# Nium

> Nium is a financial technology company that provides businesses with infrastructure for cross-border payments, card services, and money movement.

- Canonical URL: https://iq.wiki/wiki/nium
- Categories: Organizations
- Tags: Venture
- Created: 2026-11-03T14:53:10.512Z
- Last updated: 2026-11-03T14:53:10.512Z
- Source: IQ.wiki — the world's largest blockchain and crypto encyclopedia (https://iq.wiki)

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**Nium** is a privately held financial-technology company that provides infrastructure for international payments. Founded in 2014 by Prajit Nanu and Michael Bermingham as the consumer remittance platform Instarem, it rebranded as Nium in 2019. The company is co-headquartered in Singapore and San Francisco.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

Nium says its platform connects currencies, payment rails, onchain networks, and programmable money through a single integration. It reports supporting transfers across more than 190 countries, access to more than 100 real-time markets, and $84 billion in payments processed during the 12 months preceding its current company overview.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

## History and Expansion

Nanu said he launched the company after encountering friction in cross-border money transfers. The business initially focused on consumer remittances under the Instarem name before rebranding as Nium in 2019 and expanding its infrastructure for business customers.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

As Nium expanded beyond Asia Pacific, it faced differing national rules for payments and money transfers, including restrictions that could conflict between sending and receiving countries. The company selected J.P. Morgan Payments as its house bank for payments and related services. J.P. Morgan helped optimize Nium’s banking arrangements, automate collections and reconciliation, manage foreign-exchange exposure through real-time automated cross-currency solutions, and connect it with payment rails and local banks. The partnership supported Nium’s expansion in Asia Pacific and Latin America and its growth beyond Asia Pacific.[\[3\]](#cite-id-x1kcvpquz3)​

Nium’s cross-border and cross-currency activity exposes it to foreign-exchange risk: exchange-rate movements can affect financial results, profitability, and customer demand. J.P. Morgan’s automated foreign-exchange solutions were intended to help manage that exposure during collections and reconciliation.[\[3\]](#cite-id-x1kcvpquz3)​

### Nium Acquires Cypher

In July 2026, Nium acquired Cypher, a [cryptocurrency](https://iq.wiki/wiki/cryptocurrency) digital-wallet business. 

CEO Prajit Nanu described the acquisition as a way to add consumer-market expertise and develop further services in the [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) ecosystem. 

He said Nium planned to rebrand Cypher’s consumer business and turn its capabilities into application programming interfaces (APIs) that other companies could use to launch onchain financial-services infrastructure. Nanu described the acquisition as Nium’s fourth and said the company was considering further acquisitions, including in Latin America and Africa, where he said it was less established.[\[4\]](#cite-id-c6gt5afpe5)​

## Platform and Services

Nium’s platform enables businesses to collect, convert, hold, send, and spend money internationally. Its products include cross-border payouts, domestic transfers, multi-currency accounts, physical and virtual card issuance and processing, account verification, and [stablecoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin) payouts and cards. The company also provides infrastructure for embedded financial services, including controls, ledgers, bill payment, money conversion, onboarding and monitoring, card management, and transaction-event systems.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

The company serves banks and financial institutions, fintechs, payment processors, payroll providers, and enterprises with business-to-business payment needs. Its stated customer sectors also include travel and hospitality, e-commerce and marketplaces, spend-management companies, and digital platforms such as affiliate, gig-economy, and gaming businesses.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

Nium presents its services as composable building blocks. A business can begin with payments and add card programs or foreign exchange without replacing its platform. The infrastructure can also support accounts, cards, transfers, and foreign exchange for neobanks operating on licensed infrastructure, as well as wage products that allocate earnings to per-worker ledgers, convert them into local currency, and pay workers through local rails or cards.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

For [stablecoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin) treasuries, Nium describes a model in which businesses hold value in digital dollars, convert it to fiat when needed, use Visa or Mastercard cards for spending, and make cross-border settlements and around-the-clock payouts. Its card-program tools include ledgers for individual entities, configurable spending controls, and real-time authorization rules.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

Nium also describes an agentic-payments capability for software agents. A business assigns each agent a scoped ledger and card; the agent initiates transactions within policy limits; a processing layer authorizes or declines them in real time; and the resulting actions are recorded as auditable events.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

## Stablecoin and Card Services

Nium’s card platform supports physical and virtual cards, including cards linked to [stablecoins](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin). In March 2026, the company expanded its stablecoin services so financial institutions, companies, and fintechs holding stablecoins could issue cards on the Visa and Mastercard networks, allowing cardholders to spend at merchants worldwide. Nium already supported stablecoin funding and settlement.[\[4\]](#cite-id-c6gt5afpe5)​

