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TransferWise
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. History Wise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus (Skype's first employee) and financial consultant Kristo Käärmann. Its system has been compared to the hawala money transfer system. In its first year of operation, transactions through Wise amounted to €10 million. In 2012, Wise was named as one of "East London's 20 hottest tech startups" by ''The Guardian'', Start Up of the Week by ''Wired UK'', one of five "start-ups to watch" at Seedcamp's 2012 US Demo Day by TechCrunch, and appeared in Startups.co.uk's list of the top 100 UK start-ups of 2012. In April 2013, Wise stopped letting users purchase Bitcoin, citing pressure from banking providers. Independent comparison site Monito reported that Wise was on average 83% cheaper than the big four UK banks on major currency "routes", but could be up to 90% cheaper in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TransferWise Peer-to-peer Money Transfer
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. History Wise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus (Skype's first employee) and financial consultant Kristo Käärmann. Its system has been compared to the hawala money transfer system. In its first year of operation, transactions through Wise amounted to €10 million. In 2012, Wise was named as one of "East London's 20 hottest tech startups" by ''The Guardian'', Start Up of the Week by ''Wired UK'', one of five "start-ups to watch" at Seedcamp's 2012 US Demo Day by TechCrunch, and appeared in Startups.co.uk's list of the top 100 UK start-ups of 2012. In April 2013, Wise stopped letting users purchase Bitcoin, citing pressure from banking providers. Independent comparison site Monito reported that Wise was on average 83% cheaper than the big four UK banks on major currency "routes", but could be up to 90% cheaper in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valar Ventures
Valar Ventures is a US-based venture capital fund founded by Andrew McCormack, James Fitzgerald and Peter Thiel. Historically, the majority of the firm's investments have been in technology startups based outside of Silicon Valley, including in Europe, the UK, the US and Canada. Valar Ventures originally spun out of Thiel Capital, Peter Thiel's global parent company based in San Francisco, and is now headquartered near Madison Square in Manhattan. The firm's namesake is the Valar of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, who are god-like immortal spirits that chose to enter the mortal world to prepare it for their living creations. Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald are the managing partners of the firm. Investments Valar was notably the first venture fund to invest in Xero. The fund made its initial investment in Xero in October 2010 at a valuation of approximately $98 million. Since then, the firm has spearheaded successive rounds of investment in the company and Xero's market c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seedcamp
Seedcamp is a European seed-stage venture capital fund, headquartered in London, launched in May 2007 by a group of 30 European investors. The fund's Managing Partners are Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal. As of August 2017, Seedcamp has a portfolio of over 250 companies who have gone on to raise over $1Bn in follow-on funding from leading investors across the globe. In November 2017 Seedcamp announced the first close of its fourth fund at £41M - over 20x larger than the investor's first a decade earlier - with the plan to invest in 100 new startups from across Europe. Seedcamp's notable investments include Wise, Revolut, and UiPath. History Seedcamp was originally created by Saul Klein and Reshma Sohoni. Participating VCs and advisors in Seedcamp's launch included Index Ventures, Atomico Investments, Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, TAG, Forsyth Group and Brown Rudnick. Carlos Espinal joined as Partner in 2010. In 2014, Seedcamp announced a €20million Seed fund, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. , Thiel had an estimated net worth of $7.19 billion and was ranked 297th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He worked as a securities lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, as a speechwriter for former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996. He co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin and Luke Nosek in 1998, serving as chief executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. After PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund based in San Francisco. In 2003, he launched Palantir Technologies, a big data analysis company, serving as its chairman since its inception. In 2005, he launched Founders Fund with PayPal partn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Yu
David Yu (born 6 November 1967) is the former chief executive officer of Internet betting exchange Betfair and a tech investor. Education and early career Yu studied computer science at UC Berkeley and Stanford. He moved to London from California in 2000 at the behest of his employer Alta Vista. Betfair He became chief technology officer of Betfair in 2001. He was promoted to the position of CEO in January 2006 during a turbulent time for the company that saw the shakeup of the positions of CEO and Chairman with Sir Robert Horton (businessman), Robert Horton being forced out as Chairman. As an information technology, IT guy, Yu's promotion to the helm was unusual. He took the company public on the London Stock Exchange in October 2010. David Yu stood down as CEO and from the Board on 31 December 2011 after a 60% drop in share value in the year after listing and the subsequent appointment of Breon Corcoran as his replacement. Tech investor He is an early stage tech investor. He was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dallas and Salt Lake City, and additional offices in other international financial centers. Goldman Sachs is the second largest investment bank in the world by revenue and is ranked 57th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. It is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board. The company has been criticized for a lack of ethical standards, working with dictatorial regimes, close relationships with the U.S. federal government via a "revolving door" of former employees, and driving up prices of commodities through futures speculation. While the company has appeared on the 100 Best Companies to Work For list compiled by ''Fortune'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wonga
