Finally, we’re free to move our money.
No hidden fees. No headache.
TransferWise was born of frustration
Sending money abroad is deceptively expensive, thanks to the hidden fees we’ve all been forced to pay. The banks claim “free money transfers”, “0% commission.” Sounds like money’s already flowing freely, but far from it. It’s pure propaganda.
TransferWise removes all the wrongness, letting people send money abroad at the lowest possible true cost. Using only real exchange rates and tiny not-hidden-fees. Headaches averted, and a revolution sparked.
How it happened
Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann are two friends who believe that money is meant to flow freely. But in the absence of a global currency, it doesn’t. An epiphany saved them thousands of pounds.
Taavet was paid in euros, but living in London. Kristo was paid in pounds, but had a mortgage in euros and often spent time in Belgium. They devised a simple scheme. Each month the pair checked that day’s mid-market rate on Reuters to find a fair exchange rate. Kristo put pounds into Taavet’s UK bank account, and Taavet topped up his friend’s Belgian account with euros. Both got the currency they needed, and neither paid a cent in bank fees.
“There must be others like us," the epiphany went.
And the rest is TransferWise.
The founders
Kristo Käärmann
Taavet Hinrikus
Customer Stories
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Wendi Li. Proud globetrotter
Sends money to Germany and the US
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Brynne H, moveguides.com
Lives in London, makes personal and business transfers
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Damien A, Entrepreneur
Transfers money between the UK and France
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Geoff G.
Happily retired, with a 2nd home in France
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Celso Pinto, gosimpletax.com
Lives in London, sends money to Portugal and the US
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Alexandra Thiebaut
Lives in London, sends money back to France
Careers
Knab Revolutionaries Needed
Knab is bank spelled rightwards. We like this word because it stands for things flipped on their head and finally done properly. Things like a $100 billion industry that’s thrived on confusion and deception for way too long. To join the team you need to have knab flowing through your veins.
See all our open positionsInvestors
TransferWise is backed by a fantastic team of smart investors who believe that there’s a dire need for innovation in financial services. In addition to the great institutional investors below, we’re supported by private individuals who founded or are building PayPal, Skype, Betfair, Simple.com and others.
| Valar Ventures is an internationally-focused venture capital firm backed by Peter Thiel. Based in San Francisco, Valar invests exclusively in companies outside of the United States. Valar believes that over the next decade an increasing number of transformative technology companies will be started outside of the US, and that the founders of those companies will benefit from having a US partner that understands their unique challenges and opportunities and can help them access US networks. | IA Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in companies creating competitive advantage through data. They focus on businesses that use cutting-edge technology to manage and extract value from today's massive, occasionally unstructured, often real-time datasets. | Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology ventures. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams both in the life science and information technology sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. |
| Kima Ventures is a French-based venture capital fund that focuses on investments in early stage technology companies globally. Kima Ventures was founded by European entrepreneurs, Xavier Niel, the founder of French communications services providers Iliad and Free, and Jeremie Berrebi. | Seedcamp is an early stage mentoring and investment program that engages startups through monthly Seedcamp Events, where entrepreneurs present their companies, network, receive mentoring, and compete for investment by Seedcamp. Each year Seedcamp invests in about 20 companies this way. |
