TransferWise announces $280m investment round as company focuses on new products and APAC expansion

Old Mutual Global Investors and venture capital firm IVP lead global round

London, UK, November 2, 2017 TransferWise, the international money transfer platform, announced an investment round of $280 million today. The company, which has been profitable since early 2017, is currently developing its Borderless account and focusing on global expansion, particularly APAC. This includes future plans to launch a service in India.

The round was led by asset management giant Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI) which invested via funds managed by its small and mid cap UK equities desk, and IVP, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. IVP counts SNAP, Dropbox and Twitter amongst its portfolio. The deal is OMGI's second ever equity investment in a private company, after The Hut Group earlier this year.

Silicon Valley's Sapphire Ventures, Japanese company Mitsui & Co, and US-Japan venture firm World Innovation Lab also joined as new investors. The round was supported by existing investors Richard Branson, Andreessen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford who all reinvested. To date the company has raised $397 million.

TransferWise announced its new Borderless account in May, allowing small and medium businesses across the US and Europe to hold money in up to 28 currencies with access to local bank account details. A consumer Borderless account and card is planned for launch in the UK and Europe in 2018.

TransferWise now serves over 2 million customers and offers 750 currency routes. In October the company launched its Borderless account in Australia, with further expansion across APAC planned. The company already has hundreds of thousands of customers in the region, having announced a hub office in Singapore this year, with satellite offices in Tokyo and Sydney.

Jules Maltz, General Partner, IVP said: TransferWise is one of the most exciting tech companies in the world and we've been watching them from afar for years. We're thrilled to be part of their mission to give everyone a fair deal managing their money across borders. It's rare for us to make an investment in a European company but this opportunity was too good to miss.

Richard Watts, Fund Manager, Old Mutual UK Mid Cap Fund, OMGI adds: Our team looks to invest in companies with the potential to significantly disrupt an industry. TransferWise, with its innovative product and customer-centric service, offers people a cheaper way to send money and is rapidly gaining market share from the traditional money transfer providers. The opportunity to invest now in a private company, with a hugely exciting global growth story, is particularly compelling and we believe this holding will benefit investors in the funds we manage.

Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder and Chairman, TransferWise said: We have a mission to bring TransferWise to everyone in the world who needs it. Today customers send well over a billion pounds using our platform each month for every conceivable reason whether to help out relatives back home, pay bills overseas or expand their own business into new territories. But £1bn is just a slice of the market, which means millions of people are still being ripped off by banks and traditional currency brokers every day. It's great to have the support of Old Mutual Global Investors and IVP in bringing fair and transparent financial services to more people through our Borderless account.

Today TransferWise moves £1bn for its customers every month, saving them £1.5m a day, compared to if they had used their bank for the same transaction.

About TransferWise

TransferWise is a new kind of financial company for people and businesses that travel, live and work internationally. It's the fairest, easiest way to manage your money across borders. With a simple money transfer platform and virtual accounts, it makes managing your money quick, easy and painless.

Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo K rmann, TransferWise launched in 2011. It is one of the world's most successful fintech startups having raised $397m from investors such as IVP, Old Mutual, Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Valar Ventures and Max Levchin of PayPal.

Two million people use TransferWise to transfer over £1 billion every month, saving themselves over £1.5 million every day. www.transferwise.com

About IVP

With $7 billion of committed capital, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 106 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 36-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. IVP investments include such notable companies as AppDynamics (CSCO), Business Insider (Axel Springer), Buddy Media (CRM), Casper, Compass, Datalogix (ORCL), Domo, Dropbox, Dropcam (GOOG), Fleetmatics (FLTX), GitHub, HomeAway (AWAY), The Honest Company, Kayak (PCLN), Klarna, LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), Mindbody (MB), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Omniture (ADBE), Personal Capital, Pure Storage (PSTG), Slack, Snap (SNAP), SoFi, Supercell (SoftBank), Tanium, Twitter (TWTR), Yext (YEXT), ZipRecruiter, and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.

About OMGI

Old Mutual Global Investors has grown strongly since its creation in August 2012 and now has assets under management of £36.6 billion (as at 30 June 2017). The team consists of 292 industry professionals, including a team of 64 investment professionals. As part of Old Mutual Group it has a strong financial parent to support the activation of its business strategy. Old Mutual Global Investors is the asset management division of Old Mutual Wealth. To find out more information plea

LINK:	https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/transferwise-announces-280m-inv...
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