Kilkenny firm TransferMate attains ‘unicorn status’ after its valuation surpasses $1bn.
B2B payments infrastructure-as-a-service player TransferMate has joined the unicorn club after a new $70m funding round brought the company to a valuation of $1bn.
The deal sees CEO Sinead Fizmaurice become the first woman CEO of an Irish unicorn.
“This investment will allow us to accelerate our mission to drive innovation”
The funding round was led by Railpen, one of the largest UK pension funds which manages £37bn.
The latest round brings to $130m the total amount of funding raised by TransferMate to date.
As well as Stripe, led by the Collison Brothers and which was founded in San Francisco and now worth more than $90bn, Ireland has another six home-grown unicorns valued at more than $1bn including Fenergo, LetsGetChecked, Workhuman, Flipdish, Intercom and Wayflyer.
Powering fintech
TransferMate has grown its global licensing infrastructure and banking network to be one of the widest in the industry and has been chosen as the partner of choice to power B2B payments products for some of the largest software platforms, innovative banks and fintechs in the world.
This funding round which consists entirely of primary capital will be used to expand its teams globally and further invest in its technology innovation and product suite.
“We are delighted to welcome Railpen as a shareholder at this exciting time,” said Terry Clune, TransferMate’s Founder.
“By combining our technology and our global licence network, we empower software providers, banks and fintechs to deliver payments dramatically faster and cheaper than the traditional SWIFT system. We will use this investment to continue to recruit senior financial talent who can help broaden our customer base.”
“Since the very beginning we have been on a mission to set new standards in how businesses make and receive international payments,” added Sinead Fitzmaurice, CEO of TransferMate. “Our commitment to deliver real-time transparency and speed when businesses are conducting cross border payments has resulted in TransferMate becoming the global B2B payments infrastructure of choice for the world’s leading procure-to-pay and spend management platforms.”
“This investment will allow us to accelerate our mission to drive innovation as businesses seek to digitise their B2B payments within the core software that they use to conduct their day-to-day activities.”
This new round of investment together with the $1BN valuation further sets TransferMate apart as the world’s most comprehensive independent B2B payments network. It allows businesses and individuals to make cross-border payments in more than 201 countries and 141 currencies, as easily and cost-effectively as if making a domestic funds transfer, and with complete transparency of the transaction through to the point of final reconciliation.
“We are excited to be part of TransferMate’s journey as it seeks to enable companies to cost-effectively digitalise their cross-border payments,” said Julia Diez, Portfolio Manager at Railpen. “This investment continues Railpen’s strategy of investing in high quality, innovative growth companies for the long term, which supports our purpose to secure our members’ future.”
Main image at top: TransferMate founder Terry Clune and CEO Sinead Fitzmaurice
