Payments tech specialist Modulr secures £9 million PayPal Ventures investment

Payments tech specialist Modulr secures £9 million PayPal Ventures investment

UK payments-as-a-service firm works across a number of business sectors including travel

Modulr, the UK payments platform that works extensively with travel clients, has attracted £9 million of investment from PayPal.

The global payment giant’s investment arm PayPal Ventures will help the firm develop new products and expand its customer base.

Modulr offers a payments-as-a-service API platform that allows clients to develop new payments options for customers within their existing technologies.

It works with digital businesses in lending, banking, fintech, travel, employment services and accounting to build new payment services within their customer journeys.

The company claims its technology allows it to take on much of the complexity and regulatory burden so its customers can focus on their own unique value proposition.

Having launched to serve the small and medium sized busines community, Modulr says 2020 has been a breakout year that has seen it sign up number of large enterprises.

Anil Hansjee, partner at PayPal Ventures, said: “More digital businesses are looking to incorporate payments into their existing user experience but either don’t have the expertise or the resources.

“Modulr is well-positioned to be an enabler of this trend and will undoubtably expand end-users’ access to fast, reliable and secure financial services. We look forward to working with Modulr as it helps to powers the next generation of digital businesses.”

Myles Stephenson, chief executive of Modulr, added: “This investment marks an important milestone for Modulr’s modern payments infrastructure.

“Modulr lowers the barriers to bringing payments into a platform, creating endless new possibilities for our customers while allowing them to focus on their core competencies. The investment from PayPal Ventures enhances our ability to execute on that vision.”

In the last year, Modulr became a directly connected participant of the Bacs scheme, alongside direct participation in the Faster Payments scheme, enabling it to settle and hold funds at the Bank of England.

The firm has further added direct access to Visa and Mastercard, as well as delivering new products including Payment Initiation and Confirmation of Payee.

It was most recently granted an electronic money license from the Central Bank of Ireland which marks an important step in the company’s European ambitions.

In total,  Modulr has raised £63.3 million including the investment from PayPal Ventures as well as Highland Europe, Frog Capital, Blenheim Chalcot and a £10m grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund.