FIS ventures has invested in UK payments-as-a-service platform Modulr.
In the four years since its founding, Modulr has established itself as a digital alternative to traditional banks in the wholesale and transaction payments market, which moves $120 trillion each year.
Over the course of the past year, the firm has become one of the few non-banks to gain direct access to Faster Payments and Bacs. It has also struck partnerships with Visa and Mastercard, and gained an e-money licence in Ireland.
FIS intends to use Modulr’s API-based payments infrastructure to facilitate and automate realtime, business-to-business, payments in the UK and Europe.
Asif Ramji, chief growth officer at FIS, comments: “Our investment in Modulr is a key component of our comprehensive vision at FIS to bring the full power and potential of real-time payments to organizations at a global scale. Working with Modulr, we’ll be able to help our clients in the UK and EEA market accelerate their journey to digital payments, as well as work towards delivering a suite of new global real-time payment propositions.”
Modulr has so far raised £62 million, including a £9 million investment from PayPal ventures last year. The scale of the investment by FIS has not been disclosed.