served europe us key people kristo k rmann founder executive chairman taavet hinrikus founder ceo services money transfers employees 450 2015 slogan s the clever new way to beat bank fees website transferwise.com alexa rank 13 418 1 registration yes available in multilingual launched 2011 ; 5 years ago 2011 current status active transferwise is an peer to peer money transfer service launched in january 2011 by kristo k rmann and taavet hinrikus . it is headquartered in london and has offices in tallinn and new york . 2 more than 3 billion of user money has been transferred through transferwise . 3 transferwise supports more than 300 currency routes across the world . 4 contents 1 history 2 how it works 3 investors 4 media attention 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the creation of transferwise was inspired by the personal experiences of taavet hinrikus skype s first employee and financial consultant kristo k rmann . as estonians working between their native country and the uk they had personal experience of the pain of international money transfer 5 due to bank charges on the amounts they needed to convert from euros to pounds and vice versa . in the words of hinrikus i was losing five per cent of the money each time i moved it . at the same time my co founder kristo k rmann also from estonia was starting to get paid in the uk and was losing a lot of money transferring cash back home to pay for a mortgage there . 6 7 it inspired them to make a private arrangement with hinrikus who was paid in euros putting this currency directly into k rmann s estonian account so he could pay his mortgage without having to convert pounds to euros while k rmann returned the favour by putting pounds into hinrkus uk account . 8 this arrangement led them to start developing a crowdsourced currency exchange service to offer a cheaper alternative to established institutions . 9 in february 2012 their approval with the uk financial regulator was finalised . 10 in april 2013 they stopped letting users purchase bitcoins blaming pressure from other market players . 11 in its first year transactions through transferwise amounted to 10 million eur . 12 in february 2015 more than 300 currency routes were supported . 13 how it works edit usual money transfer services versus peer to peer money transfer from the customer s point of view money transfers with transferwise are not so different from conventional money transfers the customer chooses a recipient and a currency the money to be transferred is taken from his or her account the transferring company charges for the service and some time later the recipient receives the payment in the chosen currency . 14 the difference lies in how transferwise routes the payment . instead of transferring the sender s money directly to the recipient it is redirected to the recipient of an equivalent transfer going in the opposite direction . likewise the recipient of the transfer receives a payment not from the sender initiating the transfer but from the sender of the equivalent transfer . this process avoids costly currency conversion and transfers crossing borders . 15 in 2012 the company s charges were 1 in 2015 raised to 2 2 3 etc. depending on the currency sent or 0.5 % whichever is larger in or of an equivalent amount in the customer s currency . 16 conventional money transfer using british banks usually charge considerably higher fees or require minimum transfer sums and give less competitive rates . 17 transferwise s system has been compared to the hawala money transfer system . 18 19 20 21 investors edit transferwise received seed funding amounting to 1.3 million from a consortium including leading venture firms ia ventures and index ventures ijnr ventures nyppe as well as individual investors such as paypal co founder max levchin former betfair ceo david yu and wonga.com co founder errol damelin . 22 transferwise also received investment after being named one of seedcamp 2011 s winners . 23 in may 2013 it was announced that transferwise had secured a 6 million investment round led by peter thiel s valar ventures . 24 transferwise raised a further 25 million in june 2014 adding richard branson as an investor . 25 in january 2015 it was announced that transferwise had raised a 58 million series c round led by investors andreessen horowitz . 26 in may 2016 transferwise secured a funding of 26 million that raised company s valuation to 1.1 billion . as of may 2016 transferwise has raised a total of 117 million in funding . 27 media attention edit named as one of east london s 20 hottest tech startups by the guardian 28 transferwise has also been picked as a wired uk start up of the week 29 as well as being listed as number 12 in startups.co.uk s list of the top 100 uk start ups of 2012 . 