On Monday, money transfer company, TransferWise launched a new service that allows users send money internationally through chatbots in Facebook’s Messenger app. This move will help facilitate money transfer for the platform as competition in the digital payments market grows. This also comes a month after Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, said it would acquire US money transfer company, MoneyGram, in a deal that is expected to shake up the international payments market.

“Our mission at TransferWise is to bring faster, cheaper, and more convenient international money transfers to everyone in the world. Building the TransferWise bot for Messenger is a great step in that direction,” TransferWise Head of Global Partnerships, Scott Miller said in a blog post.

TransferWise chatbot is currently available only on Facebook Messenger although it can be adapted to work with other popular chat services. The service is currently available for people in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US and it is expected to extend to work in other countries and money transfer routes that the company operates in.

This means that people could switch from using MoneyGram and Western Union to using Facebook for sending money to their loved ones.

Facebook unveiled plans to grow the Messenger into a platform back in 2015. According to Facebook, the platform will let retailers and businesses connect with customers directly through Facebook’s universal messaging service using chatbots. A chatbot is an automated program that can help users communicate with businesses and carry out tasks such as online purchases. Currently, Facebook boasts of having over 30,000 chatbots which help people order pizza, book flights and now make money transfers.

How does the TransferWise bot work?

First, you start a conversation in Messenger with TransferWise Bot and, if you want to send money, you are prompted to log in or sign up for a TransferWise account free of charge.

Screen Shot 2017-02-22 at 4.05.59 PM

Then the bot asks which currencies you are using, and you must select a recipient from a list you set up with TransferWise. If you want to add a new recipient to your list — and whenever you are ready to make the actual financial transaction — you have to leave Messenger and go to the TransferWise website.

What you didn’t know about transfer wise

  • TransferWise was founded in London in 2010, by Estonian friends Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann.
  • It was founded out of frustration with the high fees they were being charged by banks for international money
  • transfers.
  • TransferWise has raised around $120 million in equity funding for its peer-to-peer (P2P) international money transfer service that bypasses banks to keep costs down.
  • The company, which is valued at more than $1 billion
  • The company is backed by some big-name such as Richard Branson founder of virgin group, Silicon Valley venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, and PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin
  • TravelWise has customers in more than 50 countries who send roughly $1 billion through its website every month.

Elsewhere on Ventures

Triangle arrow