PPRO announces growth over COVID-19 and successful US$50m investment round

PPRO has announced an 85% volume growth in recent months, and with new investment from Sprints and Citi has key plans in the works.

The local payments platform-as-a-service provider states the increase in volume is largely down to the opportunities for cross-border eCommerce amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due in part to a massive digital shift in eCommerce consumer behaviour, PPRO is now processing an annual run rate of US$9 billion in payment transaction volume, the company states.

Following their ongoing success, the company announces today the closing of a US$50 million financing round led by Sprints Capital with participation from existing investors Citi Ventures and HPE Growth.

Financial Technology Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor and Noerr as legal advisor to PPRO in this transaction.

PPRO states the company will use the funds to scale the organisation and accelerate strategic growth plans for its global platform.

Since the beginning of the year, the company has already grown the size of its team by 25%. The majority of these new hires are positioned to strengthen PPRO's three product development centres in Germany, Singapore and Brazil.

These teams are focused on delivering high-quality integrations to popular payment methods in key eCommerce markets across Europe, APAC and the Americas, the company states.

PPRO partners with payment service providers (PSPs) around the world to serve merchants interested in expanding their cross-border market opportunity.

Through PPRO's API and platform, PSPs and merchants can accept local payment methods in over 175 eCommerce markets.

PPRO CEO Simon Black says, "We enable our partners to globalise their payments offering at a faster speed and with a level of quality that wouldn't be feasible to achieve in-house.

"Despite any challenges created by the pandemic, we've made great progress this year on our mission to turbocharge growth for our partners and their merchants. We've been able to make their expansion into new markets more lucrative.

Black says, "Now more than ever, companies are pressed to offer localised experiences to consumers worldwide. We are delighted that Sprints Capital and Citi Ventures see the growth potential of our business and are passionate about helping build the payments infrastructure that drives growth in global markets.

Sprints Capital partner Voria Fattahi says, "We are excited about the opportunity our investment in PPRO brings. eCommerce is a complicated, dynamic growth area, and even the most sophisticated PSPs and merchants need companies like PPRO to help them overcome complexities on the infrastructure and enablement level. The momentum that PPRO has been building the last few years is most impressive.

Citi Ventures managing director Luis Valdich says, "We have invested in PPRO for the second time because we believe in the company's strategy, and we've seen their power to deliver.

"With their local payment methods, PPRO fuels our consumer payments offering for institutional clients, Spring by Citi. Our partnership will help to empower Spring by Citi clients to deliver a seamless payments experience for their customers.