Payments startup Rapyd raises $300 million in mega funding; doubles valuation to $2.5 billion fueled by the coronavirus pandemic

We covered Rapyd back in 2019 after the Fintech-as-a-Service startup raised $40 million in a Series B funding round to expand its technology platform that supports any local or cross-border commerce use case requiring local payments. A lot has changed since we last wrote about the company. Rapyd has grown from just 25 employees in 2018 to over 200 in 2021.

Today, Rapyd announced that it has raised a $300 million Series D financing round to double its engineering and product teams, as well as expand the “Self-Service” element of Rapyd’s platform, empowering businesses globally to onboard and begin utilizing any of Rapyd’s financial capabilities in the shortest possible time frame. The round was led by Coatue, with participation from several new investors, including Spark Capital, Avid Ventures, FJ Labs, and others.

Founded in 2015 co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman, Rapyd helps businesses and their customers pay and be paid however they choose. Its fintech-as-a-service platform enables any payment type for in-country or cross-border commerce. Seamlessly integrate local payment methods like bank transfers, e-wallets, or cash into digital applications from a single API.

Rapyd operates the world’s largest local payments network that connects to over 2 billion+ consumers transacting around the corner and across the globe. Rapyd addresses a significant and growing market opportunity as more than half of all transactions worldwide are facilitated via bank transfer, but merchants find it increasingly difficult to digitally enable local payment methods and process cross-border sales that are critical for international expansion. Rapyd is headquartered in the UK with offices in London, Singapore, Silicon Valley, and Tel Aviv

Since the coronavirus pandemic began early last year, Rapyd has seen massive demand thanks to a boom in the online payments industry, fueled in no small part by the coronavirus pandemic. Rapyd’s CEO said the company now has 5,000 clients in total, though he didn’t comment on any specific names. He also added that Rapyd now has an annual run rate of $100 million, a key metric used by companies to determine how much money they could make in a full year.

“The demand for online payments has skyrocketed following the restrictions due to the effects of COVID, and as a company, we are well placed to provide businesses across the globe with the solutions they need and to get them up and running fast,” said Arik Shtilman, co-founder and CEO of Rapyd. “To kick off 2021 with this substantial round of funding to further invest in our platform is a tremendous vote of confidence both in the growing need for local payment solutions that can be deployed at scale globally, and more specifically in our vision and company.”

“The payment landscape varies dramatically across countries. A company doing business globally might need to accept hundreds of local payment methods. Rapyd’s API, which abstracts away this complexity, is currently powering what we think are many of the world’s most exciting companies,” said Kris Fredrickson, Managing Partner at Coatue. “We are honored to partner with Arik and team for the next phase of the Rapyd journey.”