- TransferWise — a London-based money transfer company — announced that it has raised $319 million in secondary share at a valuation of $5 billion
TransferWise — a London-based money transfer company — announced that it has raised $319 million in secondary share at a valuation of $5 billion. In May 2019, the company was valued at $3.5 billion so this was a $1.5 billion jump.
This funding round offers a way for existing investors to sell shares and bring in new investors. This round was led by existing investors Lone Pine Capital and new investors D1 Capital Partners. Vulcan Capital joined the round. And Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Investments, and LocalGlobe expanded existing holdings.
Launched in 2011, TransferWise is known as one of the fastest-growing financial tech companies. The company has over 8 million customers around the world and it processes £4 billion in cross-border transactions every month.
TransferWise grew in popularity due to its simplicity of international transfers. The company is already profitable and it did not need this investment to grow. The secondary share sale was in response to continued interest from new and existing investors.
“We’ve rejected the Silicon Valley approach of burning cash for hypergrowth, and built a unique model of making a modest profit on every transaction,” said TransferWise chief executive officer Kristo Käärmann in an interview with Reuters.
Since 2017, TransferWise offered multi-currency accounts for customers to store money in 54 currencies. And recently, the company received clearance to offer retail investment services in Britain, according to Reuters.
