Posted by Mumbai: Rewire, the neobank has raised $20 million and a significant line of credit from a leading bank in a Series B funding round.
The Series B funding will enable the fintech startup to continue enhancing its product portfolio and services. As well as its strategic partnerships in the migrant’s country of origin and the country in which they currently reside.
OurCrowd led this Series B funding round and included new investors. Renegade Partners, Glilot Capital Partners (through its early growth fund Glilot+), and Jerry Yang, former Yahoo! CEO and Director – Alibaba, through AME Cloud Ventures.
These new investors were joined by current investors including Viola Fintech, BNP Paribas via venture capital fund Opera Tech Ventures, Moneta Capital, and private angel investors.
Entrepreneurs Guy Kashtan (CEO), Adi Ben Dayan (VP R&D), Saar Yahalom (CTO) and Or Benoz founded Rewire in 2016. As a fintech startup, it develops cross-border online banking services for expatriate and migrant workers globally. Since then, Rewire has become the first neobank for migrants worldwide.
The fintech startup has seen users remit hundreds of millions per year to Asia. It has over230,000 users originally from China, the Philippines, India and Thailand.
The user base of Rewire continues to grow rapidly. Users from the Philippines and Thailand growing at 300% year-on-year. Similarly, the number of users originally from India is growing at 350%. The pool of users originally from China is growing at 1000% year-on-year.
On legal and authorisation aspect, Rewire has secured the Dutch Central Bank led EU Electronic Money Institution license (EMI). This allows the fintech startup to issue electronic money, provide payment services, and engage in money remittance.
Rewire was also granted an expanded Israeli Financial Asset Service Provider. These licenses are key drivers for the fintech startup in providing secure and accessible financial services for migrant workers globally.
Further, Rewire has plans to enrich its platform with new value-added services. Such as bill payments and insurance, besides credit and loan services, investments, and savings. Adding these to its existing remittance services, payment account and debit card, Rewire is making its first-rate financial services more accessible to migrants.
“I was most impressed with Rewire’s understanding of its customers and the unique pain points of migrants around the world. As an investor, it’s crucial to know that alongside a solid business plan there’s a wider view of social impact,” Jerry Yang said.
“Everything that we do at Rewire is aimed to help migrants to build a more financially secure future for themselves and their families. We aim to provide services that go beyond traditional banking services such as insurance payments in the migrant’s home country and savings accounts,” said Rewire CEO, Guy Kashtan.
“This investment and licenses are major steps towards fulfilling our company’s vision. And will be used for additional expansion of geographies and products,” added Kashtan.
“We have been strong supporters of Rewire since inception, investing in the seed round and leading this current round,” said OurCrowd CEO, Jon Medved.
“Israel continues to grow companies out to change the world and Rewire is undoubtedly one of them. We are excited and proud to join Rewire’s journey to fulfil their social and business vision. It seeks to create equal financial opportunities for expats around the world,” said Glilot Managing Partner, Lior Litwak.
This new investment round is managed internally by Alex Bakir (GM Europe) and Nir Mlynarsky (CFO).
In 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Rewire processed $500 million through its systems and the customer base has tripled. It will soon reach half a million registered users, with 40% attributed to organic growth. Rewire has penetrated new markets in Europe and the UK and introduced new cross-border bill payments.
Rewire also forged partnerships with key financial institutions in multiple countries such as UkrSibbank in Ukraine and mobile wallet enablers in Nigeria and the Philippines. Other partners in Asia include the Philippine headquartered Metrobank and Indian private sector bank Yes Bank.
It offers its cross-border solution in 8 different languages and a localised app. In June 2020, Rewire gained global recognition as a fintech leader at the Samsung powered Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) 2020 competition.