Nium becomes first B2B payments unicorn from SE Asia

The injection of over $200m in a Series D financing round has pushed Nium, a Singapore-headquartered payments platform into the ranks of unicorns. Founded in 2015, Nium has also become the first B2B payments unicorn from Southeast Asia.

California-based Riverwood Capital, which is leading the round as a strategic investor, is joined by  Temasek, Visa, Vertex Ventures, Atinum Group of Funds, Beacon Venture Capital, and Rocket Capital Investment, and other notable angel investors, including DoorDash executive, Gokul Rajaram; Chief Product Officer at FIS, Vicky Bindra; and, Co-Founder of Tribe Capital, Arjun Sethi, also contributed to the round.

Nium plans to use the funds to expand in the U.S. and Latin America before pursuing an initial public offering in the U.S. in 18 to 24 months, Chief Executive Officer Prajit Nanu, 39 told Bloomberg in an interview. Revenues for Nium are almost equally split between EMEA and APAC.

In the past year, Nium has processed 8 billion in annual payments, and issued over 30 million virtual cards.  

The latest Series D funding will provide Nium with greater flexibility to explore deeper vertical and regional opportunities, particularly given its recent strategic acquisitions: travel B2B payments leader, Ixaris (which brings virtual card issuance capabilities) and Wirecard Forex India Private Limited (which extends reach into India’s payments market). Read more....