The explosion of e-commerce and online buying has fueled a tsunami of issues for global companies that must ensure payments can be seamless and in the form and manner each locale prefers. That has fueled a push by payment providers to create more customized solutions.
PPRO’s technology is underpinning many of these solutions and investors are flocking to the company. The London-based startup has announced a $180 million investment round, which comes just six months after a $50 million round.
Sprints Capital participated in both rounds. Eurazeo Growth and Wellington Management joined Sprints in the latest round. Citi Ventures and HPE Growth helped fund the previous round.
The new investment values PPRO at over $1 billion.
“I am very proud of what the PPRO team has accomplished,” Simon Black, CEO of PPRO, said in a statement. “Beyond securing the support of such prestigious investors and achieving a milestone valuation, we’ve enabled our customers to grow at record numbers during what has been a tough time for many. By giving businesses the ability to offer payment choice, we’ve helped give people around the world better access to goods and services that improve their lives.”
PPRO’s API technology is being used by global payment providers including Citi, Elavon, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, Mollie, PayPal and Worldpay. It enables businesses to accept payment based on preferred local payment methods. PPRO’s platform manages the entire funds flow and allows businesses to collect payments without the need to set up a local bank account.
“Our unique local payments infrastructure empowers our customers to quickly increase their global footprint. This investment will help us deliver the highest performance possible for companies leading the global payments industry,” Black added.
Financial Technology Partners was the financial adviser for the fundraise and Noerr served as legal counsel.
The need for advanced payment options, especially for e-commerce, has accelerated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the U.K., ATM withdrawals dropped 60% in 2020 and research firm McKinsey predicted that cash payments would drop up to five percentage points in 2020. By 2028, PPRO said just 9% of transactions will involve cash.
“We are delighted to support Simon and the team at PPRO as they continue to develop best-in-class local payment solutions,” commented Nathalie Kornhoff-Brüls, managing director at Eurazeo Growth. “All signs for the future indicate that digital commerce, and even more so cross-border commerce, will continue to grow exponentially while innovation in payment methods remains strong. As a result, facilitating local payments is becoming increasingly complex. Payment service providers, however, no longer have a choice as merchants and their customers are pushing for the adoption.”
PPRO, which said its transaction volumes doubled in 2020, said it will use the funds to expand into high-growth markets.
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