Sequoia Capital in Southeast Asia backs start-up Tazapay for cross-border payments

The emergence of open banking and payment services such as UPI in India and PayNow in Singapore means lower costs for businesses and new payment options for hundreds of millions of credit cardless customers in emerging markets. tazapay was created to combine card and real-time payment methods as a single service for merchants selling cross-border, allowing them to use only one payment platform.

The Singapore-based fintech, which enables cross-border payments in more than 170 markets, announced today that it has raised $16.9 million in Series A funding led by Southeast Asia-based Sequoia Capital. Other participants included EscapeVelocity, PayPal Alumni Fund and business angel Gokul Rajaram. Existing investors Fundamental, January Capital, RTP Global and Season Capital also returned for the round.

Rahul Shinghal, CEO and co-founder of Tazapay, told TechCrunch that he has spent most of his career in payments. He started out as a product manager for vertical e-commerce at Indian bank ICICI before taking on positions at NETS, PayPal and Stripe. “Over the last 25 years of my career, I have seen how complex cross-border payments can be, including the need to keep costs low and settlement times short as I navigate multi-jurisdictional regulations and multi-currency facilities,” said he.

Tazapay was created to solve these problems. The API covers over 170 card payment markets and 85 local billing markets, meaning your customers can accept payments in different countries without having to set up local entities. Shinghal said the service supports a wide range of customers, including B2B operations, e-commerce platforms that sell directly to consumers, and B2B2C.

The startup’s clients include B2B marketplace IndiaMART, which has more than 7.4 million sellers and 165 million buyers on its platform; BrightCHAMPS live learning platform; WTX used truck market; the Rezlive travel platform; and the Advantage Club SaaS platform for employee engagement. It also partners with Standard Chartered, the British multinational bank, to provide digital custody services.

The funding will be used to grow Tazapay’s business in Asia and expand into regions such as the Middle East and Europe. The startup plans to apply for payment licenses and add more local payment methods to serve its verticals, including cross-border e-commerce, edtech, SaaS, and travel.

In a statement on the financing, Aakash Kapoor, vice president for Southeast Asia at Sequoia Capital, said: “Buyers are increasingly preferring real-time local payments over traditional networks, and companies are looking to expand globally without the hassle of local configuration. . “The Tazapay team has the unique knowledge and experience to capitalize on this tailwind and Sequoia Capital of Southeast Asia is pleased to partner with them to double this opportunity.”