What is Transferwise? Transferwise Review

introduce

TransferWise, which is headquartered in London and has an office in Tallinn, Estonia, now calls itself a "Tech City" startup. The so-called Tech City is actually a brand set by the British government for the London technology industry, specifically referring to the "Silicon Roundabout" area in West London.

TransferWise now serves more than 2 million customers, offers 700 remittance routes, and plans to expand into Asia in the next 12 months, including from India to Nepal. TransferWise already has hundreds of thousands of customers in the Asia-Pacific region, and this year opened a regional hub office in Singapore, as well as satellite offices in Tokyo and Sydney. TransferWise now transfers $1 billion a day for its customers, saving them $1.5 million in transaction fees every day compared to using bank services.

Vision

We are committed to providing low-cost and efficient remittance services around the world. At present, we do not see that becoming a listed company can help us achieve this goal faster, and there is no substantial benefit to the company's development. Therefore, we will remain a private enterprise for the time being.

Transfer exchange rate

If you exchange currency at a domestic bank, you will need to pay a 1.5% fee to the bank. Banks in the United States and Europe also charge higher exchange fees. However, if we use a website called "TransferWise" to exchange US dollars into pounds and euros, the fees we need to pay are much lower than those of banks in various countries.

Development History

Transferwise was founded in 2011 as CommonFX.

In February 2016, Transferwise officially landed in China.

As of June 2016, Transferwise has covered more than 50 countries and over 1 million users.

In April 2018, cross-border money transfer startup TransferWise announced the launch of a so-called “borderless” multinational bank account and debit card, enabling customers to easily manage their funds between countries.

In June 2018, TransferWise announced a partnership with France’s Groupe BPCE to provide low-cost money transfer services to the bank’s customers.

Financing

In August 2011, it received a seed round of financing of 50,000 Euros from Seedcamp.

In April 2012, it received US$1.3 million in seed round financing from IA Ventures Index Ventures.

In May 2013, it announced that it had received US$6 million in Series A financing.

In June 2014, it received US$25 million in financing.

In January 2015, it received US$58 million in financing.

On May 26, 2016, it was confirmed that it had completed a round of financing of US$26 million, with a valuation of US$1.1 billion. This round of financing was led by Baillie Gifford, and the company's existing investors including A16Z continued to invest.

In November 2017, Transferwise raised $280 million in a Series E round of funding led by venture capital firms IVP and Old Mutual Global Investors.

References

• 1. Cross-border money transfer startup TransferWise raises $280 million: Tencent [cited on 2017-11-02]