Singapore firm Tazapay raises US$16.9 million in Series A fundraising round, led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia
Tazapay, a well-known fintech startup that specialises in cross-border payments, recently revealed that its Series A fundraising round saw it raise USD 16.9 million. The investment was led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, with additional funding coming from PayPal Alumni Fund, EscapeVelocity (escp.vc), and prominent angel investor Gokul Rajaram. The round also included participation from previous investors Foundamental, January Capital, RTP Global, and Saison Capital.
Tazapay intends to utilise the money to extend its operations outside of Asia and in other places where there is a high demand for its services, such as the Middle East and Europe. This involves obtaining payment licences in significant markets, which will widen the worldwide payment network of Tazapay. In order to better serve the expanding list of verticals, which includes cross-border e-commerce, education technology (EdTech), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and travel, the company will also be bolstering its basic capabilities and adding new local payment methods.
Businesses and end users now demand payments to be made in real-time and using a payment method they are accustomed to, thanks to the introduction of open banking and the development of real-time payment networks like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India and the PayNow service in Singapore. With Tazapay, businesses can now accept low-cost, safe payments from their consumers without having to set up local entities everywhere thanks to the company's global network of over 170 countries for its card coverage and 85 markets for its local payments collection coverage.
With this round of funding, the company intends to increase the number of its real-time local collecting channels to over 100 by the end of this year.
Several of Tazapay's international clients are already benefiting from this integration, including IndiaMART, India's top B2B marketplace that connects more than 7.4 million sellers and 165 million buyers on its platform, BrightCHAMPS, a top live-learning platform with presence in over 30 countries, WTX, a platform for the sale of used trucks, Rezlive, a platform for international travel, and Advantage Club, a SaaS platform for employee engagement. In addition, Tazapay and Standard Chartered have teamed up to provide cutting-edge payment options for enterprise markets that enable trade.
"After Surge, we are thrilled to have Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia show faith and conviction in our business by leading and participating in this round. We also welcome EscapeVelocity and PayPal Alumni Fund who are joining us as new investors. These partners will help us realise our vision to be the foremost cross border infrastructure for global platforms as we double down on growing our market presence and consolidating every real-time banking network in the world under one API. We are grateful to both our new and existing investors for acknowledging the evolving needs of our ecosystem and supporting our aspirations," said Tazapay CEO and co-founder Rahul Shinghal.
"Tazapay is building the payments and compliance infrastructure for cross-border commerce and services. This is a large space which is seeing another inflection point. Buyers increasingly prefer to use local real-time payments over traditional networks and businesses are keen to expand globally without going through the hassle of a local set-up. The Tazapay team has unique insights and experience to leverage this tailwind, and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia is excited to partner with them as they double down on the opportunity," Aakash Kapoor, Vice President, Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia.