Rapyd Global Payments Platform: Funding, PayU, IPO Plans

Rapyd is an Israeli-founded global payments company that connects more than 1,200 local payment methods in over 100 countries through one API. It raised $500 million at a $4.5 billion valuation in March 2025 to close its $610 million PayU GPO acquisition, which took revenue above $1 billion, according to Rapyd's announcements. CEO Arik Shtilman told Calcalist in 2024 that Rapyd plans to go public in 2026.

What is Rapyd at a glance?

Who founded Rapyd and what problem did it solve?

Arik Shtilman, Arkady Karpman and Omer Priel founded Rapyd in 2015 to give companies one API for every local payment method, from bank transfers in Europe to digital wallets in Southeast Asia, cash on delivery in Latin America and card payments in the United States.

Companies expanding across borders had to integrate with dozens of local providers, each with its own technical specification, compliance regime and settlement currency. Rapyd abstracted that work into a single integration.

The founders were Israeli and kept R&D in Israel, but they headquartered Rapyd in London from the start to reach European regulatory frameworks and banking relationships that an Israeli or US domicile would not provide as efficiently.

How did Rapyd's valuation move from $9B to $15B to $4.5B?

Rapyd's valuation peaked in 2022 at about $15 billion in a secondary transaction, which made it Israel's highest-valued private tech company at the time, according to Calcalist.

Its most recent funding round before 2025 valued it at $9 billion in the summer of 2021, Globes reported. In February 2025 Globes, citing Bloomberg, reported that Rapyd was in talks to raise $300 million at $3.5 billion, a 60 percent cut from that $9 billion.

The round that closed in March 2025 was larger, at $500 million in equity and debt, and priced the company at about $4.5 billion. It funded the PayU acquisition, according to Rapyd's announcement.

What did the PayU acquisition change?

The PayU GPO acquisition, completed on March 14, 2025 for $610 million, added about $350 million in annual revenue, about 1,000 employees and regulated operations across Europe, the UK, South America and Asia, according to Rapyd's announcements. Prosus was the seller.

After the deal, Rapyd reports operations in more than 100 countries, 41 regulatory licenses, about 1,600 employees, revenue above $1 billion, more than 250,000 merchants and over 1,200 payment methods. The deal had been signed in August 2023 and needed regulatory approval in seven jurisdictions.

PayU also brought an Israeli connection: it had acquired the Israeli payments company Zooz for about $80 million in 2018 and kept a development center in Israel.

Is Rapyd going public?

Rapyd has said it plans to go public in 2026, but Olam has not confirmed an IPO filing as of October 2026. Shtilman told Calcalist in September 2024 that Rapyd planned to list in 2026 and to automate 70 percent of its back-office services by then.

Third-party trackers disagree. StockAnalysis lists an expected IPO in the first quarter of 2027 and the March 2025 valuation, while TechStackIPO reports an S-1 filing in February 2026. Neither is a primary source, so a company filing should be checked directly.

Calcalist also reported in December 2024 that Rapyd had applied to the Israel Securities Authority for an expanded clearing license to issue credit cards. That would put Rapyd in competition with Isracard and the MAX credit card business, making it a global payments infrastructure company and an Israeli consumer-finance competitor at once.

Where does Rapyd fit in Israeli payments infrastructure?

Rapyd sits at the infrastructure layer of Israeli fintech, alongside Fireblocks for digital-asset custody, Payoneer (NASDAQ: PAYO) for cross-border payments, Melio for small-business B2B payments, which Xero acquired, and Tipalti for accounts-payable automation.

These companies run global platforms from Israeli R&D centers in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Ramat Gan. Former Rapyd leaders are now starting the next generation: in July 2026 Eric Rosenthal, Lior Levitt, Sagi Ittah and Juan Jose Huezo launched Cordant with an $8 million seed round co-led by Motive Partners and Oak HC/FT, according to Business Wire. Cordant builds a monitoring layer for complex payment flows.

Frequently asked questions about Rapyd

Who founded Rapyd?

Arik Shtilman, Arkady Karpman and Omer Priel, all Israeli, co-founded Rapyd in 2015, and Shtilman is the CEO.

What does Rapyd do?

Rapyd runs a fintech-as-a-service platform that connects more than 1,200 local payment methods across 100+ countries through one API, covering cross-border payments, wallets, card issuing and fraud protection.

How much has Rapyd raised?

Rapyd has raised more than $1 billion in total, including a $500 million round in March 2025 at a $4.5 billion valuation.

What was Rapyd's peak valuation?

Rapyd's peak valuation was about $15 billion in a 2022 secondary transaction, according to Calcalist.

Is Rapyd an Israeli company?

Rapyd was founded by three Israeli entrepreneurs and keeps R&D in Israel, but it is headquartered in London for regulatory and banking reasons.

Sources and related coverage

Sources: Rapyd announcements on funding and the PayU acquisition; Calcalist reporting on the IPO plan, the credit-card license application and the 2022 valuation; Globes and Bloomberg on the February 2025 valuation talks; Business Wire on Cordant; StockAnalysis and TechStackIPO on third-party IPO tracking.

Related Olam coverage: Israeli fintech and public markets map, Israeli founders and companies, MAX Israel credit cards.