Remittance Industry Drives Asia’s Fintech Scene
The world’s most promising cross-border payments companies in 2024, according to FXC Intelligence.
The global payments industry continues to see change this year as countries move closer to achieving faster and more effective rails across borders. But while major players in cross-border payments grab headlines, smaller companies continue to grow market share and win funding by addressing needs that the industry still hasn’t solved, whether this is enabling financial inclusion in emerging markets or serving specific underserved segments.
To help create a picture of emerging players in the industry, FXC Intelligence has put together the second edition of its guide to the Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies in the world. This is designed to be a companion to our Top 100, which we publish earlier each year, to showcase smaller but growing companies. This time, we’ve taken a look at countries around the world to highlight a wider spread of companies globally, spanning remittances, B2B payments, processors, infrastructure providers and more.
Scroll down to view the Global Most Promising Cross-Border Companies market map, or select from the below to read about the companies in more detail.
- The Global Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies: Market map
- The Global Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies: In detail
The Global Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies: Market map
The list below is based on analysis of up-and-coming cross-border payments space spanning regions around the world. Instead of creating a hierarchical list, we’ve highlighted specific companies from each region that have shown significant signs of growth this year, whether that’s receiving funding from major payments players or private equity firms, achieving strong financial results, impactfully growing their headcount or changing executive leadership to reflect a new company strategy.
To further highlight new and emerging players, this year’s list also features an entirely different selection of companies compared to last year’s list: The 30 Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies for 2023.
Here’s the Global Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies market map for 2024 in full:
To make the list, companies need to fulfil certain criteria:
- Companies must be largely focused on cross-border payments. In some cases, international payments may form part of a company’s wider product suite, but at the very least it must be a substantial part of their business.
- Companies must be growing. This may be shown by a rise in customers or headcount, or (if reported) growth in revenues or volumes, but companies need to be on a growth trajectory to be considered.
- Companies should also be a significant emerging player in their chosen market, region or segment and show strong future potential for their business.
- While the companies on our map don’t need to have raised outside funds, they should at least have an established customer base. Unless a company has been spun out from another big player, we usually won’t consider a company that has only just launched.
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The Global Most Promising Cross-Border Payments Companies: In detail
Below, we’ve given key information for each of the companies featured on our market map, including the date they were founded, their CEO or highest ranking executive, their current customer and region focuses, as well as where their headquarters are based. We’ve also included more information on each company’s key offerings, as well as recent relevant news stories, including funding rounds, partnerships, product launches and acquisitions.
North America
Boku
Founded: 2009
CEO: Stuart Neal
Customer focus: Ecommerce
HQ country: US
Focus region: Asia, Europe, Latin America
Boku is a provider of B2B payment services that allows ecommerce businesses to accept local payment methods worldwide. The company’s network spans over 200 local payment methods worldwide, enabling payments to over seven billion consumer accounts in more than 90 countries.
The company saw revenues grow by 24% in its H1 2024 results, driven by rising transaction volumes as well as solid uptake in account-to-account payments and digital wallets. The company has seen rollouts in Germany, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Germany and the Middle East this year, as well as enabling 16.3 million active users of Polish instant payment system BLIK to make purchases with this payment method from the Google Play store.
Brightwell
Founded: 2001
CEO: Larry Hipp
Customer focus: Maritime/Cruise ships, Financial institutions, Fintechs
HQ country: US
Focus region: Global
Brightwell is a provider of global payments products to support a variety of industries – in particular the maritime and cruise ship industries – as well as offering B2B and payroll products. Though the company’s core product focuses on maritime/cruise ships, Brightwell has recently expanded to offer a new platform product, ReadyRemit, which facilitates remittances for banks to more than 180 countries and 160 currencies, covering 8.5 billion cards and accounts. It is this recent addition which brings the company to our Most Promising list this year.
In January this year, Brightwell partnered with Visa to enable payouts to more bank accounts and wallets globally through Visa Direct, further bolstering its presence in the cross-border payments space.
