Spearheading economy boosts in multiple emerging market economies, remittances have proven crucial – recorded inflows recently surpassed the significant milestone of $669 billion in 2023. Yet, despite this flood of funds, over 60% of the remittance market still primarily dwells within the traditional banking sphere, challenged fiercely by emerging tech-savvy contenders. Among these new challengers is London-based platform, LemFi.
LemFi, designed to offer financial assistance to immigrants, recently secured an additional $53 million funding, embarking on a mission to boost customer acquisition and expand into additional countries.
Since its emergence in 2020, LemFi has helped diaspora communities in North America and Europe to send money across to emerging markets, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. To date, they boast a userbase exceeding one million active individuals.
Recently, LemFi extended its reach into Europe through a strategic partnership with finance provider Modulr. Accompanying this, they also launched a vigilant fraud detection system, protecting customers and maintaining low transactional costs.
The significant rewards of LemFi’s strategy are evident in robust growth; Ridwan Olalere, LemFi’s Co-founder and CEO, reported over $2 billion in annual transactions in 2023 alone. Now, they process over half that amount ($1 billion) monthly and show no signs of slowing down.
With new funding from investors such as Highland Europe, LemFi plans to extend their scope even further, scaling their payment network licenses, expanding partnerships and recruiting additional talent – all delivered with a keen focus on providing hyper-localized service. While regulatory complexities may persist, LemFi’s expansion journey to service more immigrant populations, particularly in Europe, is well underway.
Original source: Read the full article on TechCrunch
