WeSwap

WeSwap
Type of site
 Private
Available in Multilingual
Founded March 3, 2011 (2011-03-03)
Headquarters London, England
Founder(s) Jared Jesner, Simon Sacerdoti
Services Travel money
Employees 40+ (2015)
Website www.weswap.com
Registration Yes
Launched July 2013 (2013-07)
Current status Active

WeSwap is a peer-to-peer currency exchange platform.[1] WeSwap matches travellers heading in opposite directions and swaps their travel money directly.[2] The London-based startup was launched in 2013 by Jared Jesner and Simon Sacerdoti and currently supports 18 different currencies around the world.[3]

History

The WeSwap idea first stemmed from founder Jared Jesner’s experiences as a city trader at JP Morgan:[4] "I saw first hand the amazing rates that banks can change money at... but there was no way for consumers to access that same rate.".[5] He went on to work for Shell, where his exposure to the world of payments inspired the idea to partner with a prepaid card provider as the delivery mechanism for the service.[6] At Shell he was also introduced to corporate finance adviser Simon Sacerdoti, whose experience enabled them to start commercialising the idea and together they co-founded the service.[7] At launch, the service supported 6 currencies.[8] In 2014, WeSwap was serving customers from across 10 European countries and supported 18 currencies.[3] In March 2018, WeSwap launched the ability to spend globally, anywhere the Mastercard symbol is accepted. This is alongside continuing to support 18 swappable currencies.

Investors

Seed funding came from a mixture of high net worth angel investors and super angels.,[4] including LoveFilm and Zoopla co-founder Alex Chesterman.[9] In October 2014, one year after launching, WeSwap secured another £4.5M in Series A funding.[10] This was led and structured by IW Capital and supported by EC1 Capital along with the investors who had helped to raise £1.2M in seed funds.[11]

Awards

In January 2015, WeSwap won the 'Innovation in Travel Award' at the Globe Travel Awards.[12] Commercial director of Travelport, Paul Broughton, who presented the trophy said: "Our winner showed the most potential for disrupting its marketplace and changing how business is done." [2] In March 2018 WeSwap won the Best Travel Money Provider at the British Bank Awards.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Currency exchange goes social with WeSwap's person-to-person service". Telegraph.co.uk. 14 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 "WeSwap seeks industry partners for pioneering peer-to-peer currency exchange". travolution.com.
  3. 1 2 "WeSwap review: crowdsourcing your travel currency". ShinyShiny.
  4. 1 2 Haymarket Business Interactive. "'Failure is good. It's a great way to learn' - Jared Jesner, WeSwap". managementtoday.co.uk.
  5. ↑ "Currency exchange rates slashed with WeSwap - SME case studies - Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk. 2 June 2014.
  6. ↑ "The Ones to Watch: Jared Jesner and Simon Sacerdoti, WeSwap (peer-to-peer currency swapping)". BusinessZone.
  7. ↑ "Startup pitch: WeSwap aims to disrupt the currency exchange market with P2P platform". Tnooz.
  8. ↑ "New take on currency exchange with person to person online service". expatsblog.com.
  9. ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6b4fe5a0-bc21-11e4-b6ec-00144feab7de.html#axzz3hGoJDJny
  10. ↑ "Peer-to-peer money exchange service WeSwap raises $7.5m". Startups.co.uk: Starting a business advice and business ideas.
  11. ↑ "WeSwap raises £4.5m for peer-to-peer currency exchange". Wired UK.
  12. ↑ "Winners  :: Globe Travel Awards 2015". globetravelawards.co.uk.
  13. ↑ People, Smart Money. "British Bank Awards 2018: Winners". Smart Money People. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.