CurrencyFair, one of the world’s leading peer-to-peer currency exchange marketplaces, has today announced the completion of an €8 million funding round lead by existing investors Octopus Ventures and Frontline Ventures. Earlier this year, CurrencyFair already secured €8 million in funding. In total, the Dublin-based company now raised more than €30 million in venture capital.
CurrencyFair has today also announced the appointment of Paul Byrne as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Ruth Fletcher has also agreed to join CurrencyFair as Chief Financial Officer and Sylvie McDermott has joined as Chief Product Officer. Founder Brett Meyers becomes Chief Strategy Officer for the newly expanded leadership team.
Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Brett Meyers commented: “I am delighted that, after an extensive recruitment process that we began in 2015, CurrencyFair now has a complete, highly experienced and high-calibre management team in place that will drive us all forward in the next phase of our growth. There is a huge opportunity for our unique service in a global market for both consumers and SMEs, and we are now primed to take advantage of that.”
Paul Byrne, who has over 15 years of experience as CEO of three successful software businesses is joining the company as the new CEO. Previously Paul was CEO and owner of Trintech, where he launched and grew Cadency, a SaaS financial product to nearly 200,000 paid users globally over 4 years prior to selling the company in 2015 and relocating full time to Ireland. Prior to Cadency, he started, and then sold, Concuity, a healthcare software company, whose revenue grew 10-fold over 2 years.
Speaking on his appointment as CurrencyFair’s CEO, Paul said: “CurrencyFair demonstrated the scalability and power of its unique peer-to-peer currency exchange during the Brexit result volatility, where CurrencyFair stayed open while many major competitors closed. Continued global currency volatility, as the US election result just demonstrated, will drive continued growth for CurrencyFair as consumers and businesses take a more proactive role in seeking more transparent lower cost currency exchange alternatives.”
Previously to joining CurrencyFair, Ruth Fletcher co-led the spinout of Fenergo from Ergo and the subsequent recapitalisation by Insight Venture Partners and Aquiline Capital Partners for €85 million in 2015. With specific experience in scaling high-growth international software business from startup to maturity, Ruth will drive financial development for CurrencyFair.
Sylvie McDermott, who has been appointed as the new Chief Product Officer, brings over 16 years of leadership and product strategy experience in a B2C & B2B environment to the position. Formally Group Product Director at Betfair, Sylvie has developed deep domain expertise in mobile and online product development and will lead a customer driven approach to product strategy for CurrencyFair.
These three new key hires build upon the appointment of Nils Andén as Chief Marketing Officer in March, who, prior to joining CurrencyFair, was CMO of Unibet Group PLC, one of Europe’s biggest online gambling operators. With this new team and its innovative technology, CurrencyFair is in a good position to capitalise on the rapidly growing currency exchange market.
Launched in 2010, CurrencyFair was the first online peer-to-peer currency exchange marketplace in the world and became the first platform to break the $1 billion barrier in money-matching transfers, cementing its position as a leader in peer-to-peer international transfer services. CurrencyFair’s average fee is currently 0.35%, compared to rates from 2% to 5% at PayPal, Stripe, VISA and larger banking institutions.
