E-payments service provider PPRO has reported an 85% increase in transaction volume over last year, highlighting the opportunities for cross-border e-commerce amid the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.

Due in part to a massive digital shift in e-commerce consumer behaviour, PPRO is now processing an annual run rate of US$9 billion in payment transaction volume.

The company also closed a US$50 million financing round led by Sprints Capital with participation from investors Citi Ventures and HPE Growth. In the transaction, Financial Technology Partners acted as financial advisor and Noerr, legal advisor to PPRO.

Funds from the financing will be used to scale up the PPRO’s organisation and accelerate its growth plans for its global platform.

The firm has already grown the size of its team by 25% since the beginning of the year with an eye on strengthening its three product development centres in Germany, Singapore and Brazil, which service its e-commerce markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

“We enable our partners to globalize their payments offering at a faster speed and with a level of quality that wouldn’t be feasible to achieve in-house,” says Simon Black, PPRO’s chief executive officer. “Despite any challenges created by the pandemic, we’ve made great progress this year on our mission to turbocharge growth for our partners and their merchants.”