30 transferwise was also named by techcrunch as one of five start ups to watch at seedcamp s 2012 us demo day . 31 in may 2015 transferwise was ranked no. 8 on cnbc s 2015 disruptor 50 list . 32 the tw team are not shy of media attention but have fallen foul of the uk regulator 33 in sep 2016 one of the founders appeared on bbc radio 4 today programme . 34 see also edit clearing finance financial technology midpoint company list of foreign exchange companies references edit transferwise global rank at alexa website 9 october 2014 bryant martin . money may make the world go round but at what cost . bbc . retrieved 1 april 2015 . bryant martin . transferwise valued at 1bn by top silicon valley venture capital fund . the independent . retrieved 1 april 2015 . bryant martin . money may make the world go round but at what cost . bbc . retrieved 1 april 2015 . ajilore joseph . skype s first employee how taavet hinrikus left skype and founded transferwise . yhp . retrieved 1 october 2012 . lytton dickie tom . how transferwise is making international money transfers transparent . hot topics . retrieved 27 january 2015 . griffith gabriella . q & a taavet hinrikus co founder of transferwise which has landed 1.3 million funding . london loves business . retrieved 1 october 2012 . transferwise was born out of frustration . transferwise . retrieved 1 october 2012 . meet the 1bn startup changing how we transfer money overseas . the money cloud blog . retrieved 5 may 2016 . financial services authority approves transferwise without limits . retrieved 13 october 2014 . notice to bitcoin users april 2013 . retrieved 13 october 2014 . bryant martin . peer to peer currency exchange service transferwise handles 13.4 m in its first year . insider . retrieved 1 october 2012 . bryant martin . money may make the world go round but at what cost . bbc . retrieved 1 april 2015 . de ternay guerric . fintech revolution how startups are changing finance . boostcompanies . retrieved 26 july 2014 . price rob . how transferwise works . retrieved 24 february 2015 . ajilore joseph . skype s first employee how taavet hinrikus left skype and founded transferwise . yhp . retrieved 1 october 2012 . shannon laura . how to cut the costs of sending money abroad . retrieved 24 february 2015 . rob price 27 january 2015 . london s 1 billion finance startup transferwise is just like an ancient islamic money transfer system . business insider . retrieved 19 october 2015 . marco della cava 18 august 2014 . london s transferwise aims to disrupt banking . usa today . retrieved 19 october 2015 . bennett voyles 9 september 2015 . online money transfers and the skype of money . forbes india . retrieved 19 october 2015 . leander bindewald 8 july 2015 . you need never use a bank again . here s why . the guardian . retrieved 19 october 2015 . johnson bobbie . transferwise unveils levchin other superstar backers . gigaoam . retrieved 1 october 2012 . transferwise . seedcamp . retrieved 1 october 2012 . o hear steve . p2p currency exchange transferwise raises 6m led by peter thiel s valar ventures with participation from sv angel others . techcrunch . retrieved 12 july 2013 . o hear steve . now backed by sir richard branson transferwise raises 25m for cheaper money transfers . techcrunch . retrieved 9 june 2014 . price rob . london cash startup transferwise is now worth 1 billion . businessinsider . retrieved 31 march 2015 . o hear steve . money transfer company transferwise raises further 26m at 1.1 b valuation . techcrunch . retrieved 2016 05 25 . silver james 8 july 2012 . east london s 20 hottest tech startups . the guardian . startup of the week transferwise . wired . retrieved 1 october 2012 . the 2012 startups 100 revealed . startups . retrieved 1 october 2012 . taylor colleen . 5 startups to watch from seedcamp s 2012 us demo day . techcrunch . retrieved 1 october 2012 . meet the 2015 cnbc disruptor 50 companies . cnbc . retrieved 12 may 2015 . http ftalphaville.ft.com 2016 05 04 2160817 transferwise gets slammed for those ads https transferwise.com gb blog transferwise users move 500 million a month globally external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title transferwise & oldid 741939941 categories electronic funds transferforeign exchange companiesestonian inventions2011 introductionshidden categories engvarb from november 2015use dmy dates from november 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 30 september 2016 at 16 56 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the 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