Singapore-based fintech Tazapay raises US$16.9m Series A funding

SINGAPORE-BASED fintech company Tazapay on Thursday (Feb 9) announced it has raised US$16.9 million in Series A funding, with plans to use the funds for geographical expansion. 

The round was led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, with new investors EscapeVelocity, PayPal Alumni Fund and Gokul Rajaram joining in. Existing investors Foundamental, January Capital, RTP Global and Saison Capital also participated in this round.

“These partners will help us realise our vision to be the foremost cross-border infrastructure for global platforms as we double down on growing our market presence and consolidating every real-time banking network in the world under one API (application programming interface),” said Tazapay chief executive officer and co-founder Rahul Shinghal.

Tazapay, a digital payment platform for businesses engaging in cross-border transactions, was founded in 2020 by former executives from companies including Stripe, PayPal, Grab and Standard Chartered. It provides a full-stack payment solution globally, including cards and local payment methods, and provides buyer and seller protection. The company has raised over US$18.9 million in funding.

The company plans to use the funds from this round to further scale its business across Asia and expand in regions where there is strong demand for its services, such as Europe and the Middle East.

Tazapay will also apply for payment licences in major markets that can broaden its payment network globally, and enhance its core capabilities as well as increase its local payment methods to better serve its vertical markets, which include cross-border e-commerce, education technology, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and travel, it added. 

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The company also plans to utilise this round of funding to expand its real-time local payments collection channels from 80 markets to more than 100 by the end of this year. 

“With the advent of open banking and maturing of real-time payment networks like the PayNow service in Singapore and Unified Payments Interface in India, there is an increase in expectations from businesses and end consumers for payments to be done in real-time and through a payment method they are familiar with,” Tazapay said. 

Tazapay’s network consists of over 170 markets for its card coverage and 85 markets for its local collection coverage. Businesses can access this network through a single API integration, which allows them to accept low cost and secure payments from customers without creating local entities. 

Some of the company’s customers include IndiaMART, India’s leading online business-to-business marketplace; Rezlive, a global travel platform; and Advantage Club, an employee engagement SaaS platform. It has also partnered Standard Chartered to offer commerce-enabling payment solutions for enterprise marketplaces. 

Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia’s vice-president Aakash Kapoor said the payments and compliance infrastructure Tazapay is building for cross-border commerce and services is a large space which is seeing another inflection point. 

“Buyers increasingly prefer to use local real-time payments over traditional networks and businesses are keen to expand globally without going through the hassle of a local set-up,” he said. “The Tazapay team has unique insights and experience to leverage this tailwind, and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia is excited to partner with them as they double down on the opportunity.”