets in Europe and US in addition to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada.
Along with the expansion into Europe, the company will be implementing a new payment system to significantly speed up Euro payment transfers from 24 hours to less than 10 seconds across 34 member countries.
Jefferson Chen, Partner at GSR Ventures, said, “The global payments infrastructure InstaReM is building is unique in this industry and GSR Ventures is excited to join this journey,” he said.
Suramya Gupta, Fund Manager at SBI-FMO Fund, said, “We are excited to partner with the InstaReM team to jointly build the leading regional cross-border digital payments platform. We look forward to plugging InstaReM into our global ecosystem of Fintech and financial service companies.”
About InstaReM
InstaReM is a Singapore-headquartered cross-border payments company. Founded in 2014, InstaReM is licensed as a Money Services Business (MSB) in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Canada. It powers local payments to more than 50 countries across the globe. InstaReM has created a unique payment mesh in Asia, which is being leveraged by financial institutions, SMEs and individuals to make fast low-cost cross-border payments.
About GSR Ventures
GSR Ventures is a Silicon Valley and Beijing based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology companies. For the past 12 years, it backs entrepreneurs with global ambitions – entrepreneurs building large, disruptive businesses that have the potential to dominate large markets. GSR Venture is the first institutional investors a number of multi-billion dollar companies including DiDi, Qunar, ele.me, OFO, Inke, Xiaohongshu and others. GSR Ventures currently manages more than $1.5 billions and has more than 100 portfolio companies across Asia and the US.
About SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund Pte Ltd
SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund Pte Ltd is a growth strategy private equity investment fund which invests in financial services and fintech sector in Emerging Asia to capitalize on the high expected growth of the region. The Fund leverages on the combined strengths of the Fund’s sponsors, SBI Group, a leading internet-based financial services conglomerate in Japan, and FMO, Netherland’s Development Bank, to drive value to investee companies.
