Fintech Startup Nium Raises Equity Round From New Investors Visa\, BRI Ventures

Fintech Startup Nium Raises Equity Round From New Investors Visa, BRI Ventures

The firm will be channelising the funds to further build its diversified payment infrastructure offering that includes outreach to SMEs, large enterprises and consumers.

11 May, 2020

Nium, the fintech startup, announced that it has raised a new round of equity funding, joined by new investors Visa and BRI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Bank BRI of Indonesia. 

Nium said it will be channelising the funds to further build its diversified payment infrastructure offering that includes outreach to SMEs, large enterprises and consumers as well as banks and financial institutions. The newly raised corpus will be largely directed towards product development and tuck-in acquisitions that compress time to market, the company said in a release. For the latter, the firm will also focus on vertical expertise in markets like India, UK, Europe and the US. 

CEO and Co-Founder of Nium, Prajit Nanu, said, “We are interested in tech infrastructure players with capabilities in issuance, local payment rails etc, which complement our own and can help us ship faster in markets we are bullish on.”

Nium is a global financial technology platform redefining the way consumers and businesses send, spend and receive funds across nations. It is presently licensed in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Australia, EU, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore and claims to operate in over 90 countries, 65 in real-time and in 63 currencies. Formerly known as InstaReM, the firm rebranded into Nium in October last year. 

As part of its own consumer and SME remittance offering (InstaReM) and remittance as-a-service capabilities, the startup asserts that it now reaches millions of customers across 10 licensed jurisdictions with Indonesia and Japan being the latest additions. On the enterprise front, the firm serves clients across six continents. Through a fully micro-service driven model, Nium solves inefficiencies that plague traditional payment processes across sectors like e-commerce, large corporates to SMEs, from services such as payroll disbursement to expenses management and travel etc. 

“Nium and Visa’s collaboration began in early 2019 when Nium joined the Visa Fintech Fast Track program in the Asia Pacific. We’ve worked together on new commerce experiences like instant remittances for consumers and businesses in Southeast Asia,” said Chris Clark, Regional President, Asia Pacific, Visa. 

"We have been working closely with Nium since their InstaReM days when they were processing consumer remittance, and are excited to witness their growth as they expand their service offerings to include financial institutions and corporates. The potential of financial technology is limitless and we look forward to supporting Nium on their path of growth as they expand their presence into Indonesia and beyond,” shared Nicko Widjaja, CEO, BRI Ventures.