TransferWise on Eesti juurtega, kuid Londonis paikneva peakorteriga Euroopa fintech startup. Praegusel hetkel on tegemist TOP 5 suurima Euroopa startupiga ja ühe suurima fintech startupiga (jagab esikohta).
Ettevõte on jõudnud teist aastat järjest kasumisse, mis on üsna haruldane startuppide maailmas.
BUSINESS INSIDER: TransferWise demonstrates sustained profitability
REUTERS: TransferWise closes $292 million secondary funding round at $3.5 billion valuation
Money transfer startup TransferWise has closed a $292 million secondary funding round which doubles its valuation to $3.5 billion, the company said on Wednesday.
The round was led by growth capital investors Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital and Vitruvian Partners, TransferWise said.
Existing investors including Baillie Gifford and Andreessen Horowitz expanded their holdings in the company and some of the investment came from funds managed by BlackRock Inc, the London-based company said.
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Launched in 2011, the company serves 5 million customers worldwide and processes 4 billion pounds ($5.08 billion) each month.
The company posted 6.2 million pounds ($7.88 million) in net profit after tax and revenue of 117 million pounds ($148.61 million) in the fiscal year ending in March 2018.
Kui veel hiljuti olid spekulatsioonid ettevõtte börsiletuleku osas, siis enam mitte. Kasumlikkus ja börsiregulatsioonide tülikus annavad ettevõttele vaba võimaluse jääda börsilt kõrvale.
FORTUNE: TransferWise Reaches $3.5 Billion Valuation After Secondary Stock Sale
Despite rumors last year that TransferWise was planning to go public, Käärmann said the company plans to stay private fir the foreseeable future.
"An IPO is not going to happen anytime soon. It´s very unlikely to happen this year," he said. "Remaining private, for now, means we can remain focused on our mission and long-term strategy, without any distractions from the markets… Lastly, in terms of capital, we´re quite confident in our financial position. We love to be funded by our users."
While TransferWise has been profitable since last year, the company has been focused on reducing its fees and expanding its geographic footprint.
According to Käärmann, TransferWise´s profits are coming both from its traditional money transfer business, and from its newer business products, which let small and medium-sized companies keep accounts in different countries in order to pay suppliers in local currencies.
"Vanadel headel aegadel" oleks firma tõenäoliselt juba börsil, kuid mitte enam tänapäeval. Börsile TransferWise muidugi kunagi jõuab, kuid praegune secondary offering lükkab börsile jõudmise võimalust vähemalt paari aasta jagu tulevikku.
BLOOMBERG: TransferWise Valued at $3.5 Billion in Secondary Offering
"Back in the old days, we would have been a public company by now," Taavet Hinrikus, TransferWise´s co-founder and chairman, said in an interview. TransferWise still might go public someday, but the secondary offering brings the company potentially several more years until it would need to take that step, he said.
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None of TransferWise´s institutional investors sold shares as part of the offering and Hinrikus and his co-founder, Kristo Kaarmann, who is the comany´s chief executive officer, retain more than 80% of their sares in the firm.
The latest sale of shares brings investor´s total stake in TransferWise to $689 million, including the primary and secondary markets, the company said.
Praegune "raha kaasamine" (olgem siiski täpsed - mingit raha ei kaasatud ettevõtte äritegevuse jaoks! Ainult ühed (loe: senised) investorid müüsid kas olemasolevatele või uutele investoritele oma aktsiaid) on pikemas vaates TransferWise´i narratiivi kujunemises üsna oluline käänupunkt! Teatud tüüpi investorid on asendumas uute investoritega, kellel on hoopis teistsugune strateegiline visioon kui see, mida ettevõte seni on ümbritsevale maailmale kuvanud/lasknud kuvada.
QUARTZ: TransferWise is now one of Europe’s five biggest unicorns
The deal also provides early-stage investors that specialize in funding newly minted startups, or seed investing, a chance to cash out and find new investments, he said. And it gave TransferWise a chance to bring aboard new investors such as BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, that have deep financial resources, experience, and relationships around the world.
Asset management fees and expense ratios for funds have been grinding steadily lower—a phenomena that BlackRock knows well—and TransferWise has been doing the same thing in the foreign-exchange business. Käärmann says the goal is drive its fees down as close to zero as possible.
Scale is a big part of the strategy for running a business that charges ever lower fees for its services. When you’re big enough, you can charge seemingly nothing and still make money.
Even so, are investors comfortable with a plan that is predicated on rock-bottom fees? Other companies, after all, generally try to find ways to increase prices in order to boost profits. Käärmann said BlackRock, which has been dueling for years with asset management company Vanguard, a company with a similar mission, is enthusiastic about TransferWise’s pursuit of ultra-low fees.
“BlackRock, having seen Vanguard happen over the last 20 years, if anyone, they were the most excited about the strategy,” Käärmann said. “We let investors self-select to our mission.”
