Financial settlement network EMQ raises US$20m led by WI Harper

FINTECH startup EMQ has raised US$20 million in Series B funding led by venture capital firm WI Harper Group.

The round saw participation from new and existing investors that include AppWorks, Abu Dhabi Capital, DG Ventures, Intudo Ventures, VS Partners, January Capital, Hard Yaka, Vectr Fintech Partners, Silicon Valley-based Quest Venture Partners ( see amendment note) and Sparklabs.

Hong Kong-based EMQ operates a cross-border financial settlement network across the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe and North America. The company will use the investment to further accelerate its international growth, product development and licensing activities across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The startup's network is used by a range of enterprise clients including virtual banks, digital wallets and small and medium enterprises.

EMQ is licensed in Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, and registered as a Money Service Business in Canada. It was also accepted into Taiwan's Regulatory Sandbox by the Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Max Liu said: "As we look to the future, we will continue to invest significantly towards constant innovation of our cross-border solutions and compliance capabilities, to deliver additional value to the global payments ecosystem and capitalise on the explosive growth of the cross-border business-to-business payments market - valued to exceed US$218 trillion by 2022."

Edward Liu, partner at WI Harper Group, said: "As digital transformation intensifies globally, enterprises today are increasingly international in scale and they will require a network infrastructure like EMQ with greater speed, more certainty, increased flexibility and transparency, to expand their business in Asia and beyond."

Amendment note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that one of investors was Quest Ventures. EMQ has clarified that it was in fact Quest Venture Partners.