Singapore-based money transfer service Instarem has raised $13m in funding from a consortium that included financial services conglomerate SBI, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The round was led by GSR Ventures and included Vertex Ventures and Fullerton Financial Holdings, both subsidiaries of Singaporean state-owned firm Temasek, as well as Global Founders Capital (GFC) and Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund, which is backed by Dutch development bank FMO.
Instarem operates a cross-border money transfer platform, partnering mid-size banks that already trade in foreign currencies to handle the process, making it possible to use wholesale exchange rates and charging users only a small percentage of the sending amount.
The company claims it processes 150,000 transfers per month, averaging $1,800 per transaction. The service initially launched in Australia but has since expanded into 50 countries.
The funding will be used to pursue operating licences across Europe and the US by the end of 2017. Instarem also hopes to significantly speed up the time it takes to process payments in euros, from 24 hours to under 10 seconds.
The company has already opened an office in Lithuania to facilitate the European expansion and expects to hire 25 staff there by the end of this year. Instarem previously raised $5m in a March 2016 series A round led by Vertex Ventures that included Fullerton Financial and GFC.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing.