Yahoo Finance TransferWise plans hiring spree as business booms
TransferWise, the UK-based international payments business, is planning a big expansion of its workforce as transactions boom.
TransferWise said on Wednesday it planned to hire 750 new employees globally over the next six months. 175 of these roles will be in TransferWise’s London headquarters.
The recruitment effort would expand the company’s workforce by around a third. TransferWise currently employs 2,200 people across 14 offices around the world.
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“We need a lot of help beyond our current team of 2,200 people to achieve our mission of money without borders,” cofounder and chief executive Kristo Kaarmann said in a statement.
Kaarmann cofounded TransferWise in 2010. The company lets people send international payments online easily and cheaply. It has grown into one of Europe’s biggest companies and was valued at $5bn (£3.7bn) earlier this year.
The company said volumes on its platform were growing “exponentially,” with revenue up 70% over the last year to £302.6m ($406.8m).
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to booming business for online payments companies as people stuck at home shop online. Klarna, the “buy now pay later” company, saw sales through its systems jump 44% in the first half of 2020. Klarna and rival Checkout.com have both raised hundreds of millions this year and seen their valuations rocket. US payments giant Stripe is reportedly involved in funding talks that would at least double its valuation to $70bn.
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TransferWise doesn’t offer online payments but has benefited from the move towards internationalisation in recent years, with more businesses hiring remote contractors. The business currently processes £4.5bn of payments each month.
TransferWise on Wednesday said it would also offer more flexibility to its own staff, in part reflecting the impact of the pandemic. The company will extend its annual remote working policy from 30 days to 90, meaning employees can work away from the office for up to three months of the year.
“Our remote working policy is designed with an international team at heart,” Kaarmann said. “Working in distributed teams is in our DNA from the beginning, and we’re proud to be able to change and adapt our working practices to better suit our hard working teams.”
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