TransferGo, the UK-based fintech best known as a consumer platform for global remittances, has raised a $10 million growth funding round from Taiwan-based investor Taiwania Capital to expand into the Asia-Pacific region. It most recently raised a $50 million Series C funding round in 2021.
TransferGo claims the new investment doubles its valuation to around $600 million, from the $200 million to $300 million Dealroom valued it at in September 2021.
Daumantas Dvilinskas, Co-Founder and CEO of TransferGo, told TechCrunch: “We’ve been profitable for the last year on and off and the only burn was marketing, but the burn was very limited. We achieved business viability and became profitable and still have revenue from our last round of funding. So we are profitable. We don’t need external capital to grow.”
However, he saw an opportunity to raise funding from Asia to expand there. “We raised money because we wanted to expand faster in Asia Pacific. So this is the next frontier for us,” he said. “We’re still getting customers from incumbents: 75% are from cash, banks and Western Union — that’s still the gorilla in the room.”
He puts TransferGo’s development on focusing on the consumer experience. “We’ve always been probably the most consumer-centric company in the space,” he said. “This is evident in our Trusted Reviews — even better than others. We actually build the product for our consumers. So this 90% instant settlement, 24/7 instant, consumers love it. And it’s not easy to do. It takes time. You have to solve the existing technology issues.”
However, not everything was simple. Last year it was TransferGo Rap fined EUR 310,000 by the Bank of Lithuania for AML (ie anti-money laundering) lapses.
“We were going through an inspection and they found some procedural loopholes that we closed by the end of the year,” Dvilinskas told me. “Regulation is getting stronger, but we’re happy to close the door on that because we’ve had successful feedback from them after the mediation closed.”
TransferGo competes heavily with market-dominant Western Union, but newer companies like Remitly and Wise are also in the competitive mix.