Félix Pago
Founded: 2021
CEO: Manuel J Godoy
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: US
Focus region: Latin America, US
Félix Pago allows Latinos to send money home from the US through WhatsApp using a chatbot, without requiring an app download. The company enables fast remittances to Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and has grown to facilitate cash withdrawal at over 500 stores in these countries.
In May 2024, the company raised $15.5m in Series A funding for its concept, which converts USD to Circle’s USDC stablecoin on the backend to make savings on FX conversion that it passes to users. According to reports alongside this funding story, Félix Pago plans to enter El Salvador and Nicaragua next, followed by Colombia and the Dominican Republic before entering the rest of Latin America.
Pomelo
Founded: 2020
CEO: Eric Velasquez Frenkiel
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: US
Focus region: Asia, Latin America
Pomelo is a provider of international money transfers services to GCash wallets backed by its credit card product, allowing customers to order transfers to the Philippines and pay for them later. The company removes transfer fees from its services as it gains money from merchants through interchange fees.
Pomelo has raised a total of $180m in funding ($125m in debt financing), including a $35m Series A funding round earlier this year, which the company intends to put towards expanding its credit-building remittances solution. As part of a partnership with Thunes, Pomelo plans to eventually enable it solution to serve other popular remittance corridors from the US.
Latin America
Bamboo Payment Systems
Founded: 2020
CEO: Francisco Andrés León V.
Customer focus: B2B payments, Ecommerce
HQ country: Uruguay
Focus region: Latin America
Bamboo Payment Systems enables instant payment processing to eight countries in Latin America, spanning a number of verticals including ecommerce and travel providers. The company provides a connection between local payment rails in LatAm and accepts more than 200 payment methods, as well as enabling instant or near-instant payouts in local currency across seven Latin American countries.
Bamboo recently announced it had added a financial institution licence that will allow the company to expand its service rollout across the EU and EEA regions. In September 2024, the company announced it had partnered with payroll and HR solutions provider Ontop to accelerate transactions and optimise the efficiency of its payroll services globally.
Prometeo
Founded: 2018
CEO: Ximena Aleman
Customer focus: Banks, Ecommerce, Payment gateways
HQ country: Uruguay
Focus region: Latin America, US
Prometeo is a provider of payment infrastructure to banks to enable payments and other services across Latin America, spanning cash management, bank transfers, QR payments and payment links. The company’s payments gateways services span 11 countries, with its principle goal being offering a single API that connects Latin American and US banks.
In January 2024, the company announced it had raised $13m in a Series A funding round that included PayPal Ventures and Samsung Next as investors, and which the company will use to aid its ongoing expansion. In May 2024, the company announced plans to enter Mexico, the US and Brazil between 2024 and 2025, while in June it entered the US market with its bank account validation solution. Prometeo counts a number of major banks amongst its customers, including Citibank, J.P. Morgan and Santander.
Yuno
Founded: 2022
CEO: Juan Pablo Ortega
Customer focus: Businesses
HQ country: Colombia
Focus region: Africa, Asia, Europe
Founded by an experienced team, Yuno gives business accesses to payments networks worldwide, enabling them to manage payouts to merchants and customers, as well as accept payments from countries around the world. The company enables access to over 300 payment methods and already serves a diverse customer base, including brands like McDonalds, Viva and inDrive.
The company raised $25m in funding in May 2024, bringing its funding total to $35m, with which it aims to strengthen its presence in Asia, Europe and Africa (building upon Yuno’s presence in more than 80 countries) while enhancing its payment infrastructure platform. In September 2024, the company launched a new Monitors solution for its merchant customers, designed to detect and resolve payment anomalies in real time.
Europe
Crezco
Founded: 2020
CEO: Ralph Rogge
Customer focus: B2B payments, SMEs, Ecommerce
HQ country: UK
Focus region: Europe
Crezco works with more than 500 UK and EU banks to offer solutions for making and collecting international payments. It enables businesses to receive payments across 37 currencies and from more than 180 countries, and facilitates payments directly from and to local bank accounts without any need to create virtual IBANs or local wallets.
