The merger of Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair, a global cross-border payments platform, has received regulatory approval and is now complete.
The company today launched its new brand - Zai (www.hellozai.com) - which replaces the Assembly Payments brand "as the company moves beyond domestic and cross-border payments to provide a core suite of broader integrated financial services to businesses in Australia and beyond."
Paul Byrne, CEO of Zai said: “Our vision with Zai is to boldly transform the future of financial services. The Australian market is very close to our hearts - both Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair were founded by Australian innovators.
“We are ramping up our activity in Australia significantly - Zai was first to market with NPP and we expect to remain at the forefront of innovation. In mid-2022, we are launching ‘PayTo’, the new digital way for merchants and businesses to initiate real-time payments from their customers’ bank accounts. We’re already seeing the benefits of expansion as we forecast a second successive year of 60% growth in processing volume to US$6.5 billion in 2021.”
Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair have been operating in the country since 2013 and 2010 respectively.
Zai’s expansion plans are supported through an investment from SC Ventures, the innovation, ventures and fintech investments unit of Standard Chartered which was announced in April 2021. SC Ventures made its initial investment in Assembly Payments in 2020.
Byrne said that Zai would remain focussed on addressing businesses pain points:
“Zai will continue our tradition of being customer-centric, solving problems and adding value around our five core capabilities – payments, global payment accounts, partner ecosystem, lending and settlement, and services – addressing the myriad growth opportunities in the US$2 trillion revenue market for payments,” Byrne said.
The company is focusing its mid-market and enterprise-level offering initially on the Australian market, where its Assembly Payments customer base gives it a foothold, while in parallel ramping up its capability to launch in the UK, USA and Asia in 2022 and with the number of employees "expected to grow from 170 currently to 450 by 2025."