In its second partnership of 2016, TransferWise has teamed up with Berlin-based Number26, a mobile-first bank. Through the collaboration, TransferWise will power an international money-transfer option to Number26 account holders.
The functionality is already in place with updated Number26 apps available for both iOS and Android.
“We’re very excited that Number26 customers can now access the TransferWise experience without leaving their banking app,” TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus said. “This is a great step toward consumers having a wider choice of financial service providers and getting the best service for them.”
For now, Number26 customers will be able to transfer euros into eight different currencies including the U.S. dollar, British pounds, Swiss francs, Indian rupees, Australian dollars, Polish zloty, Swedish krona, and Hungarian forints; additional currencies are on the way.
Quoted in VentureBeat, Number26 co-founder and CEO Valentin Stalf sees this partnership with “one of the world’s best fintechs” as part of his strategy of “creating a fintech hub inside the Number26 app.” Number26 is a “full-fledged” bank account with Wirecard Bank, and features “all benefits and securities of a German bank account.” The account can be set up in just eight minutes, and comes with a free Number26 MasterCard debit card accepted at 450,000 locations in Germany and 36 million locations around the world. The Number26 app provides balance and transaction information, as well as real-time notification of account activity.
Number26 also features Cash26, a technology that allows customers to use their mobile devices to withdraw or deposit cash at any one of the company’s 6,000 partners.
The Number26 news comes a few weeks after TransferWise announced its first bank partnership, teaming up with the largest domestic bank in Estonia, LHV. The partnership also marked the launch of TransferWise’s FinTech API, which the company says will enable it to work with “additional modern banks, messaging applications, marketplaces, and mobile carriers.”
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in London, TransferWise demoed its platform at FinovateEurope 2013.