Payoneer Global Inc. is an American

financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...

company that provides online money transfer, digital payment services and provides customers with

working capital Working capital (WC) is a financial metric which represents operating liquidity available to a business, organisation, or other entity, including governmental entities. Along with fixed assets such as plant and equipment, working capital is consi ...

History

Payoneer was founded in 2005 with $2 million in seed funding from founder and then-CEO

Yuval Tal Yuval ( he, יוּבַל), also known as Kfar Yuval ( he, כְּפַר יוּבַל), is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee Panhandle between Metula and Kiryat Shmona, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Region ...

and other private investors. 83North (Greylock Israel) led an additional $4 million in funding in 2007, with additional investors including Carmel Ventures, Crossbar Capital, Ping An,

Wellington Management Wellington Management Company is a private, independent investment management firm with client assets under management totaling over US$1 trillion based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The firm serves as an investment advisor to over 2 ...

, Susquehanna Growth Equity, Naftali Bennett and Nyca Partners. Since 2005 Payoneer has raised over $265 million from investors. In March 2016, the firm acquired internet escrow company Armor Payments. aiming to address the market for B2B transactions between US$500 and $1,000,000 where credit cards and

letters of credit A letter of credit (LC), also known as a documentary credit or bankers commercial credit, or letter of undertaking (LoU), is a payment mechanism used in international trade to provide an economic guarantee from a creditworthy bank to an e ...

are not suitable. It also began working with the Latin American eCommerce site

Linio Linio is one of the leading marketplaces in Latin America, with presence in five countries and offering more than four million products. History Linio began operations in 2012 in Mexico. The company has been through various rounds of fundin ...

. In August 2016, the firm added an automated tax form service to its mass payout offering. In October 2016, the company raised $180 million from

Technology Crossover Ventures TCMI, Inc. better known by the name TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) is an American investment firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm mainly invests in public and private growth-stage companies in the technology industry. Backgroun ...

, bringing the total funding to $234 million. In 2017, China Broadband Capital (CBC) invested in Payoneer. In 2017 and 2018, Payoneer was named as CNBC's 40th and 13th most disruptive companies, respectively. In 2018, former chief economist of Israel, Yoel Naveh, joined the company to lead Payoneer's working capital division. Payoneer expanded its Capital Advance service in mid-2019, specifically for e-commerce sellers in the United States, which allows merchants selling on internet platforms such as

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

immediate access to working capital. In 2019, Payoneer partnered with freelancing platform Toptal to facilitate cross-border payments, allowing more efficient movement of wages between employer and its remote workers. Payoneer also got an authorisation as an Electronic Money Institution by

Central Bank of Ireland The Central Bank of Ireland ( ga, Banc Ceannais na hÉireann) is Ireland's central bank, and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It is the country's financial services regulator for most categories of financial firms ...

for customers in EEU. In 2019, Payoneer hired FT Partners to help facilitate expansion of the company and an additional round of private funding. In December 2019, Payoneer acquired optile, a German payments orchestration platform. The acquisition allows Payoneer, for the first time, to offer merchant services and consumer payment acceptance in addition to the B2B services they have been providing since inception. Daniel Smeds founded and runs optile, and its staff of 75, which will continue to operate as an independent group based out of their current HQ in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

while also working for Payoneer. In February 2020, the company was included in the Forbes Fintech 50: The Most Innovative Fintech Companies in 2020. Since 6 January 2021,

Wirecard Wirecard AG is an insolvent German payment processor and financial services provider whose former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives have been arrested or otherwise implicated in criminal proceedings. In June 2020, the company a ...

EUR receiving accounts on Payoneer can only receive payments from approved payment sources. Wirecard AG is insolvent since 25 June 2020 but the EUR receiving account is supported by their subsidiary Wirecard Bank AG, which is not part of the insolvency proceedings. Users have the ability to receive payments from other sources by requesting a

Citibank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...

EUR receiving account. In February 2021, Payoneer announced that it will become a publicly traded company through a merger with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: FTOCU), a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) owned by former Bancorp CEO Betsy Z. Cohen. The combined company will operate as Payoneer and have an implied estimated enterprise value of approximately $3.3 billion at closing, with $300 million coming from

private investment in public equity A private investment in public equity, often called a PIPE deal, involves the selling of publicly traded common shares or some form of preferred stock or convertible security to private investors. It is an allocation of shares in a public company ...

(PIPE) from investors including

Dragoneer Investment Group The Dragoneer Investment Group (Dragoneer) is an American investment firm based in San Francisco, California. The firm focuses on technology investments in both public and private markets globally. Background Dragoneer is based in San Francis ...

, Fidelity Management & Research, and

Franklin Templeton Franklin Resources, Inc. is an American multinational holding company that, together with its subsidiaries, is referred to as Franklin Templeton; it is a global investment firm founded in New York City in 1947 as Franklin Distributors, Inc. It is ...

. The company went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange on 28 June 2021. In May 2022, the company began to offer Payoneer Checkout, a service which enables merchants to work with direct-to-customer (DTC) online stores.

Services

Account holders can send and receive funds using an e-wallet, a virtual bank account number in a local currency or a re-loadable prepaid MasterCard

debit card A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The term '' plastic card'' includes the above and as an identity document. These are similar to a credit card, but ...

