[Funding alert] Neobank Rewire raises Series B funding of $20M to expand its financial services

Rewire, a fintech startup that develops cross-border online banking services for expats worldwide, has raised Series B funding of $20 million, and a "significant line" of credit from a leading bank, it said in a statement.

The funding round was led by OurCrowd, which included new key investors Renegade Partners, Glilot Capital Partners (through its early growth fund Glilot+), and Jerry Yang, former Yahoo! CEO and director at Alibaba Group, through AME Cloud Ventures. Existing investors including Viola Fintech, BNP Paribas through their venture capital fund Opera Tech Ventures, Moneta Capital, and private angel investors, also participated in the round.

Rewire is a neobank for migrants worldwide. It was founded by Guy Kashtan, Adi Ben Dayan, Saar Yahalom, and Or Benoz. Rewire partners with financial institutions in the migrant’s country of origin and integrates banking services into its platform and provides global accounts to its customers. In India, Rewire's partner is Yes Bank.

From remittance and payment accounts to upcoming advanced financial services such as bill payments, savings, and mortgage loans, Rewire is able to provide a host of financial services focused on migrants. 

In the statement, Rewire said that the current round of funding will enable the fintech startup to continue enhancing its product portfolio and services, as well as its strategic partnerships in the migrant’s country of origin and the country in which they currently reside.

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Rewire manages several online global communities for its diverse customer base who have migrated to Europe from over 20 countries in Asia and Africa such as the Philippines, Nigeria, India, Thailand, and China.

It also added that the funding round further builds on the firm’s explosive growth in Southeast Asia. Since launching its services in the region in 2016, Rewire has seen users remit hundreds of millions per year to Asia, and has acquired over 230,000 users originally from China, the Philippines, India and Thailand. The firm’s userbase continues to grow rapidly, with users from the Philippines and Thailand growing at 300 percent year-on-year. Similarly, the number of users originally from India is growing at 350 percent, while the pool of users originally from China is growing at 1000 percent year-on-year.

To boost its cross-border solution, Rewire plans to enrich its platform with new value-added services such as bill payments and insurance, in addition to credit and loan services, investments, and savings. Adding these to its existing remittance services, payment account, and debit card, Rewire is able to make its first-rate financial services more accessible to migrants and, thus, include them in the financial systems. 

Rewire CEO, Guy Kashtan said:

“At our core, we aim to create financial inclusion. Everything that we do at Rewire is aimed to help migrants to build a more financially secure future for themselves and their families. To do so, we aim to provide services that go beyond traditional banking services such as insurance payments in the migrant’s home country and savings accounts. This investment and licenses are major steps towards fulfilling our company’s vision and will be used for additional expansion of geographies and products.”

In 2020, Rewire processed $500 million through its systems, and the company said that it has tripled its customer base in 2020, and will soon reach half a million registered users. Rewire has penetrated new markets in Europe and the UK, and introduced new cross-border bill payments.