Running Head: BU7402 – TECHNOLOGICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

BU7402 – Technological Entrepreneurship

[Name of the Student]

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 BU7402-Technological Entrepreneurship 2

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Technology Focus......................................................................................................................3
Business Model Canvas.............................................................................................................4
Technology Organization & Delivery........................................................................................5
Digital Presence.........................................................................................................................5
The Website............................................................................................................................5
Mobile.....................................................................................................................................5
Social Media...........................................................................................................................6
Improvements.........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7
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BU7402 – Technological Entrepreneurship

Introduction
With employees in Poland, Greece, Australia, and UK and headquartered in Ireland,
CurrencyFair is an online peer-to-peer currency exchange marketplace. In around eighteen
international currencies, global transfers are provided by CurrencyFair. In this marketplace,
money is exchanged within the country avoiding the fees of bank conversion. The main
objective of CurrencyFair is to save people’s money on every currency exchange transaction
they make. It takes place by matching the funds of customers, for instance, an individual
searching for another individual for exchange in opposite direction (CurrencyFair, 2019,
n.p.d).

Moreover, the key mission of the exchange marketplace is to empower everyone by

providing them access to transparent financial services. The company makes it happen by
adopting such processes that can be easily used and understood, by supporting its outstanding
customer services, and by adopting updated technologies so that it can provide excellent
exchange rates (CurrencyFair, 2015, n.p.d). Besides, its products and services involve
specialized international transfer services of money for businesses and individuals alike. Its
products and services can