Most of us get through each day without noticing how our national currency is faring on global markets.
Others, however, have no such luxury.
Whether it’s manufacturers with cross-border supply chains, retailers pricing imported goods, or workers collecting pay in volatile home currencies, quite a few players in the global economy are instantly affected by exchange-rate fluctuations. Unfortunately, it’s also something over which they have little to no control.
Founders and investors have taken note. In recent quarters, a growing cohort of startups have raised funding for offerings aimed at reducing some of the business and personal finance stressors around currency volatility.
Using Crunchbase data, we put together a list of 16 such companies that raised funding in roughly the past year-and-a-half. Offerings include hedging instruments, tools to simplify cross-border transactions, apps for travelers, and foreign currency accounts for residents of countries with high inflation.
It’s a well-funded assortment. Collectively, the companies on our list, shown below, have raised nearly $900 million, with a good chunk of investment coming in the past few months.
Just this week, the latest big funding announcement came from Tel Aviv-based Grain, developer of a tool for software and trade platforms to reduce risks and disruptions tied to currency volatility. The formerly stealth mode company said this week that it has raised more than $50 million, including a Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures.
We’ve seen several other good-sized rounds in the past couple months, including:
- Venn, a Toronto-based startup offering accounts in multiple currencies that boasts it has “the cheapest FX rates in Canada,” picked up $21.5 million in a Series A round last week led by Left Lane Capital.
- Nsave, a provider of dollar, sterling or euro accounts to people from high inflation countries, secured $18 million in a January Series A financing led by TQ Ventures.
- Raenest, a platform for African businesses and gig economy workers to receive cross-border payments, closed on an $11 million February Series A led by QED Investors.
- Sokin, a London- and Geneva-based provider of a platform for businesses to transfer, hold and exchange over 100 currencies with multicurrency and local currency accounts, secured $15 million in debt funding from BlackRock in January, a few months after landing a $31 million strategic investment from Morgan Stanley.
Meanwhile, the largest funding recipient on our list, Singapore-based M-DAC, a provider of foreign exchange and payment tools for online businesses, raised a $100 million Series E in November, bringing total investment to $346 million.
Recent funding coincides with volatility
The most recent funding moves come amid a period of heightened volatility for a number of closely watched currency pairings. Driving factors include new U.S. tariffs, inflation concerns, emerging signs of economic slowdown, and interest rate cuts in major economies.
Lately, dollar weakening has been a standout trend, after strong performance in the latter months of last year. The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the value of the dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies from six trading partners, has declined over 3% in the past five days.
Funded startups, however, are less focused on short-term FX gyrations, and more on how people and businesses can function in a globally connected economy where currency volatility is the norm rather than the exception.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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