InstaReM, Southeast Asia's hottest digital cross-border payments company, has announced the first close of its US$ 45 million Series C round, at over US$ 20 million.
InstaReM's Series C round (to be completed in January 2019) will be used to drive growth in new markets, and to support the launch of a new consumer and enterprise product in 2019.
SINGAPORE, Nov. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- InstaReM, Southeast Asia's hottest digital cross-border payments company, has announced one of the most significant Series C funding rounds for a fintech in Southeast Asian history. The company's meteoric growth has secured a first close of more than US$ 20 million led by new investors MDI Ventures (the VC arm of Indonesia's Telkom), and Beacon Venture Capital (the VC arm of Thailand's KASIKORNBANK) and supported by existing investors, Vertex Ventures, GSR Ventures, Rocket Internet and SBI-FMO Fund.
The Series C round of US$ 45 million, which takes the digital remittance fintech's overall funding to over US$ 63 million, is expected to close by January 2019, in advance of its expected IPO in 2021.
This historic Series C round, will accelerate growth in InstaReM's existing markets and enable it to enter new markets in Japan and Indonesia, where it is expected to receive licenses by the end of this year. This round will also enable InstaReM to launch a new consumer and enterprise product in 2019 for which the company has aggressive plans.
InstaReM's next-generation payments platform leverages the latest technology to help its individual and enterprise customers send money to their destinations quicker and at a lower cost than its competitors. With regulatory licenses and approvals in Singapore, Australia, India, Europe, United States, Hong Kong, Canada and Malaysia, and its extensive global banking partnerships, InstaReM is able to reach to over 3.21 billion consumer and business customers across 55+ countries worldwide. InstaReM already powers payments for three of the top ten Southeast Asian Banks.
"The promise we've made to our customers, from day one, is that we'll always be transparent, and we'll forever give them the best value we can to help them #DoMore with their money. No matter where they are in the world, and no matter if they're a business or an individual sending money overseas, it's been our mission to be their champion. That's why we were one of the first Asian remittance providers to move outside of Asia, and that's another reason why we've been able to secure this historic round of funding. In less than 4 years, we have become the payment backbone for emerging markets for banks and other global financial institutions."
"We see that InstaReM has strong capability to enable cross-border payment and remittance between Indonesia and its international partners. By providing the lowest exchange rates among competing services, InstaReM provides significant value to both local and foreign migrant workers looking to transfer funds to their home countries and to local businesses looking to conduct trade with international parties with the hope that they can boost/stimulate international trade exports. With Indonesia's fintech sector experiencing peak levels of growth, we believe that it is the ideal time for fintech companies, such as InstaReM, to focus on expansion throughout the country. As part of our thesis at MDI Ventures, we are keen to support InstaReM with their expansion in Indonesia and ASEAN through strategic partnership with various Telkom business units around the region."
"We have been following InstaReM for some time, and are impressed with the way the company has been expanding globally, and scaling up its operations. As KASIKORNBANK becomes the digital bank of choice for customers, we have a strong commitment to working closely with category leaders in each sector and constantly improving our customer experience."
InstaReM is a member of RippleNet, Ripple's global network of banks and other financial institutions, and has recently bagged the Blockchain Innovator Award by Ripple, for its innovations in the payments space.
InstaReM serves larger institutional and corporate clients with its MassPay product -- an international business payments platform with bulk and customized payments facility, multi-currency payments and accounts and a host of other time and cost-efficient payment features.
The inspiration for InstaReM came from a personal experience of one of its co-founders. Prajit Nanu needed to pay for a resort in Phuket, Thailand. As he was based out of India, he was unable to use his credit cards because the resort only accepted bank transfers. He ended up asking an Indian friend based in Thailand to do a local THB bank transfer. Prajit transferred an equivalent INR amount locally to the friend's Indian bank account, thus saving on huge transaction fees and currency conversion loss.