As the UK prepares to leave the European Union, a London-based startup enabling companies to work internationally, Ebury, has raised around £350 million (about €400 million, or $452 million) to expand its business.
Ebury, which caters to small and medium businesses (SMEs) and their banking partners, giving them foreign exchange, money transfer, and other currency services, has picked up the huge funding led by Spanish banking giant Santander.
Just this October, Ebury acquired fintech Frontierpay, specializing in international payroll solutions.
The deal between Ebury and Frontierpay is still ongoing regulatory approvals.
Many think startups in Europe find it hard to scale and grow and need to look at markets like the US for funding; often needing relocation in the process.
Fintech, computer programs and other technology to support banking and financial services, is one of those areas that goes against this trend.
Adyen got established and still operates its successful online payments business in the Netherlands; while Revolut, Monzo and TransferWise of UK - these fintech companies are among the many that have scaled internationally out of Europe and have billions in valuations.
The deal between Ebury and Santander has the special provision that Ebury will operate as an independent entity and would also have the Madrid-based bank Santander a majority shareholder with a 50.1% stake.
The funding will be to support Ebury's growth and scale its customer base in Aisa and Latin America while adding more modern services to Santander's offerings to bring in additional revenues from existing customers and take on new clients as well.
According to Santander, it has 4 million SME customers globally and currently, more than 200,000 of them do international business.
Meanwhile, Ebury operates in 19 countries and covers 140 currencies with annual revenue growth of 40% for each of the last three years.
Ebury processed £16.7 billion in payments for 43,000 clients.
Without disclosing total valuation, Santander said that its investment gives it a 50.1% stake in the company.
On a straight percentage, it would work out to around £700 million or $902 million.
However, according to the companies, the deal has both primary and secondary investment - "£70 million will be new primary equity (approximately €80 million) to support Ebury's plans to enter new markets in Latin America and Asia."
Juan Lobato and Salvador García, co-founders of Ebury, in a joint statement said, "It is an exciting time for Ebury" adding that their shareholders will let them invest in new ways to serve SMEs trading internationally and continue the growth in their business while keeping its entrepreneurial culture.
Santander expects a return on its invested capital in Ebury to be more than 25% in 2024.
