Remittance Fintech LemFi has acquired Pillar. Pillar’s co-founders and Revolut alumni Ashutosh Bhatt and Adam Lewis will join the LemFi team.
The terms of the deal were not immediately available.
LemFi, founded in 2021, aims to support immigrants. The company reports working with over two million people across Europe and North America who rely on LemFi to send funds to families in 20 emerging markets, including China, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. LemFi also has customers in the US and Canada.
Pillar is a credit scoring firm that is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. The marriage of the two platforms aims to speed up the credit process for immigrants, starting in the UK, where half of its customers are.
LemFi describes the acquisition as a significant step forward in its ambition to build a full-stack financial platform that caters to immigrants globally.
LemFi notes that it recently became the first major remittance platform to integrate credit into its core product, following the launch of LemFi Credit.
In addition to accessing Pillar’s market-leading technology, FCA credit license, and track record of growth, the deal sees
Reshaping the future of how immigrants move money globally
Founded in 2021, LemFi was built to be the trusted financial services platform for immigrants worldwide. Having started with payments and remittances, LemFi enables users to open multi-currency accounts and send and receive money globally, reliably, and at a low cost. LemFi also has plans to expand in Asia and Latin America.
LemFi shares that it has experienced platform growth of 30% month-on-month. This follows the recent $53 million Series B funding led by Highland Europe.
LemFi states that its first credit offering attracted 8000+ users in just six weeks during private beta and is now growing 18% week over week. The offering is a virtual card which can be used on Apple Pay or Google.
Ashutosh Bhatt, Pillar co-founder, said his experience while working at Barclay’s propelled him to start the firm.
“I couldn’t access even the everyday products I’d had in India. I couldn’t get an iPhone, let alone a credit card. There have been slight improvements, but we still can’t offer equitable access to bank accounts or credit cards to someone from another country. I’m excited for the impact we will have together with LemFi to increase reach by 10X and build truly global access to credit.”