WorldRemit Gets Additional $40m to Reach 5m African Customers

December 7, 2017
worldremit

By Dipo Olowookere

As part of its drive to provide its services to about 5 million customers in Africa, leading digital money transfer service, WorldRemit, has raised an additional $40 million.

This brings the total amount already raised by the company to $220 million and the firm hopes to reach 10 million customers globally.

As part of the expansion, WorldRemit will enable customers in Africa to transfer money to 148 countries as easily as sending an instant message, using the WorldRemit app.

Countries in Africa which now receive remittances through WorldRemit will become send countries and most importantly, the new service will make sending money within Africa faster, easier and low cost.

According to the World Bank, inter-Africa transfers are amongst the most expensive in the world.

Money transfers to Africa account for more than half of WorldRemit’s total volume of transactions and the firm currently handles 74 percent of remittances to popular mobile money services across Africa like MTN, Ecocash, Tigo Pesa, Vodafone M-Pesa and Airtel Money, making it the global leader in mobile-to-mobile international money transfers.

Founder and CEO of WorldRemit, Mr Ismail Ahmed, remarked that, “This new funding will fuel our growth, and help bring our service to millions more customers across the globe. Africa is a crucial market for us and over the next few years, we will expand our services so customers can send and receive with WorldRemit, getting the benefits of our fast, secure online service.”

Since its last funding round in 2015, WorldRemit has launched 206 new services across the globe and has grown its transaction volume by 400 percent.

Last month WorldRemit became Arsenal FC’s (www.Arsenal.com) first-ever online money transfer partner.

The Series C round was led by LeapFrog Investments, a dedicated equity investor in emerging markets, supporting fast-growth firms that deliver social impact alongside commercial returns.

The round also had significant participation from existing investors Accel and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).

This latest funding round follows a Series B investment raised from TCV in 2015 and a Series A from Accel and Project A in 2014 – then one of the largest ever Series A rounds in Europe.

Dipo Olowookere

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan.

Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

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