Rapid CEO and co-founder Arik Shtilman said that he had a plan for three years to develop the London-based fintech to manage $100 billion in payments and then go public.
Rapid, a payments platform that accepts payments from Uber and Ikea, is now valued at $5 billion. This comes amid a boom in fintech driven by pandemics. The London-based company raised the Series E round of $300 million to finance acquisitions and expansion into Latin America, Asia, and other parts of the world.
Just one month ago, Rapid bought Icelandic payments firm Vailtor in an agreement worth $100 million. This comes just seven months after Rapid announced its $300 million fundraise. Rapid CEO and co-founder Arik Shtilman said that although this is a fast cycle, the growth of our business and payments have been so quick, six months feels more like 18 months.
Shtilman reported that Rapyd’s revenues have tripled since the close of the previous round in October. The company now manages $20 Billion of international transactions for small businesses and large companies such as Uber Latin America.
Rapid will expand into areas Shtilman deemed “higher risk,” such as online gaming and cryptocurrency through the Valitor acquisition. Shtilman states that this is a highly dynamic space. “It’s not just about the revenues and volumes, but new use cases and opportunities that arise that you haven’t seen before.”
Rapid was founded in 2016 by its three Israeli founders. It is part of a growing industry that manages the cash flow for the digital economy. The fintech pandemic, as well as a rush of investors to cash in, has caused a doubling or tripling of startup valuations. There is even talk of a valuation bubble.
American rival Stripe raised a $600million round in March at a $95 billion valuation. This is more than triple the April 2020 value of $36 trillion. Revolut’s European valuation shot up to $33Billion, from $5.5Blast ye, while Klarna in Sweden saw its value rise $14.6Billion to $45.6B between earlier rounds.
Target Global led Rapyd’s round and included new investment from Fidelity Capitals, Altimeter Capitals, and BlackRock. Stripe is an investor in Rapid and the London-based startup that launched its venture arm in May to invest in other early-stage fintech.
Mike Lobanov, Target Global’s general partner, stated a worldwide trend in e-wallets adoption. He added that many parts of Asia-Pacific had abandoned Visa-style credit card networks to switch to smartphone-driven e-wallets. Rapid is well-positioned to link all of the wallets.
