Xoom, money transfer site, raises $20M more

Xoom, a company that lets you go online to transfer money internationally, has raised $20.29 million in a fifth round of funding.

It’s just the latest in a wave of companies using the Web to shake up the payment-lending industry.

This six-year-old San Francisco company has now raised more than $50 million. To use it, you log on to Xoom’s Web site and pay between $3.50 and $12 per transaction, not exactly cheap — but considering the hassle and cost of other transfer methods, it’s competitive. Recipients don’t need to have bank accounts or Internet connections to receive fund.

It follows a $50 million round of capital raised by another PayPal competitor, Revolution Money (see our coverage), which is just about to launch.  That company, however, is promising free transfers within social networking settings. So transfers are tending toward zero, like Internet phone rates. (Bytes are almost free.)

This Xoom latest round was led by DAG Ventures, and included Fidelity Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital. Peter Thiel, former executive of online payment company PayPal is also an early investor. The financing was first reported by PE Hub.

A whole bunch of other new companies are trying to make inroads into the micro-payment or lending markets.