The operationally profitable fintech unicorn TransferWise just announced the launch of its borderless banking account for businesses. This gives companies a new way to manage their money internationally as easily as if they were a local business wherever they might be.
The borderless account is initially available to businesses, sole traders and freelancers in the UK and Europe. Phased rollout begins in the US in June with global rollout planned for later in 2017. TransferWise will launch the borderless account and card for consumers later this year.
Over a million people use TransferWise to move over €1 billion every month, saving over €1.5 million every day with TransferWise. The young company with Estonian roots now employs 700 people globally in nine offices and its headquarters in London. last month Transferwise opened its APAC hub in Singapore.
Transferwise CEO Taavet Hinrikus stated: “We’re building one of the few new global financial services brands that are coming out now. With the unique platform we’ve built, we’re looking forward to creating a new kind of financial services for the future.”
The new Borderless Account of Transferwise means businesses can make payments and send money around the world easily, quickly and cheaply. It’s like having a local account in any country but without the hassle.
- There are no set up fees or monthly charges and it costs nothing to receive payments.
- When moving money across currencies, there’s a small transparent charge and all transfers are made at the real mid-market exchange rate.
- Businesses can keep money in 15 different currencies and have local account numbers for the UK, the eurozone and the US.
- Local account numbers for Australia, Canada and other countries as well as more currencies will be added later this year.
TransferWise CEO Hinrikus further explained: “Business banking is notoriously expensive and difficult to set up and manage, even alternatives like PayPal are expensive for small businesses. It’s even worse when you’re doing business internationally: there are high fees and exchange rate mark-ups every time that a business is paid by a client or customer abroad, or when they organise their funds across country borders. Based on what we heard from our customers, we thought TransferWise could do something to help. So we’ve created the Borderless account. It’s an account that’s not constrained by country or currencies and gives businesses more freedom and control.”
Let’s hope this type of borderless account will be accepted by the leading crowdfunding sites as well.
This would be a big incentive for a lot of young european innovators and digital nomads.