Wyre has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the majority of its retail money transfer business to WorldFirst, giving the seller a chance to focus more on its cryptocurrency strategy.
Wyre says its money transfer business, while very successful, is resource intensive. Wyre started servicing individual retail businesses with its money transfer services in 2016 and has grown the business to over $100 million in annual processing volume. Rather than continue to invest in the money transfer division, Wyre management decided to sell it. Since the company had worked with WorldFirst in the past, it chose to sell the business to a trusted partner and will be working to transition the accounts over a period of time.
Wyre, which is based in San Francisco, declined to provide details on the purchase amount for the transaction. WorldFirst is based in London.
"Wyre is currently in the process of repurposing its business strategy to focus on its core strength of building APIs and other infrastructure for other companies to leverage, particularly in the cryptocurrency vertical," said Ioannis Giannaros, chief operating office of Wyre.
The crypto industry is one specific area in which the company says there is a significant need for APIs to overcome the challenges of working between the mainstream currency and crypto worlds. By narrowing its focus, Wyre predicts it will be better able to address this growing crypto API opportunity.
"We want to focus on building APIs for the crypto industry since this is our core strength. We think we can create the best on-ramps and off-ramps for crypto firms to engage in activities such as conversion to fiat currencies and compliance user onboarding. In other words, become the Stripe for crypto apps," added Giannaros.
