Nium, a Singapore-based startup that provides online cross-border money transfer services to individuals and businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount to close its Series C financing round.

Investors in the new tranche include BRI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Bank BRI of Indonesia, and Visa.

The new funding will be used to improve and enhance Nium’s current product and payment infrastructure, which includes outreach to consumers, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, banks and financial institutions.

A part of the money raised will also be used to “tuck-in acquisitions” and growth in markets such as Europe, India, the UK and the US.

The company started its US$45 million Series C fundraise in 2018 from new investors MDI Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesia’s Telkom, and Beacon Venture Capital, the VC arm of Thailand’s KASIKORNBANK.

“Nium and Visa’s collaboration began in early 2019 when Nium joined the Visa Fintech Fast Track programme in the Asia Pacific. We’ve worked together on new commerce experiences like instant remittances for consumers and businesses in Southeast Asia,” said Chris Clark, Regional President (Asia Pacific), Visa.

The road to open money

Formerly known as InstaReM, the company rebranded into Nium in October last year. Nium offers a multi-featured platform called MassPay that helps corporate and SME users manage and control high-volume remittances to multiple beneficiaries in multiple currencies. This, it claims, enables businesses to reduce cross-border money transfer costs by up to 80 per cent.

It also solves inefficiencies that plague traditional payment processes, such as payroll disbursement and travel and expenses management, at e-commerce firms, corporates and SMEs.

The company is currently licensed in Japan, Indonesia, EU, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and Singapore, and claims to operate in over 90 countries, 65 in real-time, and in 63 currencies.

In an interview with e27 last year, the company said its mission is to “create a world of ‘Open Money‘ where everyone’s money is free for them to use — whenever, wherever and however they wish”.

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“BRI Ventures always look to support developments in the banking and financial industry, especially for partners looking to provide digital financial care to customers in Indonesia,” said Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BRI Ventures.

“We have been working closely with Nium since their InstaReM days when they were processing consumer remittance, and are excited to witness their growth as they expand their service offerings to include financial institutions and corporates. The potential of financial technology is limitless, and we forward look to supporting Nium on their path of growth as they expand their presence into Indonesia and beyond,” Widjaja added.

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