South Korea-based fintech company Travel Wallet, specializing in payment solutions, has secured investment from global top-tier venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners.

This marks Lightspeed’s first investment in a Korean company and Travel Wallet’s first acquisition of global VC capital. The investment was made by Lightspeed acquiring shares from existing investors.

The deal began when Lightspeed took notice of Travel Wallet’s cloud-based payment technology, which had garnered attention in global markets, including the United States, and was frequently mentioned at various IT conferences. Lightspeed reached out to Travel Wallet after learning about their innovative technology, leading to the investment.

Pinn Lawjindakul, the partner at Lightspeed who led the investment, stated, “We received a lot of positive feedback about Travel Wallet from industry professionals and confirmed high customer satisfaction. We were deeply impressed by Travel Wallet’s strong expertise in the forex market and payment technology. Travel Wallet’s innovation is expanding from the B2C sector to B2B. We look forward to supporting their next growth phase using Lightspeed’s global network.”

Lightspeed, a U.S.-based global VC managing $28.2 billion, is the sixth-largest venture capital firm worldwide by AUM as of 2024. Initially renowned for investing in enterprise startups, Lightspeed has since expanded to invest in consumer, healthcare, and fintech startups with leading IT technology.

Travel Wallet CEO Hyungwoo Kim stated, “Our cloud technology is gaining recognition overseas first. There is a higher understanding of Travel Wallet’s technology abroad than domestically, so we will actively pursue international expansion with global investors like Lightspeed.”

Travel Wallet is currently receiving solution adoption and collaboration proposals from several major international financial institutions and has established local subsidiaries in the U.S. and Japan. They expect significant results from their global expansion efforts starting in the latter half of the year.