LONDON, United Kingdom and SINGAPORE - Digital payments company Pomelo Pay (Pomelo) announced today that it has raised US$10 million in a Series A round led by UK-based independent investment firm Inference Partners. The investment will allow the company to expand its presence across global markets including Europe and Asia, starting with plans to double their workforce in London, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
Launched in 2018 in UK and Singapore, Pomelo allows merchants to digitise their payment infrastructure and take payments from anyone, in any location (physical or digital), at near zero costs. The company provides an integration with over 30 payment networks globally. Its payments platform is also used by leading banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) for a drastically improved acquiring experience, enabling them to offer the broadest suite of payment acceptance solutions to their end customers. The company crossed US$500 million in total payments processed for 2021 and projects a growth of five times by 2022. The company has made several high-profile appointments recently, including Sonam Bhutia, former Commercial Director for Alipay in Southeast Asia, who joins as Chief Commercial Officer.
In the recently released e-Conomy SEA 2021 report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, the report cited that 35% of the 3,000 digital merchants (SMEs) surveyed would not have survived the pandemic without selling on digital platforms. The report found that digital payments in Southeast Asia rose 9% in gross transaction value (GTV) to US$707 billion this year from 2020 and is projected to hit over US$1.1 trillion by 2025. While digital financial services were critical enablers for their businesses, nine in 10 digital merchants now accept digital payments and 72% of them are likely to increase usage over the next two years.
Pomelo last raised a US$2.9 million seed investment led by Force Over Mass, who also invested in this round. The firm has 50 people in its team across its headquarters in London and offices in Singapore and Vietnam.
Vincent Choi, CEO and Co-founder of Pomelo Pay said, “This investment from Inference Partners comes at an opportune time where businesses and SMEs in Southeast Asia have become accustomed to selling on digital platforms. We plan to capitalise on the huge pace of growth and adoption by partnering banks and NBFIs from emerging markets to offer merchants easy and affordable payment solutions to help them innovate their business and grow their customer base.”
He added, “I’d like to thank all our investors for their support as we expand Pomelo Pay’s global presence across Europe and Asia. This helps us in taking a more holistic approach of building a payment infrastructure, on the cloud, where world leading banks and financial institutions have adopted using our API-based acquiring solution to integrate origination, working capital financing, credit scoring, card issuing, invoicing and more.”
Endre Sagi, Managing Partner of Inference Partners added, “Pomelo is perfectly positioned to address the market need for a best-in-class API first platform, allowing a seamless adoption by financial institutions. This will in turn allow their end customers to offer acceptance solutions and roll out a range of integrated financial products. We have been impressed by the long-term vision and payment expertise of Pomelo's management team, and we believe Pomelo has potential to be a leader in the payments industry.”
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