London unicorn galloping into Singapore soon

Singapore

THE payments market is revving up.

A UK financial technology (fintech) company called TransferWise, having clinched regulatory approval, will soon launch in Singapore - hot on the heels of the debut of the US-based Stripe.

Both TransferWise, a global money-transfer firm, and online-payments company Stripe are "unicorns", so dubbed for their mythical status of being valued at more than US$1 billion each at startup.

TransferWise, which counts Richard Branson and Silicon Valley venture capitalist fund Andreessen Horowitz as investors, seeks to offer lower cross-border money transfer rates than banks.

The company confirmed its upcoming launch to T…