Nanu said Nium saw potential for stablecoins, particularly in countries where traditional financial services had limited reach. The company’s stated strategy connects digital assets with real-world payment services, including card spending and cross-border settlement.[\[4\]](#cite-id-c6gt5afpe5)​[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

## Compliance and Licensing

Nium says it holds more than 40 licenses, authorizations, and registrations across key markets, with further applications or approvals underway. Its listed authorizations include a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, authorization from the UK Financial Conduct Authority, an Australian Financial Services License, registrations with Canada’s FINTRAC and Australia’s AUSTRAC, an Electronic Money Issuer license in Brazil, and money-transmitter licenses in most U.S. states.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

The company says its infrastructure incorporates locally operated know-your-customer and know-your-business checks, requests for information, and anti-money-laundering processes. It presents its licensing and compliance capabilities as part of the basis for providing payment services internationally.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

## Partnerships and Customers

Nium’s named partners include Visa and Mastercard for card networks; Thredd and Fiserv for card issuance; SWIFT and RippleNet for payment connectivity and settlement; [Circle](https://iq.wiki/wiki/circle) as a payout partner within the Circle Payments Network; iPiD for account validation and fraud prevention; and MOIN for regional payout coverage in Asia Pacific.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

The company’s customer and partner accounts describe deployments across several payment use cases. Ebury executive director Luiz Henrique Didier Jr. said Nium’s technology and coverage supported Ebury’s work connecting Brazilian customers with international markets. Mashreq Bank’s head of business banking, FX and remittances, Rohit Garg, said the partnership enabled the bank to offer a broad network of instant or same-day account credits from the United Arab Emirates. Weel CEO Danial Kniaz said the partnership expanded the spend-management services available to Weel’s customers, while Cadana product operations manager Fred Gyekye Ofosu described Nium as supporting the expansion of Cadana’s payout capabilities, including in difficult-to-serve markets.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

A separate account-verification deployment involved Kinexys by J.P. Morgan. Its managing director and global head of commercial, Zach Chestnut, said Nium’s additional account-verification markets extended the network’s reach without requiring technology upgrades, through a single secure network.[\[2\]](#cite-id-mf2plec7kq)​

J.P. Morgan’s account of its banking relationship with Nium describes the bank as helping the company navigate currency restrictions and extend services into new markets. Nium’s head of compliance for Asia Pacific, Joey Tang, called the bank a trusted partner for that work, while Anupam Pahuja, identified in the account as Nium’s executive vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa, said the company was continuing its global expansion with J.P. Morgan Payments.[\[3\]](#cite-id-x1kcvpquz3)​

Nanu said Nium focuses on making money movement over bank networks more efficient and does not offer card acquiring. He also described opportunities for real-time payment systems to support cross-border transfers, citing transfers between Europe and the United Kingdom and between the United Kingdom and Singapore that he said could arrive instantly through instant-payment systems on both sides.[\[4\]](#cite-id-c6gt5afpe5)​

## Leadership, Investment, and Recognition

Nanu is Nium’s founder and chief executive officer; co-founder Michael Bermingham helped establish the company as Instarem. 

Other executives named by the company include CFO Andre Mancl, COO Spencer Hanlon, Chief Business Officer Anupam Pahuja, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer Amaresh Mohan, CTO Sekhar Cidambi, and CMO Danielle Gotkis.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

The company describes Nanu as leading product strategy, with an emphasis on compliance and regulatory rigor, and as driving its expansion into [stablecoin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/stablecoin) infrastructure and links between digital assets and real-world payments. 

Pahuja oversees global revenue growth, partnerships, and international expansion; before Nium, he spent more than a decade at PayPal and was CEO of ZaloPay. 

Cidambi leads technology strategy and previously held senior engineering roles at [Coinbase](https://iq.wiki/wiki/coinbase), Visa, FIS/Atelio, Amazon, and Symantec. Hanlon oversees regional business development and account management and previously held roles at British Airways and Lufthansa’s AirPlus International.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​

Nium names Vertex, BOND, Visa, New View Capital, and Temasek among its investors. The company has raised $339 million to pursue its business goals.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​[\[4\]](#cite-id-c6gt5afpe5)​

Nanu was a finalist for EY Entrepreneur Of The Year, and Nium says it appeared on the Forbes Fintech 50 for two consecutive years.[\[1\]](#cite-id-ua13oe82hh)​