TransferWise doubles valuation to $3.5bn as investors eye British fintech sector

UK-based TransferWise has raised $292m, doubling the value of the international payments firm to $3.5bn, in a sign that investor appetite is growing for British fintech companies.

The London-headquartered fintech firm, backed by Sir Richard Branson, received a cash injection in a round led by investors including Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital and Vitruvian Partners in secondary funding.

Current investors Andreessen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford expanded their holdings in the firm, while asset management firm BlackRock also provided investment, taking the total money raised by TransferWise to $689m.

TransferWise offers customers cheap exchange rates to send money abroad by processing international payments through two local transfers rather than a single, pricier international payment.

Since its founding in 2011, the company has built a customer base of over 5m people, handling a transaction volume of $5.1bn per month across its 12 global offices. The company plans to go on a hiring spree in the next 12 months and take on 750 new people.

According to the fintech firm’s chief executive and co-founder Kristo Käärmann, “this is still early morning for TransferWise”.

“TransferWise is experiencing phenomenal growth and this investment is testament to that,” said Kristo Käärmann, chief executive and co-founder of the fintech company.

“We don’t need to raise funds to continue on this trajectory, but we’re humbled by the persistent level of interest.”

The investment comes at a time when British fintech firms have been attracting significant interest, despite the uncertainties around their ability to offer services in Europe post-Brexit.

Last month, it emerged that British challenger bank Monzo was planning to raise $127m in funding having already attracted $108m last October. Earlier this year, US investment bank Goldman Sachs led a $57m round in Nutmeg, a British firm that manages customer investments.

Taavet Hinrikus, the other co-founder of TransferWise, has previously told The Telegraph that Britain’s departure from the EU would have “zero” impact on the company’s operations.