PPRO, a fintech company based out of London, on January 19, 2021, announced raising more than USD 180 million in a new investment, which helped the company cross the USD 1 billion valuation mark.

Involved in providing local payment infrastructure for online commerce, the impressive financial addition to PPRO has increased its valuation and gets the FinTech in the Unicorn club tag, based on its rapid growth last year. PPRO also stated that the additional funding will play an essential role in driving growth and global expansion for the FinTech.

Investors witnessed by the event include names like Eurazeo Growth, Wellington Management, and Sprints Capital. This event took place just six months after PPRO raised USD 50 million from Sprints Capital along with HPE Growth and Citi Ventures.

What does PPRO offer?

PPRO is the provider of cross-border payment processing and currency conversion for online merchants. In its recent announcement, the company stated that it is driving international growth for payment service providers and platforms such as Citi, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, Elavon, Worldpay, Mollie, and PayPal.

The company also spoke about how its platform enables shoppers to make payments with their preferred payment method, which has gained more importance given the pandemic’s eCommerce boom.

Expert take on importance of payments infrastructure

As per the announcement, Simon Black, CEO of PPRO, mentioned that FinTech plays a vital role in customer growth despite the pandemic. “By giving businesses the ability to offer payment choice, we’ve helped give people around the world better access to goods and services that improve their lives.”

Nathalie Kornhoff-Brüls, Managing Director at Eurazeo Growth, stated, “All signs for the future indicate that digital commerce, and even more so cross-border commerce, will continue to grow exponentially.”

This is the reason PPRO’s local payments infrastructure has gained demand.

In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Red Hat Director of FSI Strategy, Ecosystem, and Strategic Partnerships, Kelly Switt threw light on the importance of payments infra.

She said 2021 will be the year of payments infrastructure, as the trend is responding to meet consumer demands as part of the movement toward real-time payments.