UK-based money transfer start-up TransferWise has become Europe鈥檚 most valuable FinTech after its latest investment round.
The new valuation follows a statement from the company revealing it has raised $292 million, bumping its valuation to $3.5 billion in total.
The London company, cofounded by chairman Taavet Hinikus and CEO Kristo K盲盲rmann, saw no new shares issued or capital raised. Instead the growing company has provided an opportunity for early investors and employees to sell some of their stock to newer investors.
Vitruvian Partners, Lone Pine and Lead Edge bought stakes in unicorn in a secondary share sale.
With more than 1,600 employees worldwide and another 750 hires planned in the next 12 months, the company鈥檚 growth has seen it post a net profit of 拢6.2 million in the year ending March 2018 and almost double revenue to 拢117 million.
The peer-to-peer international money transfer platform has raised $480 million in its past eight years. It now serves 5m customers worldwide, processing 拢4bn every month.
Hinrikus said the new valuation and the company鈥檚 success did not necessarily signal plans for an IPO.
鈥淲hile we believe we鈥檒l be a public company eventually, that doesn鈥檛 help us do what we want to do in the next couple of years,鈥� he said.
Kaarmann added: 鈥淭ransferWise is experiencing phenomenal growth and this investment is testament to that. We don鈥檛 need to raise funds to continue on this trajectory, but we鈥檙e humbled by the persistent level of interest in joining our mission.鈥�
The company has been lobbying for better regulation around cross-border payment mark-ups. Last year the EU voted to mandate the outlawing of exchange rate mark-ups on international payments.
Nimay Mehta, general partner at Lead Edge said in an interview that the changes would give opportunity TransferWise the opportunity to grow 鈥渆xponentially鈥�.