Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran met at OPay, the Nigerian fintech incubated by Opera, where Olalere led product and Cochran ran finance. They founded LemFi in 2021 around a problem they had watched up close: immigrants sending money to emerging markets were paying commission rates set by incumbent banks and agents that still controlled roughly 60% of a market worth hundreds of billions, on transfers that took days to arrive.
LemFi started by serving Nigerian migrants in Canada and expanded outward from there. Today it serves more than two million customers across the UK, Europe, North America and beyond, moving money to over 30 markets including Nigeria, Kenya, India, China and Pakistan, and processing more than $1 billion in monthly transaction volume. The product has widened beyond remittance into multi-currency wallets, virtual cards and cross-border card transactions, and the acquisition of UK credit card issuer Pillar extends it into credit — the explicit strategy being to become a full financial platform for immigrants rather than a transfer service they use once a month.
The funding trajectory has been fast. A $53 million Series B led by Highland Europe in January 2025, with Left Lane Capital, Palm Drive Capital and Y Combinator participating, brought total raised to around $85 million, with a further extension reported in 2026. The company employs over 300 people across Africa, Europe and North America and holds licences and approvals in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Nigeria, plus 14 US states.
The most significant recent development is structural. In April 2026, following the UK–Nigeria State Visit, LemFi committed £100 million to its global infrastructure and formally designated London as its global hub — an investment recognised as part of the UK–Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership. That makes LemFi one of the few fintechs in this directory whose European base is a deliberate strategic choice rather than an accident of founding: a Nigerian-founded company that chose London for regulatory standing and capital market access while serving customers whose money flows in the opposite direction. It competes with Zepz, Remitly and Taptap Send in a market where the structural advantage goes to whoever understands specific corridors best rather than whoever is largest overall.