Seva Money, a London fintech that helps money transfer companies keep customers after the payment lands, has raised a $5M (£3.7M) seed round co-led by Blockwall and Revent.
The round was announced on 9 November. Pre-seed investors Seedcamp, Stride.VC and Ada Ventures invested again, as did angels Husayn Kassai, Benjamin Fernandes, chief executive of NALA, and Michael Kent.
The company has not disclosed a valuation.
Who founded Seva Money?
Seva Money was founded by chief executive Ritu Soni, a London Business School graduate. She held senior product roles at WorldRemit, Paysafe, Skrill and Lebara Money before starting the company.
Soni has spoken about her own experience as a migrant. Investors describe her as having spent about two decades working on remittances.
What does Seva Money build?
Most money transfer operators compete on fees and exchange rates. Once the money is paid out, the relationship with the person receiving it usually ends.
Seva Money gives operators a white-label wallet and card for those receivers. It sits inside existing transfer flows and works with both normal currencies and stablecoins.
The wallet comes with financial and health services. In India, that includes up to 60 free at-home specialist consultations a year and up to 20% off medicines through Tata 1mg and PharmEasy.
The company says operators using it have seen retention rise 29%.
Where does Seva Money operate?
It is live in India and Mexico. Over the next 12 months it plans to launch in the Philippines, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana.
The money goes on product development, new operator partnerships and entering those receiving markets.
What did investors say?
Soni said operators have spent decades competing on price and FX alone. Gabbi Cahane, partner at Stride.VC, called that a race to the bottom and said send-to-spend is where the category goes next.
Will Bennett at Seedcamp said combining stablecoin rails with rewards creates a much better experience for people receiving money in India. Damien Roch, partner at Blockwall, said it is exciting to see stablecoins going live inside larger remittance players.
Why does this market matter?
Migrants send close to $1 trillion home each year. Seva Money's bet is that the receiver, not the sender, is the untapped customer.
Bigger players are moving the same way. Remitly has launched its own stablecoin wallet and debit card, starting in Latin America.
What this means for UK founders
London remains a natural home for cross-border payments startups, thanks to firms like WorldRemit that trained a generation of product leaders. Seva Money adds to UK fintech startup funding in a year when stablecoin infrastructure has drawn steady interest, including Griffin's Series B for cards and stablecoins.
For context on how seed rounds like this compare across the country, see Bizztor's UK startup statistics.
The test will be whether operators pay for receive-side features at scale, or decide to build them in-house.