FinTech PPRO Raises $180 Million, Hits Unicorn Status

London-based payments infrastructure provider PPRO has pulled in new investment amounting to more than $180 million that raises the company’s value above $1 billion, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 19) press release.

The increase in valuation, which gives the FinTech “unicorn” status as its worth now tops $1 billion, is built on “its rapid growth last year,” PPRO said in its press release. “The company doubled its year-on-year transaction volumes in the fourth quarter of 2020, expanded its global team by 60 percent in the last 12 months, and developed new strategic partnerships with local payment methods in high-growth markets like Indonesia and Singapore.”

New investors include Eurazeo Growth, Sprints Capital and Wellington Management. This comes just six months after the FinTech raised $50 million from Sprints Capital along with Citi Ventures and HPE Growth.

PPRO said the additional funding will fuel continued growth and its global expansion.

PPRO provides payments infrastructure with a focus on cross-border payments. In its announcement, the FinTech said it is “powering international growth for payment service providers and platforms such as Citi, Elavon, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, Mollie, PayPal and Worldpay.

The company said its platform allows shoppers “to pay with their preferred payment method,” which has become more important as eCommerce has boomed during the pandemic.

Simon Black, CEO of PPRO, said the FinTech has helped its customers grow despite the pandemic. “By giving businesses the ability to offer payment choice, we’ve helped give people around the world better access to goods and services that improve their lives,” he said, per the announcement.

“All signs for the future indicate that digital commerce, and even more so cross-border commerce, will continue to grow exponentially,” said Nathalie Kornhoff-Brüls, managing director at Eurazeo Growth. Therefore, PPRO’s local payments infrastructure has become more and more in demand.

In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Kelly Switt at Red Hat said that 2021 will be the year of payments infrastructure  Switt is director of FSI strategy, ecosystem and strategic partnerships. She said the infrastructure trend is responding to meet the demands of the consumers and as part of the movement toward real-time payments.