WorldRemit Lands a Hefty Funding Round

Recently, WorldRemit dropped us word about a recently-concluded funding round which saw the company bring in a new $40 million in the process. That brings the company’s total up to $220 million so far, and the company’s got some very big plans for that new slug of cash.

The overall investment round brought in attention from several investors, including current investors like TCV and Accel. Leading the way, however, was LeapFrog Investments, whose major focus is on emerging market consumers in services like healthcare and financial services.

WorldRemit, one of the world’s leaders in digital money transfer, concluded a Series C funding round that gave it the extra slug of cash. The company currently operates in 50 different countries and 148 total destinations, which is pretty substantial as it is. WorldRemit’s operations allow customers to treat phone numbers like bank account numbers, transferring cash to said numbers, which are often more readily available than bank numbers.

It’s just the beginning, though, as WorldRemit reportedly has plans to ramp up its total reach to 10 million customers overall. It’s well on its way, especially after not so long ago, we heard about WorldRemit becoming the first official online money transfer firm of Arsenal FC, a development which will likely help it pull in plenty of new business.

WorldRemit’s CEO, Ismail Ahmed, commented “This new funding will fuel our growth, and help bring our service to millions more customers across the globe. We are pleased to attract LeapFrog Investments, a strategic investor whose profit with a purpose mission is aligned with ours.”

The two firms—WorldRemit and LeapFrog—seem to dovetail together nicely. We’ve already heard about how Africa is stepping up its mobile payments operations throughout the continent as a means to offer useful money services to its populace in the face of a less-than-stellar infrastructure. So having LeapFrog—who is well-known for being involved in emerging markets—get connected with WorldRemit, a company that’s readily capable of providing services to those emerging markets, just makes sense.

With this, it’s a safe bet that emerging markets will soon have much readier access to money transfer capability, which should be ultimately useful for all concerned. LeapFrog et al’s investment in WorldRemit should pay some substantial dividends if it can seize first-mover advantage in these still-developing regions.