Founder: Yuval Tal
CEO: Scott Galit
Launched: 2005
Headquarters: New York City
Funding: 255.2 million (PitchBook)
Valuation: $1 billion (PitchBook)
Key technologies: Payments
Disrupting: e-commerce, mobile payments
George Kavallines | CNBC
This New York City-based company helps millions of businesses and professionals by facilitating seamless and transparent cross-border payments in more than 200 countries. The mission is to enable these companies — in both developed and emerging markets — to pay and get paid globally as easily as they do locally. Payoneer was started in 2005 by Yuval Tal, an Israeli entrepreneur who helped start other tech and e-commerce payment companies. Scott Galit joined as CEO in 2010 after years at First Data and MasterCard.
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There are about 4 million users on Payoneer's platform, and the company works with more than 150 different currencies. Once a user is signed on to the service, he or she is able to accept payments to their Payoneer account from customers all over the world. They can then withdraw money from their local bank or from ATMs worldwide. There's a 3 percent fee charged when getting paid directly from a customer via credit card (1 percent for an e-check). There's no fee when receiving payments from another Payoneer customer.
Airbnb, Amazon, Google and Upwork are among its corporate customers, as well as millions of freelancers and small businesses. The company has raised $270 million from investors, including Technology Crossover Ventures and Wellington Management. It has offices in India, Japan and the Philippines and last year expanded its presence to South Korea and the U.K. No word yet on when — or if — an IPO is coming soon.
