D1, Lone Pine et al. invest $319m in Transferwise

Katharine Hidalgo
29 July 2020

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D1 Capital Partners and Lone Pine Capital, joined by other investors, have acquired $319m worth of shares in a secondary share sale that values payments company Transferwise at $5bn.

New investor D1 Capital Partners and existing shareholder Lone Pine Capital lead the round, while existing investors Baillie Gifford, funds managed by Fidelity International and LocalGlobe expanded their holdings. New investor Vulcan Capital also acquired shares.

Transferwise employees and undisclosed shareholders sold some of their holdings in the sale.

The valuation of $5bn represents an uplift of 43% since May 2019. During the Covid-19 pandemic, TransferWise has seen overall transfer volumes continuing to grow, according to a statement.

Previous funding
Index Ventures, IA, Kima and Seedcamp invested $1.3m in the first round of funding for TransferWise in April 2012. The following year, Valar led a $6m series-B round for the company, with Index and Kima also taking part in the round. In June 2014, Index, IA and Kima took part in a $25m round for TransferWise.

Andreessen Horowitz led a $58m series-C round in January 2015, with the aim of boosting its international expansion.

New and existing investors, including IVP and Sapphire Ventures, took part in a $280m series-E fundraising round in November 2017.

Company
Founded in 2011, TransferWise is a London-based international money transfer service. It was developed by the founders of Skype and PayPal, and its technology is intended to remove fees that it says have traditionally been hidden in exchange rates. It employs more than 2,200 people across 14 global offices.

People
D1 Capital Partners - Teddy Gleser (partner).
Transferwise - Kristo Käärmann (CEO, co-founder).