Crezco has raised a total of £17.6m ($22m) for its open banking solution, including a £9.6m ($12m) Series A funding round near the end of 2023, which the company is using to scale its operations, particularly for SMEs. In 2024 has had significant presence at events and recently announced a new collaboration with billing software company Paylists to boost invoicing for small businesses with open banking and low-fee money transfers.
Finom
Founded: 2019
CEOs: Yakov Novikov, Andrew Petrov
Customer focus: B2B payments, SMEs, Freelancers
HQ country: Netherlands
Focus region: Europe
Finom is a provider of international payments services for businesses and freelancers. It offers low exchange rates to more than 150 countries, as well as free transfers on the SEPA system as the company has gradually expanded its reach across European markets.
The company raised €50m in a funding round in January 2024, which the company will invest towards targeting the entire Eurozone by 2025. In July, the company launched a new SEPA direct debit service focused on B2B payments, and in September it introduced a new CFO to help scale its business. Finom currently serves more than 100,000 SMEs, freelancers, self-employed people and startups across Europe.
MAJORITY
Founded: 2019
CEO: Magnus Larrson
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: Sweden
Focus region: US, Latin America, Africa
Designed specifically with migrants in mind, MAJORITY is an app that enables foreign nationals to easily open a bank account in the US and send money internationally without requiring a social security number. Users are able to send money internationally to over 20 countries, as well as make use of more than 55,000 ATMs across North America. The company’s full offering for US-based immigrants also includes checking accounts, debit cards and international calling services.
MAJORITY has received $113m total in funding, including, most recently, a $20m funding boost in May 2024 to help it expand and further develop its product. This most recent round was led by a group of fintech founders including Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson.
OpenPayd
Founded: 2015
CEO: Iana Dimitrova
Customer focus: B2B payments, Ecommerce
HQ country: UK
Focus region: Europe, North America
OpenPayd provides payments infrastructure services spanning FX, international payments, card acquiring and open banking through an API. Through the company’s API for FX services, funds can be sent to more than 100 countries, with real-time payments available for transfers to European countries.
Instant payments have been a focus of the company’s recent partnerships, including a deal with TrueLayer to enhance European open banking payments, as well as integrating its platform with Brazil’s Pix instant payments network in July. The company’s annual recurring revenue hit €40m ($47m) in June 2024, with the company now serving global brands including trading platforms eToro and Libertex, as well as crypto exchange OKX.
Sokin
Founded: 2019
CEO: Vroon Modgill
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses
HQ country: UK
Focus region: Africa, APAC, Europe, Latin America
Sokin is a global payments provider serving emerging economies with a variety of payments services, spanning global currency accounts, multicurrency payments, FX and ecommerce payments. Through Sokin’s network, businesses are able to access over 100 currencies to make payments, as well as make fast transactions to more than 200 countries.
Morgan Stanley recently acquired a stake in Sokin through an investment reportedly worth $31m (though this amount was not officially disclosed), which also featured contributions from former C-suite employees at PayPal. The company reportedly made revenues of $11m in 2023 and is on track to hit sales of $30m in 2024. Following the Morgan Stanley investment, Sokin will continue to operate as an independent unit, while funds from the investment are expected to accelerate the company’s growth plans and global expansion.
Vitesse
Founded: 2014
CEO: Phillip McGriskin
Customer focus: Insurance companies
HQ country: UK
Focus region: UK, Europe, US
Vitesse is a provider of treasury and payment solutions focused on insurance providers in travel and healthcare, third-party administrators and global carriers. Through partnerships with hundreds of financial companies globally, Vitesse supports payments to over 180 countries, and claims to have processed £10bn ($13bn) in claims as of September 2024.
In May 2024, the company raised £73m ($93m) in a Series C round led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a major global investment firm, and also announced the appointment of a new Executive President in the US to oversee Vitesse’s expansion in this market.
