peerTransfer Secures Funding from Spark Capital and Well-Known Angels

BOSTON, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- peerTransfer, the pioneer in low-cost online international money transfer and global payments, today announced that it has secured financing led by Spark Capital and well-known angels including Dave McClure (500 Startups and formerly of PayPal), John Landry (former CTO of Lotus) and Jim Hornthal (co-founder of Travelocity). Founded at MIT, peerTransfer enables individuals and businesses to transfer money between international bank accounts more conveniently and up to five times lower cost, compared to traditional banking and wire services.

"The idea of peerTransfer was born when I had to transfer money from London to Boston for my MBA program at MIT Sloan a few years ago," said Iker Marcaide, founder and CEO, peerTransfer. "After incurring a significant amount in transfer fees and bad foreign exchange rates, I thought there has to be an easier and cheaper way to transfer money internationally." peerTransfer is built around the fact that while some individuals and businesses send funds in one direction (for example from the U.K. to the U.S.), others intend to send money just in the opposite direction. The company compensates those transfers to minimize the international flow of funds, thus saving money to all customers.

In addition to Spark Capital, investors in this financing include the West Coast angels Dave McClure and Jim Hornthal; Boston-based angels John Landry, Ken Morse, Roy Rodenstein, Project 11 Ventures; and Spanish angels Marek Fodor, Pablo Carrallo and Raul Aznar.

"There has long been a need for an efficient, low-cost way to transfer funds internationally, yet until now the need has gone unmet and banking customers have been forced to put up with expensive, conventional methods," said Alex Finkelstein, general partner at Spark Capital. "peerTransfer is challenging this convention with an approach and technology that has enormous market potential. Iker and his team have made huge strides in a short amount of time and the company is gaining strong early customer traction as individuals and businesses look for an alternative to traditional services."

peerTransfer, headquartered in Boston and with offices in Europe, is regulated as a financial institution and currently serves by-invitation customers in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada sending money to more than 35 countries, with plans of further international expansion.  The company's advisory board includes Jacques Gilbert (formerly senior vice president and chief architect at First Data Corporation and Western Union) and David Li (formerly senior director of product management at PayPal). Additionally, peerTransfer has received multiple awards, such as recently being named most promising early-stage company at the HIT Barcelona World Innovation Global Entrepreneurship Competition.

About peerTransfer

peerTransfer is the pioneer in low-cost online international money transfer and global payments, helping individuals and businesses securely transfer funds internationally while saving money. For more information, visit: www.peertransfer.com

About Spark Capital

Spark Capital is a venture capital firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. with investments focused on the conflux of the media, entertainment and technology industries. Over the last decade, the Spark team has been instrumental in the development of new markets and market leaders such as Akamai Technologies, Qtera, Aether Systems, Novatel Wireless, Twitter, 5Min, Altius Education, AdMeld, Verivue and Tumblr. With deep experience and $980 million under management, Spark Capital provides world-class entrepreneurs and revolutionary companies with the resources to succeed in today's marketplace. For more information, visit www.sparkcapital.com

SOURCE peerTransfer