TransferWise Hits $1.6 Billion in Transfers | Overhauls System to Take Banks Revenue

After hitting its £1bn (1.6billion) in transfers, and raising $25m from Sir Richard Branson and others , TransferWise is going for the banks revenue, moving beyond the ‘early adopter phase’.

TransferWise today has redesigned its website, giving it a more its users  a streamlined and more intuitive user experience, a new logo, total redesign of its iOS 8 app for iPhone 6 and 6+ and iPad and a touch-ID login and deep integration with the iPhone contacts book.

The firm has bought its first primetime TV advert to air nationally in the UK from today.

According to Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, “The retail banking industry – particularly in the UK – is dominated by a handful of major players. This poses a huge challenge for fintech companies like us, looking to attract consumers who’ve grown up with the same few brand names.  We believe that just being a little better isn’t enough, so we strive to offer something that’s  ten times easier, faster and better than the banks to make mainstream consumers aware of alternative finance providers like us.That’s why we’ve invested in the new product, brand and TV ad that we’re launching today.”

Launched early in 2011, TransferWise has attracted $33m from some of the world’s leading investors. Most recently this includes Richard Branson and Facebook’s first outside investor and co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel. TransferWise was his first Valar Ventures investment in Europe. Other investors include SV Angel, fellow PayPal founder, Max Levchin, IA Ventures, Index Ventures, TAG (Robin Klein and Saul Klein), Seedcamp, Betfair’s former CEO David Yu, and the owner of Le Monde Xavier Niel (via Kima Ventures).

The firm aims to make international money transfers more affordable than they are even when banks and brokers claim there are ‘no fees’.  Many banks take as much as 5 percent of the money being sent but TransferWise wants to be the new alternative that allows people to transfer money abroad at a lower cost than ever before. It uses technology developed by the people who built Skype and PayPal to remove all the fees the foreign exchange industry has kept hidden for decades. Customers have already moved more than £1bn using the platform – an approach that has put over £45m back in their pockets.

 TransferWise supports currency transfers between euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Polish zloty, Turkish lira, Romania leu, Bulgarian lev, Georgian lari, Hungarian forint, Danish, Swedish, Czech, Norwegian krone and US Dollar. It also supports transfers from these currencies to Indian rupee, Australian, Singaporean, Hong Kong, and New Zealand dollar. Transfers from these currencies to all other supported currencies and many other routes are coming soon.

The platform can be used by expats, freelancers, pensioners and Small and medium-sized businesses.