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, a new backer, led the round, according to a statement from the company. Existing investors, including and , also participated. The last time Impossible Foods raised money was in May 2019, when it pulled $300 million for its Series E round.

The new round will be used to invest in research, scale up manufacturing, grow the company鈥檚 retail presence and presence in certain international markets, and popularize its pork and sausage products.

鈥淥ur mission is to replace the world鈥檚 most destructive technology–the use of animals in food production–by 2035,鈥� CEO Patrick Brown said in a statement. 鈥淭o do that, we need to double production every year, on average, for 15 years and double down on research and innovation. The market has its ups and downs, but the global demand for food is always there, and the urgency of our mission only grows.鈥�

Impossible Foods competes in the plant-based alternative food space, which is growing in popularity. Impossible Burgers can be found at restaurants across the country, including at more than 7,000 Burger King locations. , which was well-received by investors when it went public last year, is the other well-known brand in the space.

Impossible Foods closed the Series F round last week amid the coronavirus pandemic, the company said. That鈥檚 a good thing, because stocks have been plunging and some investors have been cautioning that VC funding will slow down.

At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in October, Impossible Foods鈥� Brown said the company would look to raise more money and that it wouldn鈥檛 go public in the near future, and it appears to be sticking to that plan.

鈥淲ith this latest round of fundraising, Impossible Foods has the resources to accelerate growth–and continue to thrive in a volatile macroeconomic environment, including the current COVID-19 pandemic,鈥� Impossible Foods鈥� Chief Financial Officer David Lee said in a statement.

A slew of celebrities also participated in Impossible Foods鈥� latest round. Musical artists Jay-Z, will.i.am, Zedd, Jaden Smith and Katy Perry all participated, as did actress Mindy Kaling, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, actor Kal Penn, tennis champion Serena Williams and co-founder Alexis Ohanian, among other stars.

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(which has been ramping up its startup investment as of late) led the round, which also included participation from and along with existing backer , which used its pro rata, according to Flywire.

The new financing takes Flywire鈥檚 since its 2011 inception to $263.2 million, according to 附近上门 data.

Flywire also announced it has acquired , a developer of payments software for the health care industry that had raised $36.4 million in venture capital funding.

In a phone conversation with Flywire CEO , I learned more about what the company does and how much it鈥檚 grown. He was refreshingly transparent.

So, let鈥檚 get into the details.

More than software

Fundamentally, Flywire is a payments company but it has also built software to help process payments. (Which makes it both a SaaS operator and a transactions platform.) Its focus is on the education, health care and travel industry verticals.

鈥淎ll three are fraught with a lack of digitization, and are inherently complex with legacy systems involved,鈥� Massaro told 附近上门 News. 鈥淲e think these areas have been underserved.鈥�

To date Flywire says it has processed over $12 billion in total payments volume for over 2,000 clients around the world. Seven of the eight Ivy League schools use it to collect cross-border payments, for example. As do hundreds of hospitals, including the top four hospital systems in the United States. People going on exotic trips such as African safaris can use it during their travel.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 just deliver the software that helps around payments,鈥� Massaro said. 鈥淲e actually move the money.鈥� In fact, it claims to 鈥渕ove billions of dollars across 200+ countries and 150 currencies.鈥�

Flywire has two revenue streams. It makes SaaS revenue off the software it鈥檚 using to help clients such as , or . But the majority of its revenue is transaction-based.

Speaking of which, Flywire is a unicorn with 鈥渨ell over $100 million in revenue,鈥� according to Massaro. Despite being around for nine years, it鈥檚 still seeing nearly 40 percent revenue growth year over year, he said.

It also has 530 employees, which is 10 times the 50 it had just five years ago.

Massaro expects Flywire to return to profitability this year, and said the company has been 鈥渧ery capital efficient.鈥�

鈥淧rior to this round, we had $45 miillion in cash on the balance sheet, and now we have about $75 million to $80 million,鈥� he told me. 鈥淎nd we don鈥檛 expect to burn a lot this year.鈥�

Acquisition

In acquiring Simplee, Flywire picked up a competitor, sort of. Flywire has historically focused on the provider side, helping digitize their back offices. Simplee is focused more on the patient experience.

鈥淲e both help providers engage their patients digitally,鈥� Massaro said. 鈥淭hey can help explain the cost of patients鈥� medical care, and how much they owe insurance, in addition to helping them digitize payments.鈥�

With the buy, Flywire also expanded its geographical footprint, as Simplee has offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv. In addition to its Boston headquarters, Flywire has 10 offices, including locations in Europe and Asia.

Last year, the company expanded into Latin America and plans to continue that expansion geographically. It also plans to double down on all its verticals.

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