Mastercard, TransferWise Unveil Expanded Global Partnership

Mastercard and TransferWise, the online money transfer startup, are taking their relationship to the next level.

The credit card giant and the London-based, multibillion-dollar unicorn announced on Thursday (Aug. 20) an “expanded partnership” that will enable TransferWise debit cards to be issued in any world market where the two companies currently do business.

Mastercard first teamed up with TransferWise in 2018 on the company’s launch of its first debit card in Europe. TransferWise has since issued more than a million of its new cards across the world.

TransferWise is poised to begin offering its Mastercard debit card in Japan later this year. TransferWise and Mastercard currently offer the card across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the EEA.

As part of their partnership, the two companies said that TransferWise account holders will now be able to send money in “near-real-time” to Mastercard holders in several European countries, including “Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Croatia and Russia.”

“To date, over one million debit cards have been issued,” said Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of TransferWise, in a press release. “As we think about the next phase in our international expansion, we want to ensure this process stays just as convenient, whether you need a debit card in the U.K. or Japan. Building upon our partnership with Mastercard is important in maintaining that.”

The expanded deal with Mastercard comes just a few weeks after TransferWise emerged from a secondary share sale with a valuation of $5 billion.

TransferWise said it generated more than $1 billion in primary and secondary share sales, with employees and original investors in the firm given the opportunity to sell some of their nearly $320 million stake in the firm.

The nine-year-old unicorn currently has eight million customers and processes $5.2 billion in payments each month.