Did you think that more fintech couldn’t come to take its place in the market? You’re wrong. A new company has arrived in the country with a promise: a flat fee for currency transfers. Atlantic Money is the new fintech company that says it will be able to maintain the prices of a service that its direct competition has skyrocketed. The key to all of this its founders come with history: both were in the first steps of the controversial neobroker Robinhood, known for his active role in the GameStop events in early 2021. And for which he had to apologize weeks later.
Atlantic Money was born in 2021 after the departure of Neeraj Baid and Patrick Kavanagh from their positions at Robinhood and after raising $7.5 million in a seed round. Now, they point from the company to this medium, they are working on a Series A round. Based in the United Kingdom, the fintech of transfers It has been operating since March 2022 when it received the official operating license for the European Union with the National Bank of Belgium.
Since then, Atlantic Money has managed to enter most of the territories in Europe: Belgium, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Now, together with Spainthe cheap transfer fintech also decides to enter France and Italy. His medium-term goal is to reach the United States, where the potential for currency transfers and exchanges is greater.
The focus of the fintech is to enable a volume of transfers for a maximum amount of 1,000,000 euros with a flat rate of 3 euros per operation. As the company explains, it represents a saving of 99% in commissions for users in 8 types of currencies. Likewise, users of the app can make their transactions at two speeds: the Standard, without any type of extra cost and which is carried out in two working days, and the Express, for €0.05 for each cent sent, that is, for 5 cents for every €1,000.
Regarding its arrival in Spain, the startup of the former members of Robinhood does not provide data by country. But, he points out, that in the European Union together with the United Kingdom there are 5 million potential users who transfer more than 800 euros abroad on a regular basis. “Given that Spain is the fifth strongest economy in the European Union + United Kingdom, there are high expectations in the volume of users that Atlantic Money can attract, so we are starting now with a localized offer,” says Neeraj Baid, co-founder of Atlantic Money to hypertextual.
Atlantic Money: the classic story of flat rates
It’s a story we’ve heard many times since the fee or subscription models of digital businesses have existed. Commissions that, over time, have been seeing upward changes. The reason? Very simple. After having reached a massive user share, the objective is usually to make the business profitable in the face of investors who are unwilling to continue feeding the machine via financing rounds. It is the history of streaming with Netflix at the helm, of delivery with Glovo or Uber Eats and their service commissions or of the transport sector with Uber or Cabify.
Atlantic Money reaffirms itself, in any case, on this point. “Our flat rate of €3 means the end of variable commissions, so it is a pioneer rate. People shouldn’t pay more just to send more money. While other companies have promised something similar, they are always charging hidden costs in some way, such as with a bad exchange rate. We don’t. We stand by our promise and our unique selling proposition that our transfer fee will always be fixed,” explains the co-founder.
In this way, Atlantic Money wants to get ahead of some giants in the sector. Those of the fintech business, led by Wise, Revolut or TransferGo, or the more traditional ones under the name of the historic Western Union.
But what is the difference based on: the big price difference happens because all providers take more money from their customers when they send more money. “Although fintechs, such as Wise or Revolut, have made international transfers better and more transparent, they have not taken it to the end either,” they explain. From the point of view of the former Robinhood, the business model can be sustainable over time with the flat rate model.