London-based FinTech firm TransferWise has announced the closure of a $280 million Series E funding round, as it prepares to launch in a number of Asian markets.
US asset management firm Old Mutual Global Investors and Silicon Valley venture capital firm IVP led the funding round, marking only the second ever time that OMGI has made an equity investment in a private company. Sapphire Ventures, Mitsui & Co, and World Innovation Lab also joined the funding round as new investors.
Previous backers of TransferWise, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and UK asset manager Baillie Gifford, as well as billionaire Richard Branson, reinvested as part of the fundraising.
The company, which recently set up a regional hub in Singapore, estimates it will double its headcount from 800 now over the next 18 months. It currently serves more than two million customers with more than 750 currency routes, and plans to expand to India, as well as Argentina, Chile and Peru in the coming months.
The latest funding brings the total invested in TransferWise to $397 million since 2011, and now values the company at $1.6 billion – $500 million more than the company’s valuation during its last funding round in May 2016.
Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, said: “We ended up with so much demand that we gave early investors the chance to sell a small portion of their shares.” He then said that there is “a very high likelihood of being a public company. That is still quite a number of years away. There’s no pressure for doing it.”
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