Money transfer service WorldRemit secures $100m funding

London-based online transfer service WorldRemit recently announced that it had secured $100 million in a series B funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), with participation from investor Accel Partners.

WorldRemit's founder and CEO, Somali-born businessman Ismail Ahmed, said the funding will be used to extend the firm's reach of 50 send countries and 117 receive countries, as well as expand partnerships with mobile cash wallets operated by telecoms in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“I am delighted that TCV is joining WorldRemit in our mission to enable the seamless movement of money between people across borders. We have an amazing opportunity to shake-up a stale industry and to save our customers time and money. We are taking money transfers into the mobile age, where people send from apps and receive on Mobile Money services,” Mr Ahmed said in a statement.

Mr Ahmed is a remittance specialist and once worked at the United Nations as a compliance advisor before venturing out to form the startup. WorldRemit is significantly cheaper than other money transfer services, rivalling other established transfer services like MoneyGram and Western Union.

The funding is only the latest after it had secured $40 million from Accel partners, bringing the total amount raised by the company in the last year to $140 million.

Reach

The firm has previously said that Bangladesh is the most popular country for its London based-customers to send money, followed by Ghana, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Kenya.

In Kenya, the service allows money to be sent as instant cash transfers that can be picked up from branches of All Time Capital and Ngao Credit, bank deposits to all major banks, direct M-Pesa deposits and as mobile airtime instantly topped up to phones.