Tundub, et vähemalt BlackRock soovib TransferWise abil "Vanguardi teha", ehk suruda tööstusharus teenustasud nii alla, et ilusat elu keegi enam nautida ei saa. Kui TransferWise on esimene kes "price leader" strateegiat kasutama hakkab ja positsioneerib end kõige suurema teerullina, siis polegi võimatu, et nad suudavad suure mahuga ülejäänutest üle sõites münte välja pressida.
Need investorid näevad TransferWise´s uut narratiivi ja sisenevad erinevalt varasematest investoritest konkreetsema eesmärgiga. Ei ole üllatav, et on inimesi kes on otsustanud oma osalusest loobuda.
FT: TransferWise co-founder sell part of stakes at $3.5bn valuation
"I still believe eventually we´ll be a public company, but this proves there´s no rush," Mr Hinrikus added. "We´re a profitable company, we´re fully in control - maybe two years from now we´ll realise there´s so much more we could do" by raising fresh investment, but "for everything we´re doing now we´re really well capitalized".
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It became one of the few high-profile fintech start-ups to turn a profit in the year to March 2018, the most recent year for which data are available. The company made a net profit of £6.2m on revenues of £117m, and Mr Hinrikus said "we are expecting to stay in the black… we think it´s important for our customers to know that we will be around for a long time and we don´t need to go on a fundraising journey every year".
Nimay Mehta, general partner at Lead Edge, which invested in Uber and Spotify, said "the opportunity for TransferWise is set to grow exponentially", pointing to recent regulatory changes in the EU and proposals in Austalia to force more transparency in foreign exchange fees.
Ega TW varem ei olekski saanud oma teerulli strateegiat kasutama hakata. Praeguseks on ettevõtte tuntus ja ärimahud nii palju kasvanud, et võiks ette võtta ka globaalsel skaalal tuntud tegijad nagu Western Union ja MoneyGram.
CNBC: TransferWise is now Europe´s most valuable fintech start-up, with a $3.5 billion valuation
TransferWise, the money transfer company that´s taking on Western Union, is valued at $3.5 billion after a new investment round, making it Europe´s most valuable financial technology start-up.
In lowering fees and adding a slick online platform to help consumers move money globally and track their transfers, the London-based company is taking a modern approach to a staid business that´s been dominated by giants like Western Union and MoneyGram.
The company says it´s been pushing for more tansparency around the fees banks and currency exchange services charge their customers for transferring money abroad.
Uued institutsioonid tahavad näha strateegia realiseerumist ja hakkavad börsile suruma hiljemalt paari aasat pärast. Seniks aga, valitseb rahu aktsionäride laagris.
TECHCRUNCH: TransferWise now valued at $3.5B following a new $292M secondary round
In a call, TransferWise co-founder and Chairman Taavet Hinrikus told me the round was oversubscribed, too. The arbitrary figure of $292 million was simply the result of how much liquidity existing shareholders were willing to make available, and nowhere near the upper level of interest.
He is also pointed out that existing institutional investors aren’t exiting during this round, with Andreessen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford actually doubling down somewhat. Instead, this liquidity event was mainly a way for TransferWise employees — existing and presumably former — to cash in on some or all of their stake. And for new later stage investors to jump on-board.
All of which — and at the risk of repeating myself — would suggest that a potential TransferWise public offering is still a long way off yet, something that Hinrikus doesn’t refute. “Why would we go public?” he says rhetorically, noting that the company is still growing fast and capital isn’t an issue.
So why then in contrast are other fast-growing companies going public much earlier these days? “You’d have to ask them,” Hinrikus says, batting away my question in his usual laid back and matter-of-fact manner. Pressed a little harder, he says that one difference might be that TransferWise’s institutional investors aren’t (yet) pushing for a liquidity event on the scale of an IPO. As already noted, in some instances they are actually purchasing more shares in the company.
Natuke huvitavat statistikat siit allikast.
(mittetäielik) Investorite nimekiri:
* Accelerator Group, The
* ACE & Company
* Andreessen Horowitz
* Baillie Gifford & Co.
* BlackRock funds
* Draper Esprit Plc
* Firestartr
* IA Ventures
* Index Ventures
* Institutional Venture Partners
* JP Morgan
* Kima Ventures
* Lead Edge Capital
* LHV Ventures
* Lone Pine Capital
* Max Levchin
* Mitsui & Co.
* Mosaic Ventures
* NatWest Bank
* Old Mutual Global Investors
* Richard Branson, Sir
* Sapphire Ventures
* Seed Camp
* SV Angel
* Valar Ventures
* Virgin Group
* Vitruvian Partners
* World Innovation Lab
Põhimõtteliselt kõik varasemad investorid on räigelt palju kasumit teeninud. Kõik varasemad raha tõstmised on olnud üsna väikesed, võrreldes praeguse valuatsiooniga.
Nende andmete põhjal ma saan, et kokku on tõstetud ainult $116.3m, samal ajal kui praegu jõudis ettevõtte valuatsioon $3500m peale:

Lisame ka bilansi.
Tundub, et retained earnings rida näitab seda, et -18m GBP on veel vaja ära teenida, et saaks hakata dividende maksma:

Kasumiaruanne:

Gross profit margin 50-70%
Kahe aasta jooksul on makstud tulumaksu ca 1,8m GBP, samal ajal kui 2017 aastal on kuidagi 7.0m GBP tagasi saadud.
Rahavoogude aruanne:

Siin on kergelt disainitud kujul 2018. aasta aruanne
Siin on ülejäänud aruanded ja palju muid dokumente Briti ametlikest allikatest