Zing
Founded: 2024
CEO: James Allan
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: UK
Focus region: Europe
Launched this year, Zing is HSBC’s new app for international money transfers, which the incumbent bank has launched as a potential rival for digital challengers such as Revolut and Wise. It offers a multi-currency card that allows users to hold more than 20 currencies, send more than 30 currencies and spend money in more than 200 countries and territories around the world.
Zing was initially referred to under the codename “Marco Polo”, with HSBC reportedly commencing wok on the project in 2022. In our in-depth report on Zing earlier this year, we discussed how the app’s focus on developed markets and branding indicate its pursuit of a younger, more digital-savvy demographic. In July 2024, Visa reported that it had partnered with HSBC as part of a technological collaboration to help bring the app to launch.
Africa and Middle East
Barq
Founded: 2023
CEO: Ahmed Alenazi
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: Saudi Arabia
Focus region: Middle East
Barq is a digital challenger bank that recently launched in Saudi Arabia. It enables money transfers to more than 200 countries to payout methods including cash pickup, bank transfers and digital wallets. Aside from remittances, the company’s full suite of solutions also includes personal accounts, as well as Visa cards with no international or annual fees.
Barq has rapidly grown its customer base, having reportedly signed up one million customers within its first three weeks of officially launching its digital wallet solution. The company recently announced a partnership with Mastercard to add additional payment acceptance solutions to its offering.
Mama Money
Founded: 2013
Co-Founders/Directors: Mathieu Coquillon, Raphael Grojnowski
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: South Africa
Focus region: Africa
Mama Money specialises in international money transfers to 70 countries, with a principal focus on people who have migrated from countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria and India. It has collaborated with a number of mobile wallet providers in Africa, including BKash, M-PESA, Airtel and MTN MoMo to facilitate remittances.
In July 2024, the company announced that it was launching a WhatsApp-based combined virtual card and mobile banking product in Africa, where the messaging app has gained significant adoption. It has launched this new service along with Access Bank and card issuer Paymentology.
Nymcard
Founded: 2018
CEO: Omar Onsi
Customer focus: Financial institutions, Fintechs
HQ country: UAE
Focus region: Africa, Middle East
Nymcard is a provider of payments infrastructure solutions, including multicurrency services spanning card issuance, payment processing and currency exchange. The company’s services allow financial institutions to issue digital payment products in countries with lower penetration of payments cards, while its cross-border offering enables banks to enable remittances to over 200 countries, including real-time capabilities in 106 countries.
In May this year, the company entered into an alliance with financial consultancy firm Dellsons Associates to help spur its growth in Pakistan and the Middle East. This came after the company had announced a strategic partnership with fintech and remittances player CWallet to issue prepaid cards in Qatar in December 2023.
Paymob
Founded: 2015
CEO: Islam Shawky
Customer focus: SMEs, Enterprises, Marketplaces, Financial institutions
HQ country: Egypt
Focus region: Africa, Middle East
Paymob is a provider of payment gateway, PoS and mobile payments solutions in the Middle East and North Africa region. It enables cross-border payments acceptance for online and ecommerce businesses through an omnichannel payment solution, as well as payments infrastructure that supports mass payouts and digital wallets.
As of a recent $22m Series B extension round, the company has raised a total of $90m, and has expanded to serve Egypt, Pakistan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. According to Paymob, the most recent fundraise will help it build momentum in its established markets as well as accelerate its rollout across Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Asia
Ascend Money
Founded: 2013
Co-Presidents: Tanyapong Thamavaranukupt, Monsinee Nakapanant
Customer focus: Consumers
HQ country: Thailand
Focus region: Southeast Asia
Owned by tech conglomerate Ascend Group, Ascend Money is a fintech focused on providing financial services across Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Its flagship product is TrueMoney, an app that enables users to scan and pay at millions of locations across Thailand and 40 countries worldwide, as well as online.
The company claims to have processed $14bn, serviced 50 million customers and users (with 21 million ewallet users) and have a network of 88,000 agents. Ascend Money recently raised $195m in funding to help extend its reach within the Thai customer market, as well as further expand its footprint across Southeast Asia.
