LemFi, a Nigerian fintech startup, has raised a US $53 million Series B round of funding to expand its product line and establish itself as a global center for full-stack financial services for immigrants.
LemFi, an international remittance and payments platform, was founded in 2021 by Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran under the name Lemonade Finance before being rebranded in 2023. It allows diaspora communities in North America and Europe to send money to emerging markets like China, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan in a reliable and cost-effective manner.
After raising US $53 million in Series B funding led by Highland Europe with participation from previous investors Left Lane Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, and Y Combinator, LemFi is poised for further growth. Since its launch, the company has grown to over one million customers and recently surpassed US$1 billion in monthly transaction volume.
With the new round, LemFi has raised a total of US $85 million to date. This money will be used to support LemFi in adding new features and services to create a comprehensive financial services hub for immigrants around the world.
In order to support its next phase of growth, LemFi will also use the money to hire talent worldwide and expand its payment network partnerships and licenses to offer hyper-localized services.
“When we started building LemFi, we were told remittance had already been solved. But for too many people, it is still too slow, cumbersome and expensive with customers telling us that in some instances it was cheaper to send money from the US via Canada than directly to their families back home. By targeting the communities most in need, we’ve built LemFi into the go-to remittance service for one million people, supporting them in building wealth across 20 countries,” Olalere said.
“We’re not stopping there: this new funding will support us in our mission to build the financial services hub for immigrants globally from adding new features to expanding to new countries. We’re delighted to be partnering with Highland to help us scale LemFi into a fintech giant.”
According to Highland Europe partner Sam Brooks, LemFi’s goal of giving immigrant communities dependable, trustworthy access to financial services has inspired a devoted clientele and produced remarkable growth over the previous few years.
“In addition to the success in initial geographies, we are excited by LemFi’s continuing international expansion given the extent of the global problem they are solving. Ridwan and Rian are fantastic leaders, and we are thrilled to partner with them and the LemFi team to help them scale and continue their growth into new markets,” he said.
