Fintech in the high-altitude flight: Transferwise is now rated with 5 billion dollars

we Speak with the Co-chief of the British Fintechs Transferwise, Kristo Käärmann, it is not clear that it is in the company of a classic Start-up. The money transfer service provider, was founded in 2011 by two Estonians Taaveet Hinrikus and Käärmann, has become a bit of a grown-up. This has to do with the strong growth, which has put the company in the past almost ten years. Now, Fintech has reached a new milestone: the valuation of 5 billion dollars.

Antonia man hamlet

editor in the economy.

F. A. Z. Twitter

the Fintech, which counts more than 2000 employees and above all for international transfers is known to be the five most valuable Fintechs in Europe. Only the payment service provider Klarna from Sweden and the UK-based financial Start-ups Revolut and Checkout.com are rated, respectively, to $ 5.5 billion higher.

No new borrowing is necessary

sales in the Secondary, also “Secondary Share Sale, called the” firm shares of stock to investors changed only the owner at a higher price. The amount of the shares amounted to 319 million dollars. In an interview with F. A. Z. Käärmann stresses, therefore, that it was a classic round of funding and says: “We have received no money.”

For the past three years, the Fintech and its growth will be financed through the revenue from customers, so Käärmann. With the fees for the remittances due, would you invest indirectly in the company. “We are independent from the Funding,” says Käärmann. Extra money from investors was not necessary. In the fiscal year, from April 2018 until the end of March 2019, the company has generated EUR 196 million – an increase of 53 percent compared to the previous year. The bottom line is 11.3 million euros of the company were in order.

On the question of whether the company could be described even as a Start-up, responds Käärmann that Transferwise is behaving still like a Start-up – will not run just as much money verb. It was still in the “early days of change,” says Käärmann and refers to the business with the foreign transfers. This is from the point of view of the founder, is still too expensive, the fees for the Transfers is too high.

Käärmann and Transferwise have made it to the self-declared goal of making the fees for cross-border Transfers as cheap as possible. Better yet, for free. However, there are also other measurable criteria, the company periodically fair, such as the speed of the Transfers. 28 percent of all Transfers in the last quarter have been implemented in less than 28 seconds.