Nium

Market position

Nium describes itself as a global provider of real-time cross-border payments and says it became the first B2B payments unicorn from Southeast Asia with its Series D. It has been named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in 2023 and 2024, CNBC's World's Top Fintech Companies 2024, and 'Fintech of the Year' at the Asia Fintech Awards 2024, and served as the official fintech infrastructure partner of the ICC. It targets a B2B payments market it cites as projected to reach US$175 trillion by 2030.

The company emphasizes breadth of owned regulatory licenses (money transfer, card issuance and banking licenses across 40+ countries), direct bank relationships enabling real-time settlement, single-platform coverage of accounts, payouts, FX, verification and card issuing, and early stablecoin-to-fiat capabilities at enterprise scale.

Technology

A single-platform payments stack combining bank-grade APIs, a management portal and SWIFT access, connected to a licensed global network supporting real-time payments in 100+ markets, payouts to 190+ countries, locked FX rates, instant bank account verification, and physical/virtual card issuance. Newer components link stablecoins to fiat rails, converting and settling stablecoin balances behind card and payout transactions.

Go-to-market

Direct enterprise sales with consultative onboarding (sales-qualification covering use case, transaction volume, target markets and implementation timeline), a partner program, self-serve developer resources such as documentation, sample data and code snippets, and case-study-led marketing. Distribution is also extended through bank and financial-institution partnerships.

Banks and licensed financial institutions, money transfer operators, fintechs, marketplaces and platforms, payroll and spend management providers, creator-economy platforms, AI companies, and travel businesses including online travel agencies, airlines and hotels. Named customers and partners include KBank, Emirates NBD, Remote and Weel.

Geography

Network coverage of 190+ payout markets and 100+ real-time markets, with account verification in 50+ countries. Offices exceed ten worldwide, with locations and expansions cited in the United States (San Francisco, where the CEO is based), the United Kingdom (London), Singapore, Amsterdam, India, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan. At the Series D, revenues were split roughly equally between EMEA and APAC, with growth targeted in the United States and Latin America.

History

After launching as Instarem in 2014, the company raised a $500k seed round from GFC in 2015, launched in Australia and opened offices in India, Singapore and Australia. A $5M Series A led by Vertex Ventures followed in 2016 alongside MSB licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore and parts of the US and a first US office in San Francisco. A $13M Series B led by GSR Ventures came in 2017, with $1B processed, offices in the UK, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and EMI approval in Lithuania. Multi-currency accounts and real-time delivery in 50+ countries launched in 2018; card issuing began in Asia and Australia in 2019 with licenses in Japan and Indonesia. A $38M Series C led by Vertex Growth and Atinum and a UK EMI license came in 2020. In 2021 Nium raised over $200M in Series D, acquired Ixaris and Wirecard Forex India, opened a Japan office and launched card issuing in Europe and the UK. In 2023 it processed $25B in annual transaction volume, exceeded $20bn the prior year, issued 75m cards, and opened offices in Amsterdam, London, San Francisco and Singapore. In 2024 it became a registered financial service provider in New Zealand and secured a Type 1 Funds Transfer license from Japan's FSA, and raised a $50M Series E at a $1.4B post-money valuation.