•The digital cross-border payments platform with presence in Kenya is operating two brands–WorldRemit and Sendwave, acquired in 2021.
•It has over 11 million users across 150 countries.
Zepz, formerly WorldRemit Group, has raised $292 million (about Sh32 billion) in new primary Series E financing, achieving a valuation of $5 billion (Sh548 billion).
The digital cross-border payments platform with presence in Kenya is operating two brands–WorldRemit and Sendwave, acquired in 2021, with over 11 million users across 150 countries.
It is currently among leading global money transfer companies in Kenya, which is ranked third among biggest recipients in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria and Ghana.
“The funding round will allow Zepz to maximise strategic flexibility and drive further growth,” management said in a statement.
The round includes new equity investors Farallon Capital among others, as well as backing from existing investors Leapfrog, TCV and Accel.
Zepz is revolutionising the P2P (Peer-to-peer) cross-border payments market, an estimated $1trillion (Sh109.7trillion ) market opportunity, which continues to be predominantly offline and is characterised by high prices and poor customer experience.
Zepz reaches over 5,000 money transfer corridors, including emerging markets with high barriers to entry, establishing digital connectivity into geographies that had previously been underserved.
WorldRemit and Sendwave settles 85 per cent of transactions in minutes, with more flexible digital offering with multiple pay-in and pay-out options.
Zepz’ average customer transact at least four times per month on the platform.
The funding round will allow Zepz to continue to invest in its technology, platform and customer proposition, it said in a statement to newsrooms.
It sees significant growth opportunities both in its existing markets by driving engagement and deeper market penetration, as well as expanding into new markets and further extending its platform to offer additional value-added services to its users.
CEO Breon Corcoran said:“Today’s announced raise is another important step in the execution of our strategy. Following the acquisition of Sendwave we have made significant progress with the integration of the different businesses and are retaining both the Sendwave and WorldRemit brands.”
He announced the rebranding of its holding Company to Zepz.
“The additional funds raised enables us to accelerate investment to prosecute our very sizeable growth opportunity whilst further strengthening our high-quality investor base and our mission to provide fair, fast, flexible payments for our customers,” Corcoran said.
In 2020, Zepz’ brands enabled over 4.5 million monthly transactions on its platform generating almost $10 billion (Sh1.09 trillion )of Gross Send Volumes and $338 million (Sh37.1 billion) in revenues.
Zeps brands currently send from 50 to 130 countries, operating in more than 5,000 money transfer corridors worldwide and employs around 1,500 people globally.
Headquartered in London, it has regional offices in the US, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Belgium, South Africa, Zimbabwe ,Somaliland, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya.