Currencycloud moves into Asia-Pacific with new Singapore office
Currencycloud, a London-founded firm which helps banks, fintechs and foreign exchange brokers move money across borders, has opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore.
The new office marks Currencycloud’s expansion into the region, following an $80 million Series E funding round in January 2020.
It will manage client relationships across across South East Asia, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Currencycloud’s Asia-Pacific transactions trebled last year
It plans to grow staff numbers in the Singapore office to double-digits by the end of this year. Rohit Narang, a former Goldman Sachs banker who also set up his own big data company in Singapore, will head up the office.
Currencycloud puts the latest overseas expansion down to the region’s record-setting payments market.
According to McKinsey, the Asia-Pacific led both in growth and in its contribution to global payments revenue in 2019. It held up 45% of the total, with “China generating the lion’s share”.
Triple growth
Since its inception in 2012, Currencycloud has raised some $160.2 million in funding from heavyweight backers such as BNP Paribas, Visa, and SBI Group.
In December, the fintech said it was fast approaching 500 customers. Familiar names include Starling Bank, Revolut, Penta and Visa.
The fintech claims to have doubled payment volumes since the UK’s March lockdown.
But its Asia-Pacific transactions trebled last year, outpacing the company’s average growth across its older markets.
“Asia Pacific is a hotbed of financial innovation, and we anticipate significant ongoing growth of fintech companies across the region,” says Todd Latham, the company’s chief growth officer.
“We aim to provide the pipes for all these Fintech companies when moving money across borders.”
Taking Big Tech inspiration
In all, Currencycloud processes $3 billion in international payments each month. Its customers across Asia-Pacific already include TranSwap, Nium, Wallex, XTransfer, and PicoPay.
To deal with the increase its payment volumes last year, the firm’s chief technology officer Stuart Bailey told FinTech Futures in January that Currencycloud has been doing “a lot of work in the background”.
He and his team take inspiration from Alipay, the mobile wallet created by Chinese Big Tech Ant Group.
Ant updates its technology every 18 months, due to the sheer amount of money going through its platform. “By the time they update it, it’s out of date. It’s a never-ending process,” said Bailey.
Read next: Under the hood of London payments platform Currencycloud
