CurrencyFair, which employs 100 people in Dublin and Australia, has released its new app, which is the world’s first ‘truly peer-to-peer’ currency exchange app. The app is available on both iOS and Android.

CurrencyFair founder and CEO Brett Meyers

Speaking about the release, CurrencyFair founder and CEO Brett Meyers said: “We’ve spent considerable time building the world’s first truly peer-to-peer currency exchange marketplace so that we have critical mass to release our app. The app will maintain the usability and security of our desktop and mobile responsive site that has seen our users transfer over A$4 billion to date.”

Meyers continued: “We have spent a while concentrating on building our platform which is more attuned to the sharing economy than simply a polished up traditional brokerage model. As such, we are delighted to release the world’s first truly peer-to-peer app. It has a number of great features that we believe will make life easier for expats and foreign property owners that form our core user base.”

Those features include securely allowing users to take a photo of their identity documentation and upload it as part of their new account set-up if, like many people, they don’t have any existing soft copies of their identification on file. The app also allows for a quick transfer of currency. Once the money has been exchanged, users can then immediately send the money on its way to the desired destination by filling in the details of the destination account. This means that a profile can be created and money exchanged to a desired account in a safe fashion in a few minutes while on the go.

Unlike many other money transfer services, the CurrencyFair exchange calculator is completely transparent and peer-to-peer. The new app lets users see the live exchange rate for their chosen currencies, and they can also see the real exchange rate margin which most companies hide.

CurrencyFair users are able to exchange funds and transfer them overseas at a fraction of the cost of traditional banks or brokers, due to its unique and innovative ‘Money Matching’ model, which is the world’s only truly peer-to-peer currency marketplace. This marketplace allows individuals to cut out the ‘middle-man’ and get rates 90% cheaper than bank rates. The nature of this model also means that it enables its users to exchange currency below the interbank rate at times and CurrencyFair is the only currency exchange platform that has this capability.

CurrencyFair became the first platform in the world to break the US$1 billion barrier in money-matching transfers, cementing its position as the world’s leading peer-to-peer international transfer service. CurrencyFair’s average fee is currently 0.35%, compared to rates from 2% to 5% at PayPal, Stripe, Visa and larger banking institutions.

Earlier this year, CurrencyFair raised $16 million investment in a funding round led by Octopus Investments to open new “currency corridors” in Asia and the US.