e-wallet

How easy it has become to transfer money with a single click? Today, there are many platforms for money transfer using the internet as the technology is growing and people are preferring to go cashless after so many digital campaigns that are running worldwide. Therefore, E-wallet has become a thing now. This is a recent revolution because of the easy and smooth transaction process. When the 21st century started, there was nothing like electronic money transfer. In the year 2001, Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann founded the first electronic money license MoneyBookers, which eventually named Skrill by. Let’s know more about this journey.

From MoneyBookers to Skrill

Moneybookers were established in the United Kingdom by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann in 2001. They gained an electronic money license from the Financial Services Authority, the first one in history. It had almost 2 million registered users in the first year as it gained popularity among users and they started trusting the company. 

Later, the founders sold their company Investcorp in 2007 for £105 million. After 2 years, it was on sale for £365 million. Then is 2011, it was announced that it will be rebranded, and its name changed to Skrill by new business owners. The rebranding was going by 2013. The company started growing faster as the number of users was increasing from all ranges of businesses. Merchants started adapting this transfer methodology. Large businesses like Facebook, eBay, and Skype also started using this service for purchases. Later, it was acquired by Australian prepaid payment giant Paysafecard in February 2013. In August of the same year, CVC Capital partners purchased the Skrill for €600 million.

Acquisition by Optimal Payments

New Jersey Division of gaming enforcement aka NJDGE approved Skrill as the only wallet for internet gambling. This happened in 2014. Soon in 2015, Optimal Payments which the parent company of Skrill’s competitor Neteller officially sent an acquisition proposal of €1.1 billion to Skill Group. As per the reports, the third quarter of 2015 approved the proposal. Skrill group acquired Ukash, a UK based competitor of Paysafecard in April 2015.

Well, Skrill is the most popular E-wallet as it has gone the number of acquisitions. It shows how much demand it had and still has. Its customers are in 200 countries and offer them the use of over 100 payment options and 40 currencies. Skrill is involved in Gambling, eCommerce, Forex trading and Crypto Exchange.  

Glimpse to Founder’s life

The Skrill had a journey of its own and so do the founders. They founded this e-wallet together but they had different paths once they sold it. Let’s have a look at their journey.

Benjamin Kullmann

He holds an LLB from the University of London. He has worked for the Skrill group from 2001 to 2013. He also contributed as a managing director having responsibility for portfolio management. With time, he turned into a non-executive board member to the growth of the business to over 30 million customers and over Euro 200 million in outstanding e-money float. He is a member of the investment council of mutual fund management firm Meritum Capital Managers GmbH in Frankfurt since 2011. 

Currently, he is associated with Spinoza Capital, which he co-founded. He has several high-level positions which made it easy for him to co-found companies and climb the business ladder.

Daniel Klein

Daniel Klein is a serial tech entrepreneur and investor. He cofounded Skrill with Benjamin and soon after they sold their business, he got busy with launching his one. He is currently the CEO of European mobile point-of-sales company SumUp which allows small merchants to accept card payments in 13 countries, including the UK, Germany, and Brazil. 

Bottom Line

Daniel and Benjamin cofounded MoneyBookers and got a huge response from customers because of the unique and easy service they were providing to their customers. They have proven a point that, if you ease your customer, your business is going to go up. Though Skrill went through a chain of acquisition, it remained one of the most popular E-wallets of all the time. New founders did not change Skrill’s name again so that they could retain the huge customer base the company already has.