WeTransfer is an internet-based computer file transfer service company that was founded in 2009, based in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

History

WeTransfer was founded in 2009 by Rinke Visser, Bas Beerens and Ronald Hans (Nalden) in

. It was created to enable the sharing of large files (up to 2GB) for free. In 2012, WeTransfer implemented a re-design and introduced a 'Plus' service with support for much larger file transfers (up to 5GB) and storage (50GB) as well as send filed to a maximum of 100 recipients for a price. In 2013, WeTransfer reached profitability. In 2014, WeTransfer launched "creative-class.tv", an ongoing video series. The company initiated its first bursaries that year through a collaborative partnership with

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

. These bursaries supported two students from around the globe in their full-time studies. In 2015, WeTransfer raised a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

25 million Series A funding round from Highland Capital Partners Europe. They also added venture capitalist Troy Carter to its board. WeTransfer file transfer limit is 200GB for PRO Subscribers as of September 2021

2016–present

In 2016, WeTransfer announced the acquisition of digital design studio Present Plus, established in 2010 by Damian Bradfield and WeTransfer co-founder Nalden. In September, WeTransfer opened its first office in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. In early 2017, Gordon Willoughby became the company's Chief Executive Officer, taking over from Bas Beerens who became Executive Chairman. In January 2018, WeTransfer launched content arm "WePresent". In August, WeTransfer acquired app developer

FiftyThree FiftyThree, Inc. was an American privately held technology company that specializes in tools for mobile creation and creativity. They were the makers of Paper, Apple's 2012 iPad App of the Year, Pencil, a digital stylus, and Paste, a collaborati ...

, whose portfolio included sketching app ''Paper'' and collaborative presentation app ''Paste''. In October, WeTransfer relaunched its mobile app with the name "Collect by WeTransfer". In June 2019, WeTransfer experienced a security incident in which files were "sent to the wrong people." In August, the company closed a €35 million secondary funding round led by HPE Growth. In May 2020,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

banned the WeTransfer app, citing security reasons. In June, the company became a certified

B Corporation In the United States, a benefit corporation (or in several jurisdictions including Delaware, a public-benefit corporation or PBC) is a type of for-profit corporate entity, authorized by 35 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, that include ...

. In February 2021, WeTransfer achieved carbon-neutral certification having pledged the previous year to reduce emissions by 30% by 2025. In March, the 2020 short film " The Long Goodbye" by Aneil Karia and

Riz Ahmed Rizwan Ahmed (; ; born ) is a British actor and rapper. As an actor, he has won an Emmy Award and has received nominations for a Golden Globe and three British Independent Film Awards, and as a rapper he has won an Academy Award for the short ...

commissioned by WeTransfer through WePresent won the 2022 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. In April, the WeTransfer Foundation, "''Supporting Act",'' focused on helping emerging creative talent was launched and the company pledged to donate 1% of revenues from 2022 onwards. In October, WeTransfer announced sales in 2020 of €65m. In January 2022, WeTransfer planned for an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

but ended up cancelling the offering shortly before listing.

Leadership

Bas Beerens founded the file-sharing platform WeTransfer with Nalden (Ronald Hans) and Rinke Visser in 2009. Beerens also runs the design consultancy OY Communications (initially OY Transfer) from which WeTransfer was developed. In 2012, he founded WeMarket, a global B2B marketplace for buyers and suppliers in any industry. Damian Bradfield, co-founder, joined the company in 2010. Bradfield is currently WeTransfer's Chief Creative Officer. Chief Executive Gordon Willoughby joined WeTransfer in January 2017. He announced his departure from the company in May 2022 and was replaced by former Chief Technology Officer Alexandar Vassilev. Chief Financial Officer Melissa Nussbaum joined WeTransfer from King in September 2020.

Martha Lane Fox Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, (born 10 February 1973) is a British businesswoman, philanthropist, and public servant. She co-founded Last Minute during the dotcom boom of the early 2000s and has subsequently served on public ser ...

joined WeTransfer as chair in July 2020.

Technology

WeTransfer is based on Amazon's infrastructure and technology. It uses

Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its ...

for storage and for sending files.

Services

WeTransfer offers a free service where users can send up to two gigabytes of data and a paid option called WeTransfer Pro where users can send up to 200 gigabytes of data as well as have some additional customization options.

Revenue model

WeTransfer has a dual revenue model split between advertising and premium ("pro") subscriptions. WeTransfer displays full-screen advertisements while transferring instead of banner ads. The company donates 30% of the advertising inventory to creatives and charitable causes.

References

{{File hosting service Dutch companies established in 2009 Cloud storage Companies based in Amsterdam Internet properties established in 2009 Internet technology companies of the Netherlands File hosting File sharing services