The rise in open banking and fee companies like India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow means decrease prices for companies, in addition to new fee choices for a whole lot of thousands and thousands of shoppers in rising markets who don’t personal bank cards. Tazapay was created to mix each card and real-time fee strategies as a full-stack service for retailers who promote throughout borders, so that they solely want to make use of one fee platform.

The Singapore-based fintech, which permits cross-border funds in additional than 170 markets, introduced at this time that it has raised $16.9 million in Sequence A funding led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia. Different contributors included EscapeVelocity, PayPal Alumni Fund and angel investor Gokul Rajaram. Present buyers Foundamental, January Capital, RTP International and Saison Capital additionally returned for the spherical.

Rahul Shinghal, Tazapay’s CEO and co-founder, informed TechCrunch he has spent most of his profession working in funds. He started as a product supervisor for the e-commerce vertical at Indian financial institution ICICI, earlier than shifting onto place at NETS, PayPal and Stripe. “All through the previous 25 years of my profession, I’ve seen how complicated cross-border funds could be, together with having to juggle maintaining prices low and settlement occasions quick whereas navigating rules throughout a number of jurisdictions and the supply of a number of currencies,” he mentioned.

Tazapay was created to unravel these issues. Its API covers over 170 markets for card funds, and 85 markets for native funds assortment, which implies its clients can settle for funds in numerous nations with out having to arrange native entities. Shinghal mentioned the service helps a variety of shoppers, together with B2B operations, e-commerce platforms promoting on to shoppers and B2B2C.

A number of the startup’s clients embody B2B market IndiaMART, which claims greater than 7.4 million sellers and 165 million patrons on its platform; live-learning platform BrightCHAMPS; used vans market WTX; journey platform Rezlive; and worker engagement SaaS platform Benefit Membership. It is usually partnered with Commonplace Chartered, the British multinational financial institution, to supply digital escrow companies.

The funding will probably be used to scale Tazapay’s enterprise in Asia and develop in areas just like the Center East and Europe. The startup plans to use for fee licenses and add extra native fee strategies to serve its verticals, which embody cross-border e-commerce, edtech, SaaS and journey.

In an announcement concerning the funding, Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia vice chairman Aakash Kapoor mentioned, “Patrons more and more choose to make use of native real-time funds over conventional networks and companies are eager to develop globally with out going by way of the effort of a neighborhood set-up. The Tazapay workforce has distinctive insights and expertise to leverage this tailwind, and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia is worked up to companion with them as they double down on the chance.”