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TransferWise, the London-headquartered money transfer company, has started the journey to become a public entity.
London startup starts IPO process
TransferWise selected Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as lead bankers for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) that could happen this year. The two banks will act as advisors and underwriters for the IPO. The news was first reported by Sky News.
For starters, TransferWise is a fast-growing fintech company that was started in 2010 to simplify global money transfer.
The company does that by showing customers the exact exchange rate used during the transaction. Traditional companies like banks make a substantial amount of revenue through the exchange-rate mark-up.
Its money transfer services are also usually relatively cheaper than those offered by other companies. That’s partly because the firm has local bank accounts that it uses to fulfil transactions.
The simplicity of its mobile apps and web platforms, speed, and low cost have attracted more than 8 million customers. It also supports 54 currencies across 2,500 currency routes.
TransferWise has also expanded its business. Most notably, it launched a relatively popular Borderless account.
$5 billion valuation
In the past few years, the company has raised millions of dollars from investors. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised more than $1.1 billion from venture firms. In its most recent secondary shares offering, the company was valued at more than $5 billion. This made it one of the most valuable tech companies in the UK. Last year, the CEO and founder said:
“We’ve been funded exclusively by our customers for the last few years and we didn’t need to raise external funding for the company. This secondary round provides an opportunity for new investors to come in, alongside rewarding the investors and employees who’ve helped us succeed so far.”
Some of the most notable early investors in TransferWise are Bailie Gifford, Fidelity, Latitude, and Lone Pine Capital.
The IPO chatter comes a few weeks after we reported that WorldRemit was also considering going public. Its valuation will be in the $1.5 billion and $2 billion range.
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