Online currency exchange CurrencyFair has raised another €8m - and found a new boss
Co-founder Brett Meyers will give up his CEO role as part of the change.
DUBLIN-BASED PEER-TO-PEER currency exchange CurrencyFair has boosted its coffers by another €8 million – and recruited an Irish tech-industry veteran as its new chief.
Paul Byrne, the former CEO of software firms Cadency and Trintech, will take over the top job at the seven-year-old company from its co-founder, Brett Meyers, who moves into the role of chief strategy officer.
The company has also completed its second €8 million funding round of the year, following on from a similar deal with key existing investors Octopus Ventures and Frontline Ventures in March.
It also announced two other senior recruits in former Fenergo exec Ruth Fletcher, who joins as chief financial officer, and new chief product officer Sylvie McDermott.
Meyers said the company he jointly set up “now has a complete, highly experienced and high-calibre management team” for the next stage of CurrencyFair’s growth.
“There is a huge opportunity for our unique service in a global market for both consumers and SMEs, and we are now primed to take advantage of that,” he said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny at CurrencyFair's offices in 2013
Tight competition
CurrencyFair is one of several fintech firms competing to undercut the banks in the huge global foreign-exchange business.
The company’s platform allows users looking to trade different currencies the ability to pair with one another to complete the exchange – in return for a fee.
Its rivals include London firm TransferWise, which has been valued at more than $1 billion, and the business-focussed TransferMate, which is based in Kilkenny.
CurrencyFair currently employs more than 100 people across its offices in Ireland, the UK and Australia.
The most recent accounts for the firm show it has been experiencing rapid growth, with its gross profit more than doubling in a year to €4.44 million for the 12 months to the end of June 2015.
However it has also burned through significant funding to reach the figure, delivering accumulated losses of more than €7.5 million by mid-last year. It has raised around €30 million from investors to date.
In April, Meyers told Fora the company was tweaking its products to suit SMEs in response to the demand it was seeing from domestic firms.
