SME Profile: Transferwise

INSEAD MBA graduate Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann set-up Transferwise in 2011 to help people send money abroad without the fees attached to bank transfers. In July, BusinessBecause got a first-hand account from an MBA from the London Business School that used the service to send money back home to Cyprus.

 

They hire MBAs and encourage graduates to apply now and join their exciting new business venture. With 40 people currently employed, and the business growing at over 20 per cent a month, there is surely room for more MBAs to join the company across Europe.

 

TransferWise is a venture-capital-backed, early-stage business which is growing at over 20 per cent a month at the moment. Starting out with just one employee in March 2011, they now have 40 people working for the company across Europe.





Being a start-up that offers peer-to-peer international money transfers, they operate in the financial technology (or fintech) sector.



 

TransferWise are an international money transfer service, allowing regular people to access the real, mid-market exchange rate. They do this using peer-to-peer technology that cuts out traditional bank fees altogether. Banks and currency brokers charge a lot for foreign money transfers – even when they claim there are ‘no fees’. They don’t. Customers pay a tiny and fully transparent service charge to transfer their money with TransferWise, which is clearly laid out from the outset rather than hidden within the exchange rate.



 

TransferWise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann in March 2011.

Taavet was Skype’s director of strategy until 2008, starting as its first-ever employee. He helped take the business from an idea on the back of a napkin to a multi-million-user business. After Skype was sold to Microsoft, Taavet left the firm and became an angel investor. His investments include Tweetdeck, Mendeley, OMGPOP, Betaworks and Farmeron. He uses these experiences to push forward TransferWise’s marketing, product development, PR and investor relations.



 

Kristo was a management consultant to various banks for nearly a decade. At Deloitte Consulting and, earlier, with PwC, he worked with European banks and insurers to help bring their processes and systems into the 21st century. He uses these experiences to drive TransferWise’s operations, technology and development.



 

TransferWise was born out of frustration and came about as a solution to a problem that Taavet and Kristo faced when they were both living as expats in London.

Taavet was working for Skype in Estonia at the time and was paid in Euros but lived in London - and thus most of his spending was in Sterling. Kristo also lived in London, but while he was paid in Sterling he had a mortgage to pay in Euros back in Tallinn. As they had the opposite currency requirements they started exchanging money amongst themselves - Taavet paid Kristo’s mortgage in Tallinn, and Kristo gave Taavet pounds back which he could spend on his living in London. They exchanged money at the mid-market rate (that’s the rate you see in the papers, not the inflated one you’ll be offered by the bank) and their system also meant that they managed to escape the 5% fee that banks charge you when transferring money abroad.



 

Soon enough they had managed to save thousands of pounds that would otherwise have been spent on banking fees. That’s how the idea for a money transfer start-up was born, and it’s great to be able to say that TransferWise now helps people all over the world who face similar situations.

 

They already cover 29 countries and well over 60 currency routes. This includes most of Europe and we also accept conversions into Australian and Canadian dollars and conversions from American, Canadian and Australian dollars as SWIFT payments. They are hoping to launch in another dozen markets this year.



 

One of their founders, Taavet Hinrikus, holds an MBA from INSEAD, as do a few others on the staff.

 

As a start-up that’s growing at a fast pace they're always hiring and would love to see a few more MBA grads on the team - have a look at their Careers Page to see if there’s anything of interest to you.



 


For general job enquiries contact jobs@transferwise.com.



 

Since its launch in March 2011 TransferWise has transferred more than £125 million worth of customer money, and more than half of that has been in the past six months. This has effectively saved customers more than £5 million in banking fees.