CurrencyFair

Last updated
CurrencyFair
CurrencyFair Logo.svg
Founded2009
HeadquartersDublin,
Ireland
No. of locationsDublin, Ireland : Newcastle, Australia : Singapore : Hong Kong
Area servedAustralia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand.
Founder(s) Brett Meyers, Jonathan Potter, Sean Barrett and David Christian
Services Financial Services
Employees80+ (Sep 2020)[ citation needed ]
URL currencyfair.com
Launched2009;15 years ago (2009)

CurrencyFair is an online currency exchange platform that until 2023 offered a peer-to-peer currency exchange service. CurrencyFair is headquartered in Ireland and also has employees in the UK, Australia, Greece, Hong Kong, Poland and Singapore. The company has established working sectors in Newcastle (UK), New South Wales (Australia), Singapore and Hong Kong. CurrencyFair provides international money transfers in 20 global currencies. [1]

Contents

History

CurrencyFair was established in April 2009 by co-founders Brett Meyers, [2] [3] Jonathan Potter, Sean Barrett and David Christian. It was described by The Guardian as a marketplace where money is never exchanged across borders, rather staying in the country of origin, thereby avoiding bank conversion fees. Customers would have one currency but need funds in another. They would be "matched" with someone with a corresponding need – someone who has that currency but needs the other. [4] This service is no longer offered.

The company was officially "launched" in December 2013 by then Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny. [5] At the time, 30 new jobs were announced. [5]

In early 2014 CurrencyFair became the first platform in the world to break the $1 billion (€916 million) barrier in money-matching transfers and in April 2017 CurrencyFair revamped their platform to enable SMEs to use the service. [6]

CurrencyFair announced at the Web Summit in Lisbon in 2016 that it had raised €8 million in funding. [7] A mobile app was launched in September 2015. [8]

As of August 2017, the company announced it had traded over €5 billion. [9] By July 2018, this had reputedly increased to over €7 billion. [10]

In August 2018, the company announced a €20 million investment plan into the Asian market and the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Convoy Payments. [11] [12]

In October 2019, CurrencyFair announced its sponsorship of the 2019 Asian Gaelic Games, with a launch event in Croke Park. [13]

In December 2019, the company completed a partnership agreement with Chinese online trade network Buy-World to launch its marketplace payment product. [14]

In 2023, CurrencyFair abandoned its core product of peer to peer currency exchange, reduced the number of currencies available to UK customers to three and effectively became a standard FX platform with no unique features and a (very) limited currency list.

See also

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References

  1. Beugge, Charlotte (13 November 2015). "Currency transfer: how to make the most of your money". Telegraph. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  2. "Entrepreneur Interviews: Brett Meyers, CEO, CurrencyFair". Forbes . Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  3. "Currency Fair: the P2P Marketplace to Exchange Currency on your Terms [INTERVIEW]". VisibleBanking.com. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  4. "Don't fancy the currency exchange rate? Tough. Now you can no longer set your own". The Guardian. 2 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-03.
  5. 1 2 Roisin Burke – 12 December 2013 (2013-12-12). "Kenny announces 30 new tech jobs at CurrencyFair". Independent.ie. Retrieved 2014-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. Charlie Taylor. "CurrencyFair 'scaling to profitability' as full-year losses mount". The Irish Times . Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  7. Web Summit: CurrencyFair raises €8m in funding, Irish Times, 9 November 2016, retrieved 22 December 2017
  8. CurrencyFair unveils new peer to peer currency exchange app, Irish Times, 24 September 2015, retrieved 22 December 2017
  9. A CurrencyFair Milestone – 5 Billion Traded, CurrencyFair, 10 August 2017, retrieved 8 November 2017
  10. Another Milestone – 7 Billion Euro Traded, CurrencyFair, 25 July 2018, retrieved 25 July 2018
  11. CurrencyFair secures new backers for €20m growth plan, Independent.ie, 8 August 2018, retrieved 8 August 2018
  12. "Currencyfair buys Chinese operation". thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-08-09.
  13. Sean Moran. "Close season or not, there's no slowing down for Jack McCaffrey". The Irish Times . Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  14. "China pact hands CurrencyFair Asia boost". Independent.ie. Retrieved 2019-12-09.