LemFi taps ClearBank for agency banking services
LemFi, a financial services start-up for immigrants, has tapped UK-based clearing and embedded banking platform ClearBank to enhance its international payment services in North America and Europe.
LemFi names ClearBank as agency banking partner
The start-up, previously known as Lemonade Finance, acquired UK-based electronic money institution (EMI) Rightcard Payment Services in 2021 to expand its migrant-tailored financial services suite with e-wallets.
Now, ClearBank is to serve LemFi as its agency banking partner, with its banking technology being used to power the start-up’s e-wallet service to connect African immigrants in the UK with “an alternative to traditional banking”.
LemFi says it selected ClearBank because of its “reputation for facilitating robust payments and advanced banking infrastructure which supports local virtual accounts and access to secure UK payment rails”.
The start-up says that its partnership with the platform has “gone from strength to strength”, with ClearBank holding 37,000 of its virtual accounts and facilitating payment volumes of up to 550,000 transactions as of September 2023.
Its plans for expansion received additional support last August, when it raised a $33 million Series A led by Left Lane Capital. The funding will be used to expand its footprint in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia, as well as to further develop its product offering.
CEO Ridwan Olalere, who founded the start-up in 2020 with Rian Cochran, says that by partnering with ClearBank, “we are building a proposition that improves the quality and accessibility of financial services for emerging market immigrants”.
LemFi joins the likes of Alba Bank, Allica Bank and fintech Raisin in tapping ClearBank for its banking and financial technology.
