GSR leads $13m round for Singapore's InstaRem

Other participants included SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund as well as existing backers Fullerton Financial Holdings, Global Founders Capital and Vertex Ventures, the VC arm of Temasek Holdings. The capital will be used develop new products, advance licensing activity in new markets and build up the company’s global payment infrastructure.

"This is an important investment for the company to propel our next phase of growth and expansion,” Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of InstaRem, said in a statement. “With GSR Venture's strong network in China and the US, coupled with SBI-FMO Fund's strong base in Japan and other emerging markets, we believe we have found the best partners for this phase of our journey."

Founded in 2015, InstaRem specializes in cross-border money transfer services for foreign workers in Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore. It facilitates remittances to more than 50 markets and claims to have grown its customer base to 20,000 users within 18 months of operation by offering lower fees and faster turnarounds than competitors such as Western Union and PayPal.

The company also caters to corporate clients that need to send bulk transfers to multiple countries. Last year, it received a $5 million Series A from Vertex, Fullerton and Global Founders.

China-based GSR makes early-stage investments across a range of technology sectors and claims more than $1.5 billion in US and renminbi-denominated funds under management. It was active in the payments services space last year, participating in a RMB300 million ($44 million) round for Chinese point-of-sale machine manufacturer Yunnex.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• Asia
• GSR Ventures
• Temasek Holdings
• Financial Services