LemFi, a leading financial technology platform, is moving remittances further into Asia and Europe after securing new funding worth $53 million. The London-based financial services platform designed for immigrants will use the new funds to fuel its efforts in acquiring more customers and further expand into more countries.
Ever since its emergence in 2020, Lemfi has witnessed increased growth by helping diaspora communities in North America and, more recently, Europe, send money to emerging markets across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
With over 1 million active users, the fintech company utilizes its multi-currency accounts to transfer money to friends and family in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, India, China, Pakistan, and 15 others.

As part of its plan for Europe entry, LemFi established a partnership with embedded finance provider Modulr last week. The partnership which will help LemFi commence operations until it secures its license next month will see the company operate now in 27 send-from markets and 20 send-to countries. The move also follows its recent acquisition of a Republic of Ireland-based firm.
Last year, LemFi entered the Latin American diaspora market following recent expansions, starting with Brazil and Mexico. This leading region for global remittances, saw Mexico as the top recipient, with Brazil just a little behind.
The remittance market has been significant in recent times. According to World Bank research, its inflows surpassed $669 billion in 2023 and they now represent significant portions of GDP in the countries it operates. They have often outpaced foreign direct investment as the primary source of foreign exchange.
LemFi – leveraging its fraud detection facility
According to reports, a major way the fintech platform has gained recognition is through its aggressive fraud detection. It also accumulated its acceptance via fraud assurance as the same reports says there is nearly a four times chance that people sending money abroad are more likely to fall victim to financial fraud than those who don’t.
While speaking on its fraud detection ability, CEO Ridwan Olalere explained that the App has made efforts to keep its fraud rate as low as possible.
“Fraud can significantly drive up costs. Higher costs often mean passing them on to customers through additional fees. We’ve managed to keep our fraud rate extremely low, allowing us to offer customers the best possible prices,” he said in an interview with Techcrunch.


Ridwan Olalere, who founded LemFi with CFO Rian Cochran after the duo met at African fintech unicorn OPay, also added that the image built made its users develop trust in that App which generates more customers.
“So, we’ve built a brand and reputation in certain communities because of that, as well as our user experience, which makes our customers refer it to their friends. That has helped us differentiate and grow even faster than you would expect in such a competitive market,” Ridwan explained.
In 2023, the fintech platform recorded over $2 billion in annual transaction volume. The remittance platform has $1 billion in monthly payment volume and the surge has been credited to strong adoption in the Asian corridor, which rakes in $160 million in monthly total payment volume (TPV) and is growing 30% month-on-month within its first year of launch.
According to Olalere, the company doubled users, revenue, and transactions over the past two years, and that played a role in attracting investor interest and confidence. The development secured for the firm a Series B round led by Highland Europe, a London-based growth-stage investment firm that backs startups with more than €10 million in annualized revenues. The round now brings LemFi’s total funding to $85 million.


“While regulations market by market remain complex and we have more stakeholders to deal with, scaling has become a lot easier for us because we have technology that is adaptable and can easily plug and play to different payment methods and schemes. So, we intend to go to as many markets as we have significant numbers of immigrants, starting now with Europe this year, which is going to be a big focus for us,” Olalere noted.
LemFi, which currently has more than 300 employees across Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia will use the funding to extend its offerings, scale its payment network licenses and partnerships to provide hyper-localized service, and recruit talent for its next growth phase.
Also Read: Bank of Ghana approves RightCard (LemFi) to operate remittances to Ghana.