Leatherback
Leatherback is a UK-based FCA-authorised Electronic Money Institution offering a multi-currency payments platform — wallets, cross-border remittances, card issuing, payment gateway and BaaS APIs — to individuals, businesses, merchants and PSPs across 21+ frontier and emerging markets.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Leatherback does
Leatherback Ltd is a UK-incorporated (company number 12291057) cross-border payments fintech authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Electronic Money Institution (firm reference 901074). It operates a single global payments platform spanning multi-currency wallets (13+ currencies), the SendR cross-border remittance engine, a Fusion / Payr Business API payment gateway, merchant tools (payment links, QR, mass collection), and the Atlas and Pouch multi-currency card products. The platform is built on local liquidity rails in frontier markets (India, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt) integrated with banking and card-network partners including Mastercard, Visa, ClearBank, Providus, GTBank, YesBank, NIBSS, Stripe, Currency Cloud and Plaid, and is PCI DSS and ISO certified. The company serves individuals (via a mobile app with 200k+ downloads), businesses (startups, SMEs, large corporates), merchants and eCommerce players, and PSPs and financial institutions, claiming 1M trusted users and 20,000+ onboarded businesses across 21+ operating countries.
Leatherback's go-to-market operates four motions simultaneously: direct-to-consumer self-serve sign-up via the mobile and web apps, sales-led business onboarding with KYC/KYB document review, an API-first BaaS motion through Payr/Fusion for PSPs and platforms, and product-led growth with an in-app referral programme. Distribution combines its own marketing channels (blog, email, social on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok) with paid digital advertising and a partner banking / card-network rail across 21+ countries. Marketing and sales investments are supported by a headcount of 70+ employees globally across offices in London, Lagos, Toronto, Cairo, New Delhi and Kumasi.
The business model is transaction-based: per-transfer fees on cross-border sends ($0.79 to USD, £0.24 to GBP, CA$0.39 to CAD, ₦10 to NGN), a flat $25 SENDR fee on USD remittances, 0.15% monthly fees on received USD payments, FX margin on wallet conversions, and API/gateway, merchant and card services revenue. Public individual pricing is disclosed while business and MTO tiers are quote-based. To date Leatherback has raised a $10 million pre-seed round (April 2022) led by ZedCrest Capital, and was named BaaS Innovator of the Year 2025 at the Brit Fintech Awards.
Leatherback firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Leatherback
- Legal name
- Leatherback Ltd
- Website
- https://leatherback.co
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Leatherback is a UK-based FCA-authorised Electronic Money Institution offering a multi-currency payments platform — wallets, cross-border remittances, card issuing, payment gateway and BaaS APIs — to individuals, businesses, merchants and PSPs across 21+ frontier and emerging markets.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Leatherback is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices6 records
Markets served
Leatherback business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Cross-border / send-money transaction fees: Per-transaction fees by corridor currency for individual send-money: from $0.79 to USD, £0.24 to GBP, CA$0.39 to CAD, ₦10 to NGN; SENDR cross-border remittance tier priced at a flat $25 per transfer to USD (other currencies free).
- Account-based and FX margin fees: Monthly fee of 0.15% on received USD payments (other currencies per published schedule); spread-based revenue on currency conversions displayed via real-time FX rates on the platform.
- API and payment gateway services for businesses / PSPs: Revenue from the Payr Business API and Fusion payment gateway: account creation endpoints, payment/collection endpoints, KYC/KYB validation endpoints and FX/rate endpoints consumed by PSPs, financial institutions and platforms.
- Payment link, QR and mass-collection merchant fees: Fees on payment links, in-store QR code acceptance and mass-collection services for merchants and high-volume collection use cases across multiple currencies.
- Card services revenue: Revenue from virtual and physical multi-currency card issuance (Atlas, Pouch) arranged via Third Party Suppliers under the cardholder agreement terms.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Individual - Account Registration |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Individual - Send Money (per transaction) |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Individual - SENDR Cross-Border Remittance |
| Usage-based | Monthly | Individual - Payment Collections |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Business / MTO tiers |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
Leatherback product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Leatherback operates an FCA-authorised Electronic Money Institution that delivers a unified global payments platform spanning multi-currency accounts, cross-border transfers (SendR), payment acceptance (gateway, payment links, QR, mass collection), multi-currency cards (Atlas for business, Pouch for personal), and the Payr Business API for PSPs and platforms. The platform serves individuals, startups, SMEs, large corporates, merchants, payment service providers and financial institutions across 21+ operating countries, with locally controlled liquidity in frontier markets such as India, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt.
Product overview
Leatherback is a single unified global payments platform that provides individuals and businesses with one access point for managing multi-currency accounts, making cross-border payments, and streamlining global financial operations. The platform is built around several integrated sub-products and modules: the Multi-currency Wallet (for holding balances in 13+ currencies with local account numbers), SendR (cross-border remittance service), the Payment Gateway (for accepting card and bank transfer payments), Payment Links and Pay with QR (no-code merchant payment acceptance), Mass Collection (large-volume collections), Leatherback Cards in Atlas (business) and Pouch (personal) variants, and the Payr Business API / Fusion (suite of payment APIs for partner integration). These modules collectively serve individuals, startups, SMEs, large corporations, enterprises, payment service providers, and financial institutions.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- SendR: Leatherback's dedicated cross-border payments/remittance service for sending money internationally with competitive exchange rates and minimal fees.
