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Jakarta-based , a payments infrastructure company operating in Indonesia and the Philippines, has raised a $300 million Series D led by New York-based growth equity investors and.听

Only nine months earlier, the company announced its $150 million Series C funding led by at a billion-dollar valuation.听

And six months earlier, led the company’s Series B of $64.6 million.听

The valuation for the latest funding has not been disclosed.听

Existing investors who participated include prior leads Accel, Tiger Global and (who led the Series A), as well as , , and founder and ex- partner 鈥檚 .

We spoke with co-founders , Xendit鈥檚 CEO, and its COO.

鈥淲e help merchants all over the region accept payments, send payments and then also hold funds鈥� said Lo. 鈥淲e’ve often been called for Southeast Asia.鈥澛�

A generation of entrepreneurs 鈥渃an launch businesses at scale with hundreds of thousands of users in a couple of days,鈥� a real situation a customer faced, said Lo.听

In 2022, Xendit is on track to process $15 billion in payment value, showing more than 100 percent growth from 2021 at $6.5 billion, according to the company.

Early beginnings

The company, which started out in Bitcoin remittance payments, was one of the first companies from Southeast Asia to join Y Combinator in 2015. (It made the Top100 YC list in 2021.)聽

Whilst at YC it pivoted to peer-to-peer payments, a consumer -type service.听

However, the service hit a roadblock. 鈥淭here was no way for dispersing money, sending out money at scale 24/7, sending unlimited amounts to any bank account,鈥� said Lo. 鈥淲e take that for granted in the U.S., but that didn’t exist in Indonesia.鈥澛�

The company built its own payment infrastructure, partnering with banks.听

In 2016 Xendit held a mini hackathon.听

鈥淲e released some APIs and we’ve had customers on this kind of payments infrastructure ever since鈥� said Lo on the company鈥檚 accidental journey to becoming a payment infrastructure company.听

Some companies underestimate 鈥渉ow important it is to understand payment behaviors in the market to be able to succeed,鈥� said Wijaya. In Indonesia and the Philippines, credit card penetration is extremely low, around 3 percent. Most payments are done via bank transfers which is very cumbersome.听

鈥淚f a thousand people send you $10 for your stickers that you’re selling, it’s hard to reconcile. So we brought to market this idea of a virtual account where it’s a unique identifier,鈥� said Lo. The ability to reconcile payments proved extremely popular with merchants.听

In 2020, Xendit launched in the Philippines, its second market.鈥淲e built something that didn’t exist. We built direct debit with ride-sharing as a first customer,鈥� Lo said of the company鈥檚 intention to not just replicate what exists in a market, but to bring something new.听

Southeast Asia has some of the fastest-growing economies along with a younger tech savvy population.听

Xendit鈥檚 customers include fintech startups in the lending, remittance and crypto sectors as well as enterprise SaaS, e-commerce and logistics. Customers include Grab, , , Samsung Indonesia and , in addition to Indonesia鈥檚 national post office and national airline, Tiket. Next it plans to expand support of not only large and technology-focused companies, but small businesses as well.听

The company also is planning to expand its markets to Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.听

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