Currenxie
Founded: 2014
CEO: Riccardo Capelvenere
Customer focus: Ecommerce, Businesses
HQ country: Hong Kong
Focus region: APAC
Currenxie provides global payment services through multicurrency accounts, cards and FX services for businesses. The company’s global payments network spans more than 120 collect and payout countries, as well as over 40 local collect countries and more than 50 local payout countries. It also offers foreign exchange services spanning 14 currencies.
Currenxie supports more than 12,000 clients and has moved more than $15bn in funds. Last year in July 2023, Currenxie announced it would be targeting expansion in Europe, initially through a launch of its headquarters in Dublin, and has applied for an e-money payments licence to operate in the region.
Partior
Founded: 2021
CEO: Humphrey Valenbreder
Customer focus: Financial institutions, Fintechs, Businesses
HQ country: Singapore
Focus region: APAC, Global
Backed by major banks including DBS, Temasek and J.P. Morgan, Partior delivers payment infrastructure services using blockchain technology for major financial institutions. It enables 24/7 clearing and settlement for banks and businesses through a unified ledger, thereby speeding up cross-border transactions.
In July, the company announced it had raised $60m in Series B funding, which the company said will help it build more capabilities, including intra-day foreign exchange swaps and cross-currency repurchase agreements, amongst others. It will also support the addition of more currencies to the company’s payments network, which currently spans the euro, the US dollar and the Singaporean dollar.
Following the round, Partior announced a company restructure, in which it reduced its headcount by around 30 employees. The company put this down to “unforeseen technical hurdles”, and said that its decisions were necessary to help the company “realise scale and grow volume”, according to a statement featured in Tech in Asia.
TazaPay
Founded: 2020
CEO: Rahul Shinghal
Customer focus: SMEs
HQ country: Singapore
Focus region: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East
Tazapay enables cross-border payments for small and medium-sized businesses across a variety of sectors, including travel, online gaming, ecommerce, fintech, SaaS and digital goods. It offers a range of solutions, including a global business account that is available in more than 35 countries and payout facilitation in more than 70 countries. In total the company’s cross-border payments offering spans more than 173 countries.
Tazapay recently added a new legal and compliance expert to its board, and last year secured an MPI licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to bolster its expansion into Asia. Following its $16.9m Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital last year, Tazapay said that it was planning to use the funds to scale its business across Asia, as well as expand into the Middle East and Europe.
Triple-A
Founded: 2017
CEO: Eric Barbier
Customer focus: Fintechs, Financial institutions, Payment service providers, Ecommerce
HQ country: Singapore
Focus region: APAC
Triple-A enables companies around the world to pay, get paid or provide payment services using digital currencies to speed up global settlements. Aside from enabling acceptance for merchants, the company helps banks create bank accounts for digital currencies and enable remittances.
The company has raised $14m in total funding for its crypto payment solutions, with its most recent round being a Series A fundraise totalling $10m in October 2023. The company continues to strengthen its regulatory framework in countries around the world, and in May 2024 announced it would incorporate PayPal’s recently launched stablecoin PayPal USD into its services, allowing clients to accept it as a payment method.
YouTrip
Founded: 2016
CEO: Caecilia Chu
Customer focus: Consumers, Businesses
HQ country: Singapore
Focus region: Asia
YouTrip offers a multi-currency digital travel wallet that allows travellers and expats to pay in more than 150 countries, as well as make transfers within the app across ten currencies supported within the app. The company offers zero FX fees with no hidden charges and fee-less ATM withdrawals, up to the first $400 in foreign currency per calendar month.
Initially launched in Singapore, the company has expanded its services to Thailand and Hong Kong. According to an interview with YouTrip’s founding partner in The Bangkok Post, the company achieved 180% revenue growth in 2023, with total payment volumes of around $10bn. This was largely driven by markets in Singapore and Thailand, and the company reportedly plans to start operations in Malaysia this year.
