Higlobe, Inc., the U.S. based solution for international payment transfers, raised $14 million in funding “to expand its technology and launch into new markets.”
The investment round was “led by global technology investment firm Battery Ventures, an investor in a number of U.S.-based fintech companies.”
Battery Senior Partner Scott Tobin will “join Higlobe’s board.” Higlobe uses asset-backed stablecoins “to provide an efficient and cost-effective means of making cross-border payments between bank accounts.”
CEO and Co-founder Teymour H. Farman-Farmaian, who leveraged his experience at Spotify to build Higlobe as a subscription-based payments platform, said:
“Our mission is to move the world’s money instantly and at no cost to help the increasingly global workforce get more money back to their home bank account. Our clients only pay a fixed, low-cost subscription for a U.S. receiving bank account regardless of the number of transfers they make. We want to make working and getting paid easier and faster, particularly as the pandemic has fueled even more interest in remote work.”
Demand for online freelance work is “growing at an annual rate of 10%, according to the Online Labour Index, creating an advantageous situation for a highly skilled, global remote workforce.”
This increase in hiring “benefits both employees, who are looking for flexibility and higher wages, and employers, who are looking for skilled workers and to reduce costs.” There are many skilled developers, designers, and engineers “throughout Latin America who find it beneficial to get paid in U.S. dollars.”
Higlobe Co-Founder and CTO Jeff Bolton said:
“I’ve hired dozens of contractors in the last decade who love working for a U.S. company, but they always complain about how much money they’d lose each month and how complicated it is to get paid.”
There are “more than 14 million self-employed (freelance) workers in Mexico alone,” according to the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
Higlobe serves freelance workers and small businesses in Mexico “working for U.S. based companies and plans to launch in Brazil later this year.” By doing so, Higlobe plans “to take a bite out of the estimated $21 trillion cross-border payments market.”
Higlobe’s service “offers customers the ability to make multiple transfers per month for one flat rate, making it less expensive than other cross-border payment providers.” Current competitors charge between one and six percent per cross-border payment, “often in a combination of hidden exchange rates and fees.”
Higlobe simplifies the process “by charging a monthly subscription fee as low as $4.99 for a U.S. receiving bank account, regardless of the number of transfers made.”
Higlobe is currently “available in Mexico, free for a limited time, to Mexican citizens or legal permanent residents that work with business clients in the U.S.” Users can “sign up for Higlobe’s service online where they must provide proof of identity and residence.”
Higlobe exclusively “uses stablecoins issued by companies that are regulated and supervised by U.S. federal or state agencies and that are 1:1 backed by U.S. dollars or U.S. government treasury securities.”