VCs in USD 292m round for WorldRemit

Existing investors Leapfrog Investments, TCV and Accel also backed the round.

WorldRemit acquired Washington-headquartered market peer Sendwave in August 2020, with the aim of expanding its presence in the African market. Bloomberg reported at the time that the deal valued Sendwave at USD 500m, giving the combined companies a valuation of USD 1.5bn following the deal.

The group will be rebranded as Zepz following the funding round.

The company intends to use the fresh capital to invest in its technology, to bolster its presence in existing markets, and to expand to new markets.

According to Bloomberg, the company is set to join the European IPO pipeline for 2022.

The European market has already seen 77 growth and venture deals of more than EUR 200m to date in 2021, including 13 such deals valued at more than EUR 500m, according to Unquote Data. This compares with 22 deals in which more than EUR 200m was raised in 2020; of these, eight were valued at more than EUR 500m.

Payments platforms that have raised significant rounds in 2021 to date include London-headquartered Rapyd and PPro, as well as Sweden-based Klarna.

Previous funding
Accel and Project A Ventures backed a USD 40m Series A round for WorldRemit in March 2014.

TCV led a USD 100m Series B round for WorldRemit in 2015, joined by existing investor Accel.

Leapfrog Investments led a USD 40m Series C funding round for WorldRemit in December 2017, with participation from Accel and TCV.

TCV, Accel and Leapfrog led a USD 175m Series D round for WorldRemit in June 2019. The company was previously tipped for a 2021 IPO, according to press reports.

Company
Founded in 2010, Zepz (formerly WorldRemit Group) is an international payments platform that aims to provide fast, flexible and cheap payment services. The company comprises WorldRemit and Africa-focused platform Sendwave.

The company posted a loss of GBP 47.8m in 2019, versus GBP 45.6m in 2018, according to its latest publicly available accounts, which record the year prior to WorldRemit's acquisition of Sendwave in August 2020. WorldRemit posted 2019 adjusted EBITDA of GBP 22.3m in 2019, compared with GBP 25.8m in 2018.

According to a statement, the company facilitated more than 4.5 million transactions per month in 2020. Zepz is headquartered in London and employs more than 1,500 staff across its offices in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia.

People
Zepz (formerly WorldRemit Group) – Breon Corcoran (CEO).
TCV – John Doran (general partner).
Accel – Harry Nelis (partner).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• UK / Ireland
• Technology
• Venture
• United Kingdom
• Accel Ventures
• Project A Ventures