Circle reveals group payments and fast, free cash transfers to US accounts

19 Oct 2017

Image: Pathdoc/Shutterstock

Users can now ‘beam’ cash from Circle into a US bank account with zero waiting and zero fees.

Dublin-headquartered fintech start-up Circle has revealed new payment services including friends and family group payments as well as the ability to beam cash rapidly to a US bank account.

Circle is a peer-to-peer payments platform founded by Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire. The company has so far raised $136m in four funding rounds from 19 investors.

‘This is the first time in history that people in Ireland, the UK and Europe can send money to the US at no cost, with no FX markup’
– JEREMY ALLAIRE

The company has its international headquarters in Dublin, as well as an office in Shoreditch, London. It is in the process of doubling its Dublin workforce to 30 people.

A virtuous Circle of family and friends

Using the Circle Groups feature, members can create groups of up to 20 people; choose individuals in the group to send money to; send chat messages, images and GIFs; and withdraw money from Irish and European bank accounts. Payments are secured with two-factor authentication and FCA authorisation.

Circle also claims to be the first and only cross-border payments platform in the world to make it possible to beam cash from an app into a US bank account at no cost. Other companies in the US that offer fast withdrawals are only domestically capable of this and charge for the benefit.

“This is the first time in history that people in Ireland, the UK and Europe can send money to the US at no cost, with no FX markup, and have the funds received and available in the recipient’s bank account almost instantly,” said Jeremy Allaire, CEO and co-founder at Circle.

“It’s finally possible for money to work the way the internet works for content.”

Circle launched in 2015 and has enjoyed strong and steady growth. Since the start of 2017, Circle’s growth rates have been positive, with a growth of 427pc in monthly active users. In Europe, there has been customer growth of more than 800pc year over year, and payments volume has grown by more than 700pc.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com