WorldRemit

WorldRemit Limited

Available in	English, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, German
Founded	2010; 15 years ago (2010)
Headquarters	London
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Founder(s)	Ismail Ahmed Richard Igoe Catherine Wines
Chairman	Ismail Ahmed (Non-Executive Chairman)
CEO	Breon Corcoran[1]
Services	Financial services, Remittance
Employees	848 (2021)[2]
URL	www.worldremit.com/en

WorldRemit is a digital cross border remittance business that provides international money transfer and remittance services in more than 130 countries and over 70 currencies. It was founded in 2010 by Ismail Ahmed, Catherine Wines, and Richard Igoe.[3]

History

WorldRemit was founded in 2010 by Ismail Ahmed, a former compliance advisor to the United Nations Development Programme.[4] In October 2018, the company announced that they would be bringing in Breon Corcoran as CEO.[5] During his tenure WorldRemit acquired SendWave and Zepz was created as the group business housing both the WorldRemit and SendWave brands and businesses. Breon Corcoran left the organization in August 2022,[6] when Mark Lenhard, former COO of bill.com, was appointed Group CEO of Zepz.[7]

Operations

WorldRemit focuses on cross border remittance money transfers from over 50 countries to over 130 countries around the world.[8] For those receiving money, it offers pay out options including bank deposit, mobile money, mobile airtime top-up and cash pick-up as well as cash delivery.

The firm has a network of more than 5,000 corridors. It is connected to mobile money services globally, including Zaad (Somaliland/Northern Somalia), M-Pesa (Kenya), MTN (Africa and Asia), and bKash (Bangladesh). As of October 2019, it can send funds to 115 different countries; this includes all African countries except for Sudan, South Sudan, Eswatini, Eritrea, Libya, and Algeria.[9]

In 2021 WorldRemit acquired Sendwave, another cross-border digital payments company. In 2020 the two processed 50m transactions and facilitated the sending of over $10bn.^[citation needed]

Sanctions for illegal practices with Sendwave app

In 2023 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that Chime Inc, a WorldRemit subsidiary which operates Sendwave, had violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and the CFPB Remittance Transfer Rule.[10][11][12] Some of the specific violations were:

• The Sendwave user agreement illegally waived consumer's legal protections regarding liability for losses incurred using the app.
• The speed and cost of transfers were misrepresented. The company promised transfers would happen in seconds, but often took much longer. Transfers to Nigeria were not free as promised.
• Sendwave failed to disclose correct exchange rates or funds availability.
• Sendwave did not have policies and procedures to track and investigate remittance transfer errors, it did not properly investigate errors when it was notified.
• Sendwave sometimes did not provide receipts within the time frame required by the Remittance Transfer Rule.

In its consent decree Chime was ordered to pay $1.5 million in refunds, fined $1.5 million, and it agreed to change its practices.[11][12]

Funding

WorldRemit is backed by venture capital companies Accel Partners[13] and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).[14]

In February 2015, the firm announced a $100m Series B funding round led by TCV.[15] It was also announced that TCV General Partner John Rosenberg would join its board.[16]

In 2017, the firm received $40 million in their Series C round of funding, with LeapFrog Investments as the lead investor.[3] In 2019, it raised a $175 million Series D funding round, led by TCV, Accel, and Leapfrog Investments.[17]

References

1. Kleinman, Mark (22 October 2018). "UK fintech star WorldRemit transfers in Corcoran as new boss". Sky News.
2. "WorldRemit company profile". Craft. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
3. Lunden, Ingrid (6 December 2017). "WorldRemit nabs $40M at a $670M valuation to boost its money transfer business". Techcrunch.
4. Smale, Will. "The man changing the world of remittances". BBC News.
5. "WorldRemit brings in former Paddy Power boss as CEO". sky News. 22 October 2018.
6. "WorldRemit chief Corcoran steps down as IPO prospects stall". Sky News. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
7. "WorldRemit Parent Names Lenhard, Ex-Bill.com Executive, as CEO". Bloomberg.com. 2022-08-31. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
8. "About us". WorldRemit. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
9. "Send money to Africa". WorldRemit. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
10. Witkowski, Rachel (October 26, 2023). "CFPB Cites Sendwave For Misleading Users, Charging Wrongful Fees". Forbes Advisor. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
11. "CFPB Takes Action Against Operator of Sendwave App for Illegally Cheating People on International Money Transfers" (Press release). Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. October 17, 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
12. "Chime Inc. agrees to pay CFPB $3 million to resolve remittance app allegations". ABA Banking Journal. American Bankers Association. November 1, 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-30.
13. Lunden, Ingrid. "Money Transfer Startup WorldRemit Collects Its First Investment, $40M From Accel". TechCrunch.
14. "Somali Entrepreneur Raises $100 Million For Money Transfer Startup WorldRemit". Forbes.
15. "London money transfer startup just raised $100m". Business Insider.
16. "WorldRemit announces John Rosenberg to its Board and having raised $100m in Series B funding round led by TCV". Talent4Boards.
17. "WorldRemit raises $175m in Series D funding". WorldRemit.