LemFi, a global fee companies startup based mostly in London, has acquired Pillar, a UK-based fintech targeted on credit score entry for immigrants, in a strategic transfer that may remodel monetary companies for immigrants.
This acquisition paves the best way for LemFi to launch specialised bank cards designed particularly for immigrant communities, addressing considered one of their most persistent boundaries to monetary inclusion within the UK.
In 2022, Pillar raised £13M ($16.9M) in pre-seed to develop a platform for immigrants to entry credit score merchandise after they transfer to a brand new nation.
LemFi will inherit this tech as a part of the acquisition, changing into the primary main remittance platform to supply credit score as a core product.
The deal, already permitted by the FCA, additionally sees Pillar’s co-founders and Revolut alumni Ashutosh Bhatt and Adam Lewis be a part of the LemFi staff.
The acquisition comes at a time when immigrants within the UK face vital challenges in constructing credit score histories and accessing monetary companies.
In line with analysis, just one in 10 immigrants believes entry to credit score has not change into more durable within the present financial local weather. On the identical time, banking exclusion stories estimate 13% for migrants versus simply 3% for the final UK inhabitants.
LemFi’s imaginative and prescient is captured by this assertion on its web site: “We’re reshaping the way forward for how immigrants transfer their cash globally.” Within the UK alone, web migration exceeded 700,000 folks in 2022. The assertion highlights the corporate’s mission to serve the world’s rising immigrant inhabitants.
A well-known feeling for a lot of immigrants, shifting into a brand new nation, is being “Credit score Invisible”.
No matter their earlier or potential monetary profile, their credit score historical past doesn’t observe them into their new nation.
Within the UK, roughly 5 million “credit score invisible” people wrestle to entry mainstream monetary companies. Immigrants, particularly from the world’s rising markets, pay the price of inequitable entry because of the distinctive challenges they face:
Ashutosh’s expertise, shifting to the UK, mirrors this.
“I couldn’t entry any of the on a regular basis [financial] merchandise I had in India. Regardless of arriving and incomes a very good wage at Barclays, I couldn’t even get an iPhone!”
Whereas there have been slight enhancements, the issue’s core stays.
“Immigrants are at all times dealt a foul hand, particularly in the event that they’re coming from rising markets – we want equitable entry to credit score for everybody. When the world is busy constructing an interplanetary life, we nonetheless can’t provide a checking account or bank card to somebody from one other nation!
He concludes, “With Pillar, LemFi will enhance its attain by 10X and construct really international entry to credit score.”
The acquisition is a pure development in LemFi’s development technique.
Ridwan Olalere, LemFi co-founder and CEO, says, “We now have lengthy acknowledged our imaginative and prescient of constructing a full-stack monetary service for immigrants all over the place. Credit score marks the following frontier for us on this journey. Rian and I are significantly happy that Adam and Ash have agreed to affix us in constructing it.”
“Via LemFi Credit score, we already present our current prospects with the flexibility to develop their credit score proper throughout the LemFi app”, Ridwan continues “With this acquisition, we plan to supply Credit score Playing cards to prospects, beginning with the UK.”
Inside six weeks of launching, the Lemfi Credit score service had over 8,000 customers in non-public beta testing. It has maintained an 18% common week-on-week development. Prospects can stand up to £300, £700, or £1000 based mostly on their credit score profile. They get a Digital Card to spend on-line; prospects can add the cardboard to their Apple Pay or Google Pay wallets for ease of use.
“LemFi is already the go-to remittance service for patrons sending cash to over 30 international locations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. We invite our prospects and companions to develop with us as we construct on our current monetary service choices to scale LemFi right into a fintech big. ” Ridwan concludes.
The market alternative for immigrant-focused monetary companies within the UK is substantial, as Web migration continues to develop Submit-Pandemic. Trade analysts estimate that addressing the monetary inclusion hole for immigrants might unlock billions in financial worth for the people getting access to honest credit score and the broader UK economic system.
The anticipated LemFi bank cards for immigrants will leverage Pillar’s expertise to:
For the tens of millions of immigrants within the UK struggling to construct credit score histories, the event might signify a big step towards equitable entry to high quality monetary companies and alternatives.
Since its founding, LemFi has supported over 2 million prospects in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Europe. In January 2025, LemFi secured $53 million in Collection B funding, bringing its whole funding to over US$86M, involving some main buyers, together with Highland Europe, LeftLane Capital, Endeavor Capital, and Y-Combinator.
Go to www.lemfi.com to study extra about LemFi.
