Xange Private Equity, a venture fund backed by France-based post office La Poste and other corporations, has invested in UK-based currency conversion and international payments service the Currency Cloud, in a £1.2m ($1.9m) deal.
The Currency Cloud has raised £4.5m this year. Xange Private Equity, which is investing via its XAnge Capital 2 fund, is joining venture firms Atlas Venture, Notion Capital and Anthemis backing the company. Currency Cloud was established in 2011.
Hervé Schricke, chief executive at Xange Private Equity, will sit on the board of directors, alongside Fred Destin of Atlas Venture, Jos White of Notion Capital and Sean Park of Anthemis.
Schricke said: “Post Bank [one of Xange’s investors] are big players in the field of transfers and payment, as the fourth largest bank in France. They are interested in the domain of digital businesses and innovations that allow for new business models.”
Nasir Zubairi, Director of Product Marketing, said the company was attempting to bring down charges by automating currency exchange for small businesses. He said: “There is a huge amount of price discrimination. We have set about trying to address these issues by automating an end to end process, bringing down fees in association with that. “
Hervé Schricke, chief executive at Xange, said: “The Forex and international money transfer space has changed very little since the emergence of the web. There is still a multitude of intermediaries and rate grids that lack transparency. With a fully integrated and automated offer, The Currency Cloud offers its clients significantly lower fees, enhanced transparency and greater flexibility. Moreover, by delivering its services through an API, the company can integrate the solution seamlessly into clients’ infrastructures and processes.”
Schricke added: “When making our decision, we took into consideration the size of the foreign exchange and international money transfer market and the many ways in which it can be improved, The Currency Cloud’s wide-ranging and expanding customer base and the quality of its technology platform. We also heavily agreed with the founders’ and managers’ clear vision of the marketplace. Collectively, these proof points influenced our decision to invest.”
The deal is Xange’s second fund’s third deal, after it raised €60m ($78.4m) in its first closing in December 2011.
Mike Laven, CEO at The Currency Cloud, said: “With its skills in innovative financial services, Xange will help fuel our expansion into international markets in tandem with developing our core proposition. ”
Rodolphe Menegaux, Xange investment director, and Nicolas Debock, Xange senior investment manager, also worked on the deal for the corporate venturing unit.
SJ Berwin advised on the deal.