Available in Multilingual Website www.weswap.com Founded 2010 | Services Travel money Registration Yes Employees 20+ (2015) | |
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Slogan(s) "The people's currency exchange" Launched July 2013; 3 years ago (2013-07) Founder(s) Jared Jesner, Simon Sacerdoti Headquarters England, United Kingdom, London, United Kingdom | ||
WeSwap is a peer-to-peer currency exchange platform. WeSwap matches travellers heading in opposite directions and swaps their travel money directly. The London-based startup was launched in 2013 by Jared Jesner and Simon Sacerdoti and currently supports 18 different currencies around the world.
Contents
What is weswap foreign exchange mastercard and app
History
The WeSwap idea first stemmed from founder Jared Jesner’s experiences as a city trader at JP Morgan: “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.”. 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. 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. At launch, the service supported 6 currencies. In 2014, WeSwap was serving customers from across 10 European countries and supported 18 currencies.
Investors
Seed funding came from a mixture of high net worth angel investors and super angels., including LoveFilm and Zoopla co-founder Alex Chesterman. In October 2014, one year after launching, WeSwap secured another £4.5m in Series A funding. 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.
Awards
In January 2015, WeSwap won the 'Innovation in Travel Award' at the Globe Travel Awards. 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."