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After having raised $33 million from investors such as Richard Branson, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Xavier Niel, hitting the\u00a0\u00a31bn in transaction volume milestone, and saving customers a whopping \u00a345 million in banking fees, TransferWise<\/a> has announced today various new functionality and features to put them squarely on the path to challenging the big banks for mainstream customers. Some of the big changes include:<\/p>\n In speaking about today’s news,\u00a0Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise adds:<\/p>\n \u201cThe retail banking industry in Europe is dominated by a handful of major players. This poses a huge challenge for fintech companies like us, looking to attract consumers who\u2019ve grown up with the same few brand names.\u00a0We believe that just being a little better isn\u2019t enough, so we strive to offer something that\u2019s ten times easier, faster and better than the banks to make mainstream consumers aware of alternative finance providers like us. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve invested in the new product and brand we\u2019re launching today.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Started in 2011 in London by Skype’s first employee\u00a0Taavet Hinrikus and friend Kristo K\u00e4\u00e4rmann, TransferWise’s principal mission hs been to shake-up the currency exchange market, largely the realm of big banks, by\u00a0allowing people to transfer money abroad at a lower cost than ever before. While exchanges initially were limited to euro-pound transactions, they now support nearly 20\u00a0currencies including such currencies as the Turkish lira,\u00a0Hungarian forint, US Dollar, and the\u00a0Danish, Swedish, Czech, Norwegian krone. While the idea of dramatically reducing transfer fees appeals to many, TransferWise is obviously most popular with expats, freelancers, retirees who’ve retired abroad, and SMEs.<\/p>\n\n