Rakuten invests €13 million in UK company Azimo

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
May 18, 2016

Japanese online sales giant Rakuten, owner of PriceMinister, has paid out $15 million (€13.2 million) on the occasion of a funding round by Azimo, the British remittance services specialist.

Azimo was founded in 2012 and had already raised €20 million last year. It employs an online platform allowing cross-border money transfers between private individuals. Azimo can operate different types of transaction, from bank transfers to mobile phone top-ups, cash withdrawals or SWIFT transfers.

In the fiscal year 2015, Rakuten's sales reached a value of JPY713.5 billion (€5.6 billion), equivalent to a 19.2% rise. This growth did not prevent a 37.7% downturn in profits in the same period, due to investment carried out to promote the group's business.