Ripple’s fintech partner Nium cuts valuation by 30%

Singapore-based cross-border payments company Nium has raised $50 million in a new funding round; This represents a 30% discount to its previous valuation.

Ripple’s payments partner Nium cut its valuation by 30% in its latest $50 million Series E financing round led by an undisclosed Southeast Asian sovereign wealth fund. The latest financing, backed by venture capital firms including BOND, NewView Capital and Tribe Capital, values ​​the Singapore-based firm at $1.4 billion, down 30% from $2 billion in 2022, according to a blog announcement.

Nium said the proceeds will be used to further accelerate the company’s growth plans, adding that it wants to accelerate global network expansion, accelerate product innovation, expand staff and continue merger and acquisition activities.

“Our investors believe in our long-term mission to build the payment infrastructure for discretionary money movement, and this additional investment will allow us to accelerate our goals.”

Nium CEO Prajit Nanu

In a comment to CNBC, Nanu acknowledged the decline in valuation and said the decline was the result of a “broader depression in public market valuations of fintech companies.”

“Realistically, when we raised in early 2022, the public markets were killing it. “Public markets have not been kind to fintech.”

Prajit Nanu

Despite the decline in valuation, Nium remains committed to plans to go public next year. Although these plans were not mentioned in the official blog post, Nanu told CNBC that he is still optimistic about Nium’s growth and is confident the company will go public within the next 18 months and target an IPO in Q3 and Q4 2025.

“It doesn’t matter whether you go public with $1 billion or $5 billion. Because valuation only happens when you get acquired or go through an IPO.”

Prajit Nanu

Founded in 2014 by Prajit Nanu and Michael Bermingham, Nium is a cross-border remittance platform for international money transfers with near-live exchange rates. In early 2018, Nium partnered with Ripple to offer payment corridors from North and South America to various destinations in Southeast Asia using the company’s RippleNet solution.