Wonga may refer to: Species * Wonga pigeon, a pigeon that inhabits areas in eastern Australia * ''P. pandorana'' (wonga vine), a species of the genus ''Pandorea'' Places in Australia Queensland * Wonga, Queensland, a town in Queensland * Wonga Beach, Queensland, a locality in Queensland Victoria * Wonga, a town in South Gippsland Shire, Victoria *Wonga Park, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria *Arthurs Seat, Victoria, a mountainous and small locality, indigenous name Wonga Other uses * Wonga, a British slang term for money * Simon Wonga (1824–1874), aboriginal elder * 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt or Wonga coup * Wonga, a contest on the UK television show ''The Big Breakfast'' * Wonga.com Wonga.com, also known as Wonga, was a British payday loan firm that was founded in 2006. The company focused on offering short-term, high-cost loans to customers via online applications, and began processing its first loans in 2007. The firm op ..., a UK high-in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betfair
Betfair is a British Gambling, gambling company which operates the world's largest online betting exchange. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Founded in 2000, the business is split into two divisions, United Kingdom, UK and International. UK operations are conducted from its headquarters in Hammersmith in Greater London, while its International business operates from its overseas hubs in Malta and Ceuta, Spain. In February 2016, Betfair merged with Paddy Power to create Flutter Entertainment. History The company was founded in June 2000, by Andrew Black (gambling entrepreneur), Andrew Black and Edward Wray. Softbank purchased 23% of Betfair in early April 2006, valuing the company at GBP, £1.5 billion. In December 2006, Betfair completed the purchase of the horseracing publishing company Timeform (which traded under the name Portway Press Ltd). Betfair was the first betting company to sponsor an English football ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Levchin
Maksymilian Rafailovych "Max" Levchin ( uk, Максиміліан Рафаїлович Левчин; born July 11, 1975) is a Ukrainian-American software engineer and businessman. In 1998, he co-founded the company that eventually became PayPal. Levchin made contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts and was the co-creator of the Gausebeck-Levchin test, one of the first commercial implementations of a CAPTCHA challenge response human test. He founded or co-founded the companies Slide.com, HVF, and Affirm. He was an early investor in Yelp and was their largest shareholder in 2012. He left a leadership role in Yelp in 2015. Levchin was a producer for the movie ''Thank You for Smoking''. Early life and education Born in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR to a Ukrainian-Jewish family, Levchin moved to the United States and settled in Chicago in 1991. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders. The company operates as a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites and many other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. Established in 1998 as Confinity, PayPal went public through an IPO in 2002. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay later that year, valued at $1.5 billion. In 2015 eBay spun off PayPal to its shareholders, and PayPal became an independent company again. The company was ranked 143rd on the 2022 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue. History Early history PayPal was originally established by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek in December 1998 as Confinity, a company that developed security software for hand-held de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/ AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on ''Forbes''’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel. History Index Ventures has its origins in a Swiss bond-trading firm called Index Securities, founded by Gerald Rimer in 1976. In 1992, Rimer recruited his son, Neil, to join the firm, and together they launched its technology investment arm, which would evolve into an independent entity, Index Ventures. Index Ventures was officially founded in 1996 by Neil Rimer, David Rimer and Giuseppe Zocco, when they raised a pilot fund of $17 million, followed by a $180 million fund in 1998. Index Ventures began invest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Conduct Authority
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financial firms providing services to consumers and maintains the integrity of the financial markets in the United Kingdom. It focuses on the regulation of conduct by both retail and wholesale financial services firms.Archived here. Like its predecessor the Financial Services Authority, FSA, the FCA is structured as a company limited by guarantee. The FCA works alongside the Prudential Regulation Authority (United Kingdom), Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Policy Committee to set regulatory requirements f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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