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Venture Capital News: TransferWise Secures $280M

2017-11-02
NEW YORK, NY, TransferWise, the international money transfer company, announced an investment round of $280 million today.
The company, which has been profitable since early 2017, is currently developing its Borderless account and focusing on global expansion in the Asian-Pacific and Latin American regions, including launching its service in India and Argentina.

The round was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm IVP, which counts SNAP, Dropbox and Twitter amongst its portfolio, and asset management giant Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI). The deal is Old Mutual's second ever equity investment in a private company.

"TransferWise is one of the most exciting tech companies in the world and we've been watching them from afar for years," said Jules Maltz, general partner, IVP. "We're thrilled to be part of their mission to give everyone a fair deal managing their money across borders. It's rare for us to make an investment in a European company but this opportunity was too good to miss."

Silicon Valley's Sapphire Ventures also joined as a new investor. The round was supported by existing investors Richard Branson, Andreessen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford who all reinvested. To date the company has raised $397 million.

"We have a mission to bring TransferWise to everyone in the world who needs it," said Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder and Chairman, TransferWise. "Today customers send well over $1bn using our platform each month for every conceivable reason - whether to help out relatives back home, pay bills overseas or expand their own business into new territories. But $1bn is just a slice of the market, which means millions of people are still being ripped off by banks and traditional currency brokers every day. It's great to have the support of IVP and OMGI in bringing fair and transparent financial services to APAC and more through our Borderless account."

TransferWise announced its new Borderless account in May, allowing small and medium businesses across the US and Europe to hold money in up to 27 currencies with access to local bank account details. A consumer Borderless account and card is planned for launch in 2018.

TransferWise now serves over 2 million customers and offers 750 currency routes, with further expansion into Asia planned for the next 12 months, including services from India and to Nepal. The company already has hundreds of thousands of customers in APAC, having announced a regional hub office in Singapore this year, with satellite offices in Tokyo and Sydney.

Today TransferWise moves $1.2bn for its customers every month, saving them $1.5m a day, compared to if they had used their bank for the same transaction.

About TransferWise
TransferWise is a new kind of financial company for people and businesses that travel, live and work internationally. It's the fairest, easiest way to manage your money across borders. With a simple money transfer platform and virtual accounts, it makes managing your money quick, easy and painless.

Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, TransferWise launched in 2011. It is one of the world's most successful fintech startups having raised $397m in funding from investors such as IVP, Old Mutual, Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Valar Ventures and Max Levchin of PayPal.

Over a million people use TransferWise to transfer over $1.2 billion every month, saving themselves over $1.5 million every day. www.transferwise.com

About IVP
With $7 billion of committed capital, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 106 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 36-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. IVP investments include such notable companies as AppDynamics (CSCO), Business Insider (Axel Springer), Buddy Media (CRM), Casper, Compass, Datalogix (ORCL), Domo, Dropbox, Dropcam (GOOG), Fleetmatics (FLTX), GitHub, HomeAway (AWAY), The Honest Company, Kayak (PCLN), Klarna, LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), Mindbody (MB), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Omniture (ADBE), Personal Capital, Pure Storage (PSTG), Slack, Snap (SNAP), SoFi, Supercell (SoftBank), Tanium, Twitter (TWTR), Yext (YEXT), ZipRecruiter, and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.
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