Wyre, a California-based cross-border payments company, has completed the sale of the majority of its retail money transfer business to WorldFirst for an undisclosed price.
Image: Wyre divests majority of retail money transfer operations to WorldFirst. Photo: courtesy of Marcus Jump/Freeimages.com.
The transaction has already been closed and the migration process of the business has commenced, Wyre co-founder and COO Ioannis Giannaros said in a blog post.
The cross-border payments firm stated that the deal is part of its larger focus on its API-first approach. It said that the global infrastructure and payment coverage of WorldFirst made it a clear choice to sell stake in its retail money transfer business.
WorldFirst is expected to gain new retail customers through the transaction who send money and pay invoices throughout China, the UK, Mexico, Hong Kong and Brazil.
The money transfer company has more than 600 employees and has offices in London, Amsterdam, Austin, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo.
Giannaros said: “We are investing our time and focus into our API partners. WorldFirst is taking on our retail clients, and we’re extremely confident they’re in good hands.
“WorldFirst is the market leader at the game, so we’re extremely humbled to be aligned and in partnership with them. For us moving forward, our API partners (current and future ones) will be getting the full dedication from all product/engineering/operations/compliance resources at Wyre.”
Wyre, which was founded in 2016, began its operations by offering services to individual retail businesses. The cross-border payments company claims to have grown its business to more than $100m in yearly processing volume.
By using blockchain technology, the company claims to execute cross-border payments for businesses and individuals faster and cheaper than banks.
Wyre boasts of trading $3.5bn in cryptocurrency assets in-house and has completed more than $750m in bank-to-bank commercial foreign exchange payments.
Its clients include those in the e-commerce, education, manufacturing, and transportation industry.
In April, the US cross-border payments company acquired Remitsy, a China-bound payments solution, for an undisclosed price. Remitsy has been in the business since late 2015.