Alphabet Invests In Currencycloud’s Global Expansion

Alphabet Inc’s venture department — formerly known as Google Ventures — has invested in Currencycloud.

The U.K.-based startup specializes in making it possible for businesses to offer cross-border payment services.

All in all, the round brought in a new $25 million to Currencycloud — Alphabet joins existing investors Notion Capital Ltd, Sapphire Ventures LLC, Rakuten Inc and Anthemis Group. With the new funding, Currencycloud has raised $61 million total.

The next move, now that it’s flush with new funding, is to continue the firm’s expansion worldwide, according to Mike Laven, Currencycloud’s chief executive officer.

“We just opened up in the U.S. and that requires a lot more development,” Laven said. “We are also seeing tremendous interest from Asia broadly.”

Currencycloud makes it possible for a variety of financial services players — banks, payments startups, etc — to add international payments services to their business line without having to set up complex and costly cross-border infrastructure. On Currencycloud’s current partner list are Klarna Inc, Standard Bank Group and foreign exchange company Travelex Ltd. As of the writing of this story, Currencycloud has made the movement of about $25 billion possible through its platform.

Laven said Google was attracted to Currencycloud because it makes it easier for developers to create CX capacity.

“Google looked at us as a tool that is used in globalizing domestic businesses,” Laven said.

UK-based FinTech companies raised $783 million via VCs in 2016 — a 33.7 percent drop from 2015. Drops were common in FinTech last year as investor sentiment cooled some — but in the U.S. the drop was only 12.7 percent to  $6.2 billion.