AAA PPRO picks Citi for $50m round

PPRO picks Citi for $50m round

UK-based cross-border e-commerce payment technology developer PPRO has closed $50m in funding from investors including Citi Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of financial services provider Citi.

Investment firm Sprints Capital led the round and private equity firm HPE Growth also participated.

PPRO has built an online payment platform that enables consumers to pay for goods in their currency using payment methods available to them locally, including bank transfers, digital wallets, cash-based digital payments and local debit cards.

The company processes $9bn of payments annually and will use the proceeds from its latest round to scale its operations and accelerate business growth. It had previously received an undisclosed sum from fund manager Northleaf Capital Partners in December 2018.

Digital payment services provider PayPal led a $50m round in July the same year, with participation from Citi Ventures and HPE Growth Capital. The latter had already invested an undisclosed amount in PPro in 2014.

Luis Valdich, managing director at Citi Ventures, said: “We have invested in PPRO for the second time because we believe in the company’s strategy, and we have seen their power to deliver.

“With their local payment methods, PPRO fuels our consumer payments offering for institutional clients, Spring by Citi. Our partnership will help to empower Spring by Citi clients to deliver a seamless payments experience for their customers.”

By Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.

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