. Money received can then be withdrawn to a bank account or used online / at points of sale with the Payoneer debit card. The company specializes in facilitating cross-border B2B payments. It provides cross-border transactions in 200 countries and territories and more than 150 local currencies, with its cross border

wire transfer Wire transfer, bank transfer, or credit transfer, is a method of electronic funds transfer from one person or entity to another. A wire transfer can be made from one bank account to another bank account, or through a transfer of cash at a cash ...

s, online payments, and refillable debit card services. Companies like

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

and

Upwork Upwork Global Inc., formerly Elance-oDesk, is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California. The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk, after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merg ...

use Payoneer to send mass payouts around the world. It is also used by

eCommerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managemen ...

marketplaces such as

Rakuten () is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...

and

Wish.com Wish is an American online e-commerce platform for transactions between sellers and buyers. Wish was founded in 2010 by Piotr Szulczewski (former CEO) and Danny Zhang (former CTO). Wish is operated by ContextLogic Inc. in San Francisco, United ...

, freelance marketplaces such as

Fiverr Fiverr is a global online marketplace for freelance services. Fiverr’s platform connects freelancers (sellers) to people or businesses looking to hire (buyers). Listings on Fiverr are diverse and range from "get a well-designed business card" ...

and Envato, and works with ad networks to connect these firms with publishers based outside of their headquartered country. In the content creation space, Payoneer works with

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets—creativ ...

, iStock, Pond5, and others as well as in the freelance marketplace. , Payoneer has a customer care team with 320 employees who support 4 million customers in 70 languages, operating in 150 different currencies. In October 2019, the company launched a service aimed for small and medium-sized businesses to send payments anywhere in the world quickly and cheaply.

Business

The company is headquartered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. As of 2019, the company employed approximately 1,200 people, and served over 4 million customers in 14 offices around the world. In 2019 the company was valued at over $1 billion. In order to lawfully remit money within the European Single Market, Payoneer was registered with the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission until

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...

, when it moved to Ireland.

Global reach

Philippines

In 2009, Payoneer became available for use in the Philippines and later opened offices in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

in 2016. Since 2015, sales volume has grown for Payoneer by 907% in the Philippines.

Japan

The company opened offices in Japan in 2016. It partnered with the Japanese-based e-commerce giant

in a deal aimed at opening up their US site, Rakuten.com, to vendors outside the USA.

Korea

Payoneer partnered with the Korean online B2B marketplace EC21. In 2017, the company released an Integrated Payments API for

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is co ...

providers to link cross-border B2B payments across cloud platforms. In 2018 the company opened and office in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

Britain/EU

In June 2017, the company opened an office in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. To protect EAA customers from Brexit-related effects, Payoneer opened a new office in Dublin in May 2020.

Pakistan

Payoneer operates in Pakistan with

MCB Bank MCB Bank Limited () is a Pakistani multinational commercial bank which is based in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The majority of shares are owned by Pakistani conglomerate Nishat Group and Malaysian bank Maybank. The bank has a network of 1,600 ...

, Standard Chartered, and

Faysal Bank Faysal Bank Limited is a Pakistani Islamic bank, a subsidiary of KSA Holdings ultimate parent of bank is KSA Holdings and Ithmaar Bank, based in Karachi, Pakistan. It is named after Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud. History Faysal Bank started in P ...

, among others.

China

Payoneer has a presence in China, and in 2017, it was the exclusive partner and payment service provider of Chinese e-sellers for the Latvian e-commerce platform Joom.

Ukraine

The company partners with several banks in Ukraine: PrivatBank;

Alfa-Bank ALFA-BANK JSC (Alfa-Bank), is the largest of the private banks in Russia. It was founded in 1990 by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who is still the controlling owner today. Headquartered in Moscow, it operates in seven countries, providi ...

; and monobank.

India

The firm closed its services in the Indian market in 2011 due to certain directives enforced by the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible f ...

(RBI). Payoneer re-entered the Indian market in 2016, after partnering with IndusInd Bank and receiving

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a centra ...

's approval. The company customized its offerings for the Indian market, with special reporting systems and fund-transfer limits that comply with local rules. Payoneer was the first digital payment platform in India to provide customers with a Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate (FIRC) digitally, thereby simplifying the required business processes.

French Airbnb

Payoneer partnered with popular rental website

in November 2013. The arrangement allowed hosts to conveniently withdraw their earnings using their prepaid Payoneer debit cards. In December 2017, French authorities investigated the payment system, which allowed hosts to receive their payments directly without having to first be deposited in their bank accounts, which could lead to the possibility of tax avoidance. Airbnb agreed to withdraw the payment system in France.

Research

Payoneer publishes reports on the global economy. * Global Seller Index (2020) * E-Learning in the Wake of a Pandemic (2020) * The State of Global Live Streaming in 2020 * The State of Freelancing During

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

* Global Gig Economy Index (2019) * Global Seller Index (2019) * Annual freelancer report (2015, 2018, 2020) * Freelancing in 2020: An Abundance of Opportunities

Violations

Between 2013–2018 Payoneer was involved in illegal transactions by evading OFAC sanctions and agreed to pay US$1.4 million to settle violations.

References

External links

* {{authority control Payment service providers Online financial services companies of the United States Online payments Credit cards Companies based in New York City Financial services companies established in 2005 American companies established in 2005 Special-purpose acquisition companies Companies listed on the Nasdaq