One of the challenges of having a global workforce is ensuring that all workers are paid promptly in their local currencies. We learned last week that crowdfunding platform Seedrs has found a solution to this problem in the form of a new partnership with international money transfer innovator and FinovateEurope alum, TransferWise.
TransferWise will process payments for Seedrs at the real exchange rate directly from Reuters using its batch payments tool. This option enables businesses to settle international and domestic payroll with one click, sending up to 1,000 payments at a time directly to payees’ accounts. Businesses benefit from TransferWise’s competitive exchange rates and workers appreciate payments that arrive within 1 to 2 days.
The speed of TransferWise’s international payments was among the reasons why one current client, Travelopo, uses the company’s batch payment tool. Speaking for the company, which formerly transferred millions via a well-known international bank, Travelopo founder and CEO Roger Fenton explained that faster payments and even a small savings in the exchange rate can make a significant difference over time. “As an international business, we settle invoices in sterling and euro – so the cost can hit us or our supplies,” Fenton said. “With TransferWise, everyone is better off.”
The new partnership with Seedrs comes in the wake of news that TransferWise has opened up its borderless account beyond business users. Launched for business customers in the spring of 2017, TransferWise announced that it would roll out the multi-currency accounts to consumers in the first quarter of this year. As for Seedrs, the crowdfunding firm enters 2018 having recorded what the company called “our most successful year to date” in 2017, earning accolades from the British Small Business Awards as Alternative Finance Platform of the Year, and providing funding to companies like Finovate alum Revolut.
Founded in 2010, London-based TransferWise demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013. The company raised $280 million in funding back in November in a Series E round led by Old Mutual Global Investors and VC firm IVP. The investment boosted the TransferWise’s total capital to more than $396 million and gave the firm an estimated valuation of $1.6 billion.