Singapore’s Nium raises $200m, becomes SE Asia’s first B2B payments unicorn

Nium, a Singapore-based cross-border payments company, has become the first B2B payments unicorn in Southeast Asia after raising over $200 million a Series D funding, the company said in a statement.

Riverwood Capital, a US-based high-growth tech investor, led the funding round, which was also participated by Temasek, Visa, Vertex Ventures, Atinum Group of Funds, Beacon Venture Capital, Rocket Capital Investment, and other notable angel investors.

The Series D funding round valued Nium at over $1 billion, making it the first B2B payments unicorn from Southeast Asia. The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand its payments network infrastructure, drive innovative product development, attract top industry talent, and acquire strategic technologies and companies.

To date, the total money raised by Nium stands at nearly $300 million.

Nium has established its platform as the preferred connection to the global payments infrastructure. Through a single API, Nium provides access to the world’s payment infrastructure, including technologies for pay-outs, pay-ins, card issuance, and banking-as-a-service.

Once connected, Nium customers can send funds to more than 100 countries (most in real-time), payout in more than 60 currencies, accept funds in seven currencies, and issue cards in more than 40 countries.

Foundational to Nium is its license portfolio, owning the most complete set of money transfer, card issuance, and banking licenses in fintech, with services available in 11 jurisdictions.

“The Nium platform simplifies the B2B payments experience by enabling critical financial services to be easily embedded – helping today’s local market players become tomorrow’s global giants,” said Prajit Nanu, Nium’s co-founder and CEO.

According to Nium, its revenues have jumped 280% year-on-year, on the back of growing demands for seamless money transfer and payment services globally. It processes $8 billion in payments every year and has issued more than 30 million virtual cards to-date.

Asia’s payments sector is expected to exceed $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2022 or 2023.  As an Asian-born fintech, Nium will continue to expand its presence in the region, with new funding being used to address a sizable market opportunity. It will also continue to expand its global footprint, while enhancing its powerful payment capabilities for customers across the APAC region.