Blackstone invests £140m to create global payment technology platform focused on property transactions

With ambitions to revolutionise payments and embedded software across the international property market, Blackstone has invested in two market-leading FX businesses with plans to build an integrated technology platform for estate agents and conveyancers, leveraging their 25-year track record in multi-party, multi-currency, and multi-step payments.

• Blackstone wants Redpin to become a market leader in embedded software and B2B payments in the $4.5Trn a year residential property market

• The £140 million Blackstone investment will support the creation of various Redpin products to be launched in 2025

• Group CEO Arnaud Loiseau appointed from WorldRemit (Zepz) and Candy Crush creator King

• Existing consumer-facing brands Currencies Direct and TorFX, with leading Trustpilot scores, to continue operations under new Redpin group umbrella

LONDON, 15 November 2023: Redpin Holdings Limited - owner of leading global digital international payment services Currencies Direct and TorFX – launches as it implements a new strategy to become the market leader in embedded [ME1] software and payments for residential property. The new strategy follows a £140 million strategic investment from Blackstone Tactical Opportunities (“Blackstone”).

The new group, to be known as Redpin, will continue investing in the two legacy companies - Currencies Direct and TorFX - which have built a leading international payment network – as well as growing through select acquisitions of property technology companies globally. Both legacy companies directly serves SMEs and private clients, but Redpin’s products will focus on service professionals, such as estate agents, conveyancers and notaries, when they begin rollout in summer 2025.

New strategy

A technology scale-up with significant backing and established consumer-facing brands (Currencies Direct and TorFX) that have both garnered industry-leading Trustpilot scores, Redpin already operates a global payment network that securely serves in over 235 territories. The brands work across over 1,800 currency pairs, transacting more than $12.6 billion in the last financial year.

The new products to be delivered under the Redpin brand will focus on service professional audiences, serving estate agents, conveyancers, notaries and other property professionals involved in international home purchases.

Headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, the company employs over 800 colleagues operating across the UK, EU, USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.

Through acquisitions, new partnerships and new product development, Redpin now plans to scale its offering beyond its existing international payment and industry-leading customer service to include best-of-breed vertical software services to legal service firms, title companies, property managers, escrow and estate agents. The total addressable market for the residential property sector has flows of $4.5 trillion per annum, of which $180 billion are in foreign exchange alone, according to Redpin analysis.

New leadership and backing

Arnaud Loiseau has been appointed to lead the new Redpin Group as CEO and executive board member. Arnaud joined from Worldremit (now Zepz), a leading digital international money transfer group, where he was CEO, International. There, he led the non-US P&L of the business, had global ownership for product, marketing, business development, payment and pricing functions and was part of the executive management team that led the $292M Series E and acquisition of Sendwave in 2021. Prior to this, Arnaud was Vice President at King - the developer of Candy Crush and issuer of $7Bn IPO on NYSE before its subsequent sale to Activision - holding various senior roles in new product, corporate development, strategy and publishing.

Arnaud also gained extensive M&A and Corporate Development experience at UBS Investment Bank, Bertelsmann and Reuters and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and MEng from Ecole Polytechnique in France.

In line with Redpin’s ambitions, Arnaud will lead M&A transactions and scale product and technology talent to create a new category leader in payments and vertical software for the property industry and beyond.

The launch of Redpin follows a £140 million strategic investment from funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, which was made in partnership with existing investors Palamon Capital Partners, a pan-European growth investor, and Corsair, a leading private equity firm targeting services, software, and payments investments in the financial services market.