Transferwise - Fintech Europe

TransferWise

TransferWise is a British online money transfer service, and it is based in London. It was founded in 2010, by Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus. Their vision was to make international money transfers cheap, fair, and simple. Some of the largest investors in the world backed their idea, including IA Ventures, Index Ventures, Seedcamp, Kima Ventures, Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson, and PayPal’s founder, Max Levchin.

Over the years the company has grown significantly, opening 13 offices, with more than 1,300 employees, across 4 continents. Over 6 million customers from different countries trust them to move more than 5 billion dollars every month. The company states that its services are saving $4 million in bank fees every day.

The overall concept is to use two local transfers instead of one international transaction. Customers can avoid costly international payments that way.

This is how TransferWise application looks like

Let’s say you are based in the United Kingdom, and you want to send money to your friend in Germany. First, you send the money in pounds to TransferWise’s account in the UK. The equivalent amount in euros is then sent from TransferWise’s euro account to the recipient. This innovative solution is also using the inter-bank mid exchange rate, instead of traditional currency transfers. The real exchange rate is calculated as the midpoint between the buying and selling rates on the global currency market. That way customers are transferring money at a fair rate and saving on traditional banking fees. Stats say that TransferWise is on average nine times cheaper than leading high street banks from the United Kingdom.

There are many benefits to using TransferWise, besides lower fees, fair exchange rates, and transparent transaction costs. There are no hidden fees, and the cost of a transaction is shown upfront. Transferring online instead of going to the bank gives you convenience and saves precious time. Most of the international payments are delivered within 24 hours, compared to 3-7 days for a traditional bank. This service is completely safe to use, taking into consideration that TransferWise is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It verifies all its users to protect against fraud and money laundering. No wonder why millions of people trusted them with international money transfers.

TransferWise is appropriate for both business and personal use. If you are working remotely or as a freelancer, it can help you avoid expensive bank rates. It can also give you a fair exchange rate if your business Is transferring money internationally. Businesses can also make use of a batch payments tool, which allows you to initiate up to 1,000 transactions with just one CSV file upload. Both business and personal accounts can get a multi-currency borderless account, which holds balances in more than 40 currencies. The company supports more than 750 currency routes across the globe, and its services are available in 59 countries. And for every possible question or an issue, you may rely on live customer support in multiple languages.

What started off as a clever solution to bypass costly international payments, is now a global movement. Their vision of making the premium the new normal impacted the industry deeply, and it will continue to do so in the following years.