Tuesday, August 16, 2011

PeerTransfer pockets $7.5M in Series A round

By Rodney Brown

Cambridge-based peerTransfer Corp. has raised $7.5 million in a second financing round, which the company will use to add staff and other infrastructure development, according to a press release.

The new funding round for peerTransfer was led by Spark Capital, and included participation from Accel Partners, Maveron, and Boston Seed Capital. This round is categorized by the international funds transfer company as a Series A round, and follows on the $1.1 million seed round peerTransfer raised in October of last year, from Spark and a number of well-known angel investors.

In May, peerTransfer added a new feature to its international funds transfer offerings – peerTransfer Education, which enables foreign students to pay for their college costs from their home country in their native currency.Among the colleges already using its services, peerTransfer cites Bryn Mawr, College of Wooster, Reed College, and local schools such as Suffolk University and Wellesley College, along with others.

According to founder and CEO, Iker Marcaide, peerTransfer is “already processing millions of dollars for our partner schools and providing substantial savings to their international students.” The company was launched in 2009 by Marcaide, who wanted to come with a way to eliminate the high exchange rates he was paying to convert euros to dollars – three to six percent, plus a wire fee. PeerTransfer offers the same service but charges one percent and no wire fee.