Wyre, a San Francisco FinTech company, has launched its cross-border payments platform, also called Wyre. Wyre is using the blockchain to make cross-border payments faster and more cost effective. The platform is to enable businesses to move money across borders from country-to-country at a competitive foreign exchange rate.
Wyre also announced its $5.8 million in Series A funding led by Chinese venture firm Amphora Capital with participation from two China payments companies 9fBank and Baofoo.com, along with Digital Currency Group, Draper Associates and other prominent Silicon Valley angel investors. At launch, Wyre’s platform is available in the United States and China; the Series A round will help the company quickly expand to Europe and Latin America.
Sam Lin, chief financial officer of 9fBank.com, explained: “It is estimated that the demand for cross-border payment from Chinese companies and investors could reach $1.5 trillion USD within the next five years. Wyre is well positioned as a market leader to facilitate those transactions faster and at a lower cost. We believe Wyre’s cross-border technology will revolutionize global payment and remittance and have since made a sizable investment into the company. Wyre’s continued tremendous growth in 2016 will no doubt carry into 2017 and years beyond.”
Currently, there is a monthly volume of $35M being transferred in cross-border business payments. Wyre reduces the amount of time and money it takes to make cross-border payments by transferring money in same day transfers at the most competitive exchange rates available. Cross-border payments typically charge between 1 and 4.5% of the transaction in fees depending on the service and take 24-72 hours or more whereas the Wyre platform typically takes less than six hours.
Wyre acts as the intermediary between the more intimidating “blockchain” technology by processing over $1M in international payments per day. The platform aims to simplify the process and provides a easy API for companies to get involved without needing to educate themselves on the nuances of blockchain technology. Wyre has been operating for the past 10 months in a private beta with select large-scale business, including NihaoPay that powers payments for WeChat.
Yuanbo Wang, chief executive officer of You.World and former chief executive officer of NihaoPay, said: “Wyre has revolutionized international payments. Our customers are happier than ever with the speed and super low cost of money transfers.”
Chief executive officer and co-founder of Wyre, Michael Dunworth remarked: “Current wire services are difficult, expensive and take too long. In a generation of instant gratification, we believe that money transfer should be too,”
