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With the latest round of funding, Thunes plans to take advantage of the growth opportunity for cross-border payments in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Today (8 September), Singapore-headquartered cross-border payments business Thunes announced that it has raised $60m in Series B funding.
The funding round was led by Helios Investment Partners, with participation from Checkout.com and existing investors GGV Capital and Future Shape.
The start-up, which operates a global business-to-business cross-border payments network, was founded in 2016 to connect mobile wallet providers, banks, technology companies and money transfer operators and enable payments to and from emerging economies.
Speaking of the fresh funding, Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes, said: “This marks a significant milestone in our next phase of growth as we strive towards helping financial institutions and businesses around the world move money between each other in a faster, more economical and reliable way.
“Our goal is to make financial services affordable and accessible to everyone.”
Expanding a global network
The Series B round brings the total raised by Thunes to $70m. The company closed a $10m Series A round led by GGV Capital in May 2019.
It plans to use the latest funding to drive the continued development of its global network, while accelerating its expansion and growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The capital raised will be used to expand its team and product offering, including business payments and collections from emerging markets.
The start-up said that these regions represent its largest growth opportunity, as fragmented and complex payment ecosystems can leave consumers and businesses struggling with slow, costly and unreliable ways of moving money.
Tope Lawani, co-founder and managing partner of Helios Investment Partners, said: “The African fintech space, and payments in particular, remains a key focus area for Helios and we continue to look for opportunities to back high-growth companies building key infrastructure for the financial ecosystem in Africa.
“Thunes is a great example of a firm leading this. The unique network built by the company enables its partners to process cheaper and faster cross-border payments of all types.”
