Rapyd Financial Network is looking to raise $300 million in a new funding round that would value the global payments platform at $3.5 billion, a considerable decrease from its approximately $9 billion valuation set in 2021, according to Bloomberg.
The London-based company offers a range of financial services like payments, mobile wallets, money transfers, card issuing, and fraud protection, which are accessible to third parties via an API.
Rapyd plans to use the funding to buy a payment processing startup. The 9-year-old company has been on an acquisition streak, recently adding four companies, including Iceland-based payments startup Valitor for $100 million in 2022. It also paid $610 million for units of the global payments platform PayU for $610 million in 2023.
In 2023, Rapyd CEO and co-founder Arik Shtilman told TechCrunch that the company was “in [the] final stages of closing a new financing round of $700 million.” The company did not publicly report the financing round, making it unclear whether that funding was secured and, if so, at what valuation.
That year, Rapyd’s competitor, the payments giant Stripe, was forced to raise capital at a $50 billion valuation, down from its peak price of $95 billion.
Should Rapyd complete this raise at a lower valuation from its peak, it would have plenty of company. In addition to Stripe, many startups have raised capital at lower valuations than their previous financings, known as a down round.
This is because valuations were excessively high during the VC funding frenzy of 2020 and 2021. Flat or down rounds hit a decade high, making up 27% of all deals in the first nine months of 2024, according to PitchBook data.
The company’s backers include Coatue, Oak HC/FT, Target Global, and Tiger Global Management. Rapyd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.