Currencycloud finally goes under the Visa umbrella

British start-up Currencycloud offers APIs that allow financial companies to integrate cross-border money transfer services into their platform. Its core payment business will now complement that of industry giant Visa, which has just completed its acquisition of the FinTech.

FACTS

• Currencycloud presents itself as a disruptive FinTech, whose core proposition was to reinvent corporate cash flow on a global scale. Its global platform enables banks and FinTechs to provide innovative foreign exchange solutions for cross-border payments.

• Its acquisition by Visa should enable it to further improve the cross-border remittance experience, using the APIs developed by the FinTech and Visa's global network.

• The amount of the transaction has not been officially specified. However, Visa has suggested that Currencycloud's new valuation is now estimated at £700 million.

• KEY FIGURES

• Last July, Currencycloud said it had processed more than $100 billion in transactions since its launch in 2012.

• Currencycloud's cloud-based platform supports more than 500 banking and technology clients to date

• Its services cover over 180 countries

CHALLENGES

• Continuing its breakthrough into crypto: Currencycloud has established a foothold in the money transfer market with a fully cloud-based platform. In July this year, Currencycloud announced that it had entered into a partnership with Ripple. The company will use RippleNet to better serve its users. RippleNet offers financial institutions around the world a simple and cost-effective way to make cross-border transfers through a single API. Its customers can transfer money to any country in the world in an average of 22 seconds. They have also reported reducing their costs by 40%.

• Long-term reach: VIsa is integrating a player capable of participating in the digital transformation of a market and therefore, capable of gaining share in a future cross-border payments market.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• The acquisition of Currencycloud was announced by the main interested party last July. Merger procedures of this kind take a long time and the transaction has only just been finalised.

• The merger between Visa and Currencycloud has been all the more protracted as the US scheme was already showing interest in FinTech at the beginning of 2020. At the time, Visa was content to participate in a fundraising to support Currencycloud's model.