LemFi secures $53m Series B funding to expand operations to new countries

LemFi, a remittance startup, has raised $53 million in a Series B funding round.

In a statement on Tuesday, Highland Europe, a London-based growth-stage investment, said it led the funding round, with other participating investors including Endeavor Catalyst, Left Lane Capital, Palm Drive Capital, and Y Combinator.

The new funding brings LemFi’s total capital raised to $85 million.

Highland said LemFi, co-founded by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran, has over one million users across Europe and North America sending money to emerging markets, including India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan.

According to the statement, LemFi recently crossed $1 billion in monthly transactions, with the recent addition of the Asian market to the platform expected to raise the transactions.

Olalere, LemFi’s chief executive officer (CEO), said the company’s mission is to redefine cross-border money transfers.

“When we started building LemFi, we were told remittance had already been solved. But for too many people, it is still too slow, cumbersome and expensive with customers telling us that in some instances it was cheaper to send money from the US via Canada than directly to their families back home,” Olalere said.

“By targeting the communities most in need, we’ve built LemFi into the go-to remittance service for one million people, supporting them in building wealth across 20 countries.”

He said the new funding will support the company’s mission to build the financial services hub for immigrants globally.

“We’re not stopping there: this new funding will support us in our mission to build the financial services hub for immigrants globally from adding new features to expanding to new countries. We’re delighted to be partnering with Highland to help us scale LemFi into a fintech giant,” the co-founder said.

Sam Brooks, partner at Highland Europe, commended LemFi for its rapid growth and loyal customer base.

“LemFi’s mission to provide trusted, reliable access to financial services for immigrant communities has inspired an incredibly loyal customer base and has generated impressive growth over the past several years,” Brooks said.

“In addition to the success in initial geographies, we are excited by LemFi’s continuing international expansion given the extent of the global problem they are solving. Ridwan and Rian are fantastic leaders, and we are thrilled to partner with them and the LemFi team to help them scale and continue their growth into new markets.”

Since it commenced operations in 2021, LemFi has grown by providing efficient money transfer services, particularly to African diaspora communities in North America and Europe.

Last year, the company expanded its international payment services to Brazil and Mexico.