There are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of companies playing in the cross-border remittances field, from incumbents like Western Union through myriad tech players, some of which have gone public and some of which remain privately held. The company has now raised more than $80 million, and while it is not disclosing its valuation, PitchBook data notes that it is $715 million as of this round (which appears to have closed earlier in the year). The Series B is being led by Spark Capital, with participation also from Unbound, Reid Hoffman and Canaan Partners (both of which led its previous round, a $13.4 million Series A earlier this year), Slow Ventures, Breyer Capital, Wamda Capital, Flourish Ventures and additional unnamed investors from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. At a time when the global economy has been under pressure, Taptap Send saw business grow eight-fold, the company said. The company’s hook is that it charges no fee for the transfer (it makes its cut via foreign exchange rates), and believes that its service is the easiest on the market to use, and it integrates with whatever mobile money wallets are already being used locally, meaning recipients do not have to add anything extra to their devices, or learn any new techniques, to be able to receive money via the service. In one development of that theme, today, Taptap Send - one of the startups building tools to manage these money transfers - is announcing $65 million in growth funding as it continues its mission to enable remittances specifically to the most overlooked countries. The World Bank estimates that some $589 billion will be sent this way in 2021, according to research from the World Bank, up 7.3% on 2020, as parts of the global economy started to claw back growth after a tough 2020 due to COVID-19. Cross-border remittances - when people living and working abroad send money back home to friends and family - continues to be a huge part of how those living in developing countries, off the global financial grid, can be helped.
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