Crown Agents Bank Acquires Payments Startup Segovia

Cabim Ltd, the parent company of Crown Agents Bank, is acquiring the enterprise business and payment gateway product of Segovia, a US venture-backed technology company focused on frontier market payments.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The acquisition will allow Crown Agents Bank to extend its payment network, include mobile money, and integrate Segovia’s modern payments infrastructure with Crown Agents Bank’s extensive FX capabilities – thus offering an efficient payment solution for global businesses paying into frontier and developing markets.

The two companies have been working together since 2017 and share a common mission: making payments to and from frontier markets easier, faster, more secure and cost-effective. Their clients include international businesses with large payment flows across developing markets such as banks, non-bank financial institutions, governments and international development organisations.
As part of the acquisition, whoe closing is expected in Q2 2019 subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, Segovia’s consumer remittance offering, Taptap Send, will become a separate and independent standalone entity.

Founded in 2014 by Michael Faye and Paul Niehaus, Segovia connects people to mobile and other payment networks. The company raised a $15m Series A led by Reid Hoffman, with participation by Flourish, a venture of The Omidyar Group, Lampert Family Foundation and Pershing Square.

Founded in the 18th century and led by Albert Maasland, CEO, Crown Agents Bank has been a trusted partner to frontier market central banks and financial institutions for decades with a unique expertise in these markets. Serving a wide network of such partners across Africa, the Caribbean, parts of Asia and the Pacific islands – in addition to OECD clients, the Bank now offers a range of solutions encompassing foreign exchange, international payments, pensions and payroll payments and trade finance.
Since the acquisition of Crown Agents Bank by funds managed by Helios Investment Partners in April 2016, the bank has delivered two consecutive years of over 50% revenue growth, processing more than $15 billion in FX transactions across a wide range of frontier and G20 currencies.