- Fusion
- Payr
- Atlas
- Pouch
Products and services
- Leatherback Platform (Core Platform)
- Multi-currency Wallet
- SendR (Cross-Border Remittances)
- Leatherback Payment Gateway
- Payment Links
- Pay with QR
- Mass Collection
- Leatherback Cards (Atlas and Pouch)
- Payr Business API (Fusion)
- Leatherback Personal App
Quantifiable outcome
- 21+ operating countries; 20,000+ businesses onboarded; 14+ global partners
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Leatherback
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Leatherback technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
Feature5 records
Leatherback partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- ClearBankcoreUK-based banking partner listed on the Leatherback About Us page partner logos; supports Leatherback's banking-as-a-service rails for UK-regulated e-money accounts.
- Prime TrustcoreTrust/custody services partner listed on the About Us page partner logos alongside other financial-infrastructure providers.
- Currency CloudcoreFX technology partner listed on the About Us page; powers multi-currency wallet and SendR cross-border payment execution.
- StripecorePayment processing partner listed on the About Us page; supports card acceptance and online payments across multiple currencies.
- PlaidcoreBank connectivity partner listed on the About Us page; enables account linking and verification flows.
- Providus BankcoreNigerian bank partner listed on the About Us page; supports local NGN accounts and collections in Nigeria.
- YesBankcoreIndian bank partner listed on the About Us page; supports local INR accounts and India-side payment rails.
- MastercardcoreCard-network partner shown in the homepage partner logo rail; enables multi-currency card issuance (Atlas, Pouch) and global card acceptance.
- VisacoreCard-network partner shown in the homepage partner logo rail; supports card issuance and acceptance via Fusion payment gateway.
- GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank)coreNigerian bank partner shown in the homepage partner logo rail; supports local NGN accounts and collections in Nigeria.
- NIBSS (Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System)coreNigerian interbank settlement partner shown in the homepage partner logo rail; enables local bank-to-bank transfers and NGN payment processing.
Scale indicators11 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Leatherback competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Flutterwave: Flutterwave provides pan-African payment APIs, gateway, and cross-border collections/payouts — overlapping with Leatherback's Payr API, Fusion gateway, and Mass Collection in the same geographies.
- Remitly: Remitly is a digital remittance platform serving send corridors from the US/UK to emerging markets — directly comparable to Leatherback's SendR individual remittance product and African/South Asian receive footprint.
- WorldRemit: WorldRemit provides cross-border money transfers to bank accounts, mobile wallets and cash pickup across Africa and Asia — overlapping with SendR's corridor coverage and target diaspora users.
- Wise (TransferWise): Wise operates a multi-currency account platform and cross-border transfer service for individuals and businesses — the closest analogue to Leatherback's Multi-currency Wallet and SendR, with comparable pricing-on-corridor positioning.
- Nium: Nium is a cross-border payments BaaS platform exposing payment, FX and issuance APIs to PSPs and platforms — directly comparable to Leatherback's Payr Business API / Fusion gateway across emerging-market corridors.
- Verto: Verto provides multi-currency business accounts and cross-border payments targeted at emerging-market SMBs and enterprises — a near-direct competitor to Leatherback's business wallet, SendR and gateway.
- Chipper Cash: Chipper Cash offers cross-border mobile money transfers and multi-currency accounts across Africa, directly competing with Leatherback's personal SendR corridors in Nigeria, Ghana, and other African markets.
Broad incumbents
- Payoneer: Payoneer offers multi-currency receiving accounts and cross-border payouts for SMBs and freelancers globally — a larger incumbent competing for the same cross-border business-banking wallet use cases Leatherback targets.
Emerging players
- Paystack: Paystack (now part of Stripe) provides African payment gateway, APIs and multi-currency tooling for businesses — a partial overlap with Leatherback's Fusion gateway and Payr API in the same Nigerian/African market.
- LemFi: LemFi offers multi-currency accounts and diaspora remittances targeted at African immigrants in the diaspora — overlapping with Leatherback's Personal app and SendR for African receive corridors.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Leatherback social profiles
Digital presenceLeatherback compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Leatherback financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Leatherback leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Leatherback funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Leatherback M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Leatherback
What does Leatherback do?
Leatherback operates an FCA-authorised Electronic Money Institution that delivers a unified global payments platform spanning multi-currency accounts, cross-border transfers (SendR), payment acceptance (gateway, payment links, QR, mass collection), multi-currency cards (Atlas for business, Pouch for personal), and the Payr Business API for PSPs and platforms. The platform serves individuals, startups, SMEs, large corporates, merchants, payment service providers and financial institutions across 21+ operating countries, with locally controlled liquidity in frontier markets such as India, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt.
Is Leatherback a public or private company?
Leatherback is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Leatherback founded?
Leatherback was founded in 2019. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Leatherback based?
Leatherback is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Leatherback make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Cross-border / send-money transaction fees are the primary driver. The others are account-based and FX margin fees, API and payment gateway services for businesses / PSPs, payment link, QR and mass-collection merchant fees and card services revenue.
Who are Leatherback's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Flutterwave, Remitly, WorldRemit, Wise (TransferWise), Nium, Verto and Chipper Cash. Payoneer is listed as a broad incumbent. Emerging players are Paystack and LemFi.
Does Leatherback have an API?
Yes. Leatherback offers a suite of payment APIs (referred to as Payr Business API) for partner integration. The API suite includes: Payment Gateway as a Service (Leatherback gateway and Partner Payment Gateway), Account Creation endpoints (to create accounts with partner banks), Payment API (to make payments through partner banks), Collections API (to collect/acquire transactions through partner banks), Validation services (KYC/KYB identity validation), and Exchange Services (currency exchange and rates). The platform is accessible via access.leatherback.co for partner/business onboarding. Auth method, rate limits, SDK languages, and versioning details are not specified in the source. Developer documentation is at access.leatherback.co.