Rapyd Climate Fintech hackathon entry “Rapyd Paybot” by team Maize.

Managing finances is not an easy task (what a surprise ��). Even if it is just a simple paid event in Discord, paid roles or a marketplace which sells real products, some steps must be taken in order to provide server members a comfortable payment experience.

#finance #discord #coding #rapyd

The valuation of Rapyd, the payments platform that handles payments for Uber and Ikea has doubled to $5 billion since raising its last round in January amid a pandemic-driven boom for fintechs. The London-based company raised a $300 million Series E round to fund acquisitions and expansion into Latin America and Asia. The deal comes just a month after Rapyd acquired Icelandic payments company Vailtor in a $100 million deal, and just seven months after announcing a $300 million fund raise in January. “This is a quick cycle but the growth in our business has been vast and payments are moving so fast, so six months is actually more like 18 months which is a normal situation for fundraising,” says Arik Shtilman, co-founder and CEO of Rapyd. Shtilman said revenues at Rapyd had tripled since last October when the previous round closed  and it is now managing $20 billion of international transactions not just for small businesses, but also allowing cash to be deposited and withdrawn from digital wallets for companies like Uber in Latin America. The acquisition of Valitor once finalized will also let Rapyd expand into what Shtilman classed as “higher-risk” sectors like cryptocurrency and online gaming. “This is a very fast moving space and it’s not just the volumes and revenues but new use cases that pop up that you have never seen before,” says Shtilman. Rapyd, which was founded by its three Israeli founders in 2016, is part of a booming industry that handles the cash for the digital economy. The pandemic and a stampede of investors looking to cash in on fintechs have fuelled a doubling, or tripling, of startup valuations, and talk of a valuation bubble. American rival Strip raised a $600 million round in March at a $95 billion valuation, which is triple the last reported value of $36 billion in April 2020. In Europe, banking startup Revolut’s valuation exploded to $33 billion from $5.5 billion last year, while Sweden’s buy now pay later startup Klarna saw its value leap $14.6 billion to $45.6 billion in a three month window between rounds earlier this year. Rapyd’s round was led by Target Global and includes new investment from Fidelity Ventures, Altimeter Capital, and BlackRock. Stripe is also an early investor in Rapyd, while the London-based startup launched its own venture arm in May to invest in other early stage fintechs.“There is a global trend in the adoption of e-wallets,” says Mike Lobanov, general partner with Target Global, adding that parts of Asia-Pacific and Latin American had skipped Visa-style card networks to adopt smartphone-driven e-wallets. “There will be multiple e-wallets and someone will have to connect all of them and Rapyd is the best positioned for that.”

All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2021/08/03/payments-startup-rapyd-raises-300-million-round-amid-fintech-valuations-boom/

#rapyd #newshour #newstodayusa #newstodaylocal #newstodayworld #newstodaymsnbc #

Most significant new trends in fintech and what we’re building to help businesses adapt presented by Arik Shtilman, Rapyd CEO & Co-Founder.