Singapore-headquartered multicurrency mobile travel wallet YouTrip has collected USD 30 million in a Series A round led by undisclosed Asian family offices and fintech investors, the company announced on Tuesday.
YouTrip will utilize the fresh funding to enhance tech capabilities, add new B2B payments products, and boost expansion across Southeast Asia.
Launched in 2018, YouTrip allows users to pay overseas with no fees in over 150 currencies. The YouTrip app is linked directly to a Mastercard credit card, which is provided upon registration. To date, the company has processed more than 20 million transactions for a total value of over USD 800 million. The company’s app has been downloaded over 1.5 million times.
YouTrip has offices in Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong. The company saw its business impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited international travel around the world and cross-border spending. In September, the company laid off a third of its 30-plus members in Hong Kong, moving some critical roles to Singapore.
Responding to this matter, Caecilia Chu, YouTrip co-founder and CEO, told KrASIA that the firm is growing its workforce in Singapore to “double on its investment” in Southeast Asia. “In line with this business plan, we have had to make the tough decision to strengthen our Singapore office as our regional headquarters, housing the leadership team and all our critical functions under one roof. This inevitably led to the restructuring of the teams and roles in Hong Kong,” Chu said.
Chu is confident about the future of her company. Since last year, the company has started to allow cross-border e-commerce payments on e-commerce stores like Amazon, Shopee, and Lazada. The new service has allowed the company to see its overall transaction volume bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels, according to Chu.
She said YouTrip guarantees users the “best exchange rates,” compared to other players such as Revolut, Instarem, Wise, and GrabPay. “Many of the [multicurrency wallet] platforms already existed when YouTrip entered the market. Our traction and results speak for themselves.”
The fresh cash will allow the firm to continue growing its B2B payments ecosystem. YouTrip is now developing a multicurrency account and corporate credit card for SMEs named YouBiz. “On the B2B front, the market remains largely open and highly fragmented. There isn’t a one-stop solution that can provide multicurrency, payments, credit and corporate card management to SME users,” Chu said.
YouBiz is currently in its beta phase and has received over 1,000 sign-ups. The platform will roll out in Singapore in the first quarter of next year, and YouTrip plans to expand the service to five Southeast Asia countries in the next 12 months.
“Our efforts will be focused on establishing this dual-growth engine in B2C and B2B payments for the company. We believe that this puts us in a good place to accelerate our business growth,” said Chu.