By Riley Kaminer
About $150 billion flows between the US and Latin America each year in the form of remittances – a figure that the World Bank expects to continue growing. Meanwhile, smartphone penetration in Latin America is already at around 80%, with analysts predicting a rise to 93% by 2030.
This situation is a perfect storm for Paysend, a UK fintech that has its headquarters for the Americas in Brickell. In a context where Miami is increasingly a hub for cross-border payment providers, Paysend stands out for its rapid growth.
The company’s digital platform has already enabled upwards of 8 million users to simply, quickly, and inexpensively transfer money abroad. The service is particularly popular with immigrants to the US and Europe who regularly send remittances back to family in their home country.
In December 2023, Paysend raised a $65 million strategic round to hold them over between their May 2021 Series B $125 million and a future Series C.
Since opening its doors in Miami two years ago, Paysend has scaled to 12 employees across South Florida. While this is just a small portion of its 350 employees globally, its Miami-based Managing Director for the Americas and global head of strategy, Jairo Riveros, told Refresh Miami that there is much more to come.
“We will continue to expand in the years to come,” he said, signaling that the Miami office will become a major hub for Paysend’s marketing, operations, finance, and customer service divisions. Riveros told us that he’s happy to spread the gospel of #MiamiTech whenever he gets the opportunity, but he didn’t always think that way.
“I’ll be honest – when we first came to Miami, I was skeptical about the talent we could find,” he said, highlighting concerns about Miami’s expensive housing and lack of technical universities as potential barriers to talent acquisition. But Riveros found himself pleasantly surprised by the talent here, as well as the ability to attract employees from other parts of the US to come to South Florida.
Beyond talent, Riveros and team have been excited about the growth opportunities available by being in the Miami market. “This is a community where you can find synergies, meet people, share ideas,” asserted Riveros. “The key people are here.”
In fact, Riveros explained how advantageous it has been to be able to easily access their partners. Mastercard, for instance, has offices just a few floors above Paysend. Partner TelevisaUnivision is a quick drive away in Doral. Both those companies have also invested in Paysend’s latest fundraise.
Last year, Western Union, the most storied cross-border payment provider, began to use Paysend’s rails as a white-labeled digital solution. “It’s like Blockbuster partnering with Netflix – a win-win for our customers,” Riveros said of the deal.
“2024 will be key for Paysend,” he said. “We have a very aggressive growth plan: achieving 20% market share of US to LatAm money transfers within the next two to three years. The foundation has been laid, and now it’s about execution.”
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
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