PPRO Group, a UK-headquartered cross-border e-payment specialist, today announced a $50 million USD investment round led by PayPal with participation from Citi Ventures and return investor HPE Growth Capital.

PPRO enables businesses to accept more than 140 alternative payments globally, partnering exclusively with leading payment service providers and financial institutions. Through this investment, PPRO plans to accelerate the expansion of its payments platform and international presence of its alternative payments acquiring business.

“PPRO is a pioneer in providing value-added acquiring services for alternative payment methods and we are one of the fastest growing fintech businesses in Europe,” said Simon Black, CEO, PPRO Group. “Adding support from PayPal and Citi Ventures alongside our existing investors will make it possible to bring the benefits of alternative payment method acceptance to even more businesses around the world.”

Credit cards are used for payment in less than 20 percent of worldwide e-commerce transactions[1]. In many markets consumers instead choose locally preferred alternative payment methods such as bank transfers, e-wallets, and cash-based payments. For online merchants, offering the right mix of payment options is critical as it leads to higher conversion rates for cross-border transactions. PPRO continues to be uniquely positioned as an independent partner for PSPs, processing and collecting alternative payments through a single contract without competing for merchants.

“A merchant’s choice of payments partner is increasingly being driven by the ever-expanding range of locally relevant payment methods available,” said Arnold Goldberg, vice president of merchant product and technology, PayPal. “PayPal is pleased to support PPRO as the company continues to grow. We recently signed a commercial agreement with them to provide a wide range of payment options for our merchants, so consumers can shop seamlessly across borders through the new PayPal Checkout with Smart Payment Buttons, Braintree and all of our merchant products. This is yet another way we are positioning ourselves to be the one-stop solution for global digital commerce.”

“Technology is revolutionizing how consumers and businesses make and accept payments, and PPRO is on the leading edge of meeting those needs,” said Luis Valdich, Managing Director, Citi Ventures. “Citi Ventures is delighted to invest in PPRO which enables businesses to collect funds from alternative payment schemes globally.”

The investment is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018. FT Partners acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to PPRO for this investment.