UK-based fintech startup, WeSwap, recently closed its campaign on equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs. The company successfully secured its £1 million funding target during the initiative’s pre-registration and finished the round with more than £2.4 million in funds.
As previously reported, WeSwap was founded in 2011 and opened to the community in 2013. The company uses P2P swapping model, has members (i.e. travelers) in 10 countries and supporters swaps (purchases and cash withdrawn) in 18 different currencies. The company stated its mission is to help travelers swap and manage currency in the cheapest, fairest and most transparent way possible.
The campaign launched a few months after WeSwap secured a second round of funding, totaling £6.5million, led by investment firm Ascot Capital Partners and backed by existing investors EC1 Capital and IW Capital. The company stated it is seeking to help democratize travel money exchange. Over the last 12 months, WeSwap has reportedly grown by a massive 204%, welcoming over 200,000 new users to the WeSwap community. Since its launch, WeSwap has swapped tens of millions of pounds and has this year saved its users £1.2million on typical high-street currency exchange fees and commissions.
Sharing his thoughts about the successful crowdfunding round, Jared Jesner, WeSwap’s founder and CEO, reportedly stated:
“The aim of WeSwap’s crowdfunding was to make as many of the public – people who use travel money abroad every year – part-owners of the company. We want all our investors to help shape the future of the travel money industry and attracting such high levels of support is really encouraging ahead of a year of international growth. There is clearly huge appetite for more transparency in the currency exchange market.By setting a new record for the number of investors in a Seedrs’ campaign, WeSwap has achieved its number one goal of being The People’s Currency Exchange.”
During the round, WeSwap attracted various investors, including top-ranked professional tennis player, Andy Murray. The athlete revealed that WeSwap was interesting to him because he travels around the world very often and he thought the company’s concept was clever and could immediately see the gap in the market for the business to work. Jesner commented at the time of the investment:
“We are delighted and overwhelmed to have exceeded our funding target with more than £1.8 million invested into our campaign on Seedrs so far. Over 2200 members of our community have backed WeSwap, all of whom will play a part in our future success. Having a tennis hero like Andy Murray invest in the campaign as part of the crowd has truly been the icing on the cake.”
Funds from the Seedrs campaign will be used to develop new features, market expansion and launch new product lines.
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