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TransferWise recognised as ‘technology pioneer’ by World Economic Forum

International money transfer platform TransferWise has been recognised as one of the World Economic Forum’s “technology pioneers”, a selection of the world’s most innovative companies.

TransferWise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann in 2011 to revolutionise the international money transfer industry by dramatically reducing the cost of sending money abroad and bringing much-needed transparency to the market. The company now has over 350 members of staff and serves 360 currency routes.

TransferWise was chosen by a professional jury among hundreds of candidates as one of the 49 selected companies. Thanks to its selection, it will have access to the most influential and sought-after business and political network in the world and be invited to the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos” in Dalian, China, this September, or the Annual Meeting in Davos in January.

“We’re glad to see TransferWise make it to the selection,” said Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “TransferWise is part of a group of entrepreneurs who are more aware of the crucial challenges of the world around them, and who are determined to do their part to solve those challenges with their company.”

Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, added: “It’s a great honour to be named as one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers. We founded TransferWise because we realised that millions of people around the world would benefit from a fairer and transparent way of transferring money. Now our customers are transferring more than £500 million every month with TransferWise – this means they’re saving more than £22m every month.

“Banks and brokers often charge as much as 5, 10 or even 20% of the money that people send internationally. That’s a massive impact on individual lives as well as global economic development. Our vision is for a world of money without borders where people are at the heart of a fair financial system.”

As in previous years, American-based entrepreneurs continue to dominate the list of technology pioneers: they account for more than two-thirds of the recipients, followed by the United Kingdom (4), Israel and the Netherlands (2), and individual recipients of Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Taiwan, China. France and Spain were among the countries not counting a recipient.

The Technology Pioneers were selected from among hundreds of applicants by a selection committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. Notable members of the committee include Arianna Huffington (founder, Huffington Post) and Henry Blodget (editor-in-chief, Business Insider). The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact, working prototype, viability and leadership.

Past recipients include Google (2001), Wikimedia (2007), Mozilla (2007), Kickstarter (2011) and Dropbox (2011).

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