Singapore-based money remittance platform Instarem has extended a series C round featuring e-commerce holding company Rocket Internet and telecommunications firm Telkom Indonesia to $41m, Crowdfund Insider reported on Monday.
The $21m second tranche was led by Vertex Ventures, the venture capital firm operated by Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek, and included VC firm Atinum Investment. It followed a $20m first close announced in November 2018.
Rocket Internet, Telkom unit MDI Ventures and Beacon Venture Capital, the VC arm of financial services firm Kasikorn Bank, also backed the first close along with financial services provider SBI, Vertex Ventures, VC firm GSR Ventures and, Instarem CEO Prajit Nanu told TechCrunch, financial transfer service Ripple.
Instarem operates an online platform that facilitates cross-border money transfer services for companies across 50 countries. It is also set to begin issuing prepaid debit cards in some of its markets in the next few months.
The funding will support expansion in Latin America, where it plans to open a regional office later this year, and Asia, where it intends to secure licenses to operate in Japan and Indonesia.
James Lee, managing director of Vertex Growth Fund, will join the company’s board of directors in conjunction with the round. It was initially planning to raise $45m and aims to launch an initial public offering in the next two years.
GSR Ventures led Instarem’s $13m series B round in 2017, investing alongside SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund, formed by SBI and development bank FMO, as well as Vertex Ventures, fellow Temasek subsidiary Fullerton Financial Holdings and the Rocket Internet-affiliated Global Founders Capital (GFC).
Vertex Ventures had previously led a $5m series A round for the company the previous year, investing alongside Fullerton Financial and GFC.