TransferWise Launches Borderless Account

TransferWise, a London FinTech startup, is making a push beyond international money transfers by rolling out a new foreign exchange account.

According to a report in Bloomberg News, the Borderless account will enable small businesses, including individual freelancers, to hold as many as 15 different currencies in the account and also link to a separate bank account in the U.K., U.S. and Europe. By doing that, customers can receive and pay funds in those areas without having to pay international transfer and foreign exchange fees.

“We really think we have the opportunity to become a new kind of financial institution,” Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Taavet Hinrikus said in an interview with Bloomberg. He said the company has long been looking into expanding into other financial services markets.

The company, which has landed $116 million in venture capital funding and as of last May had a valuation of $1.1 billion, has been profitable since the beginning of this year, the executive told Bloomberg. He wouldn’t quantify how much the startup has made.

“We are continuing to invest in the business and to hire people,” he told Bloomberg. “So having a profit target is not something we want to concentrate on.”

TransferWise has a head count of around 700 people across the globe and told Bloomberg it currently processes one billion pounds worth of transactions every month. What’s more, the company said it’s on track to have around 100 million pounds in revenue in 2017. Bloomberg noted TransferWise plans to charge between 0.5 percent and 1 percent for moving money between different currencies in the new account or for making a payment in a different currency.

TransferWise said it will launch the account for customers in U.K., the European Economic Area, Switzerland, India, Pakistan and the Channel Islands. It will come out globally later in 2017, starting with the U.S. “in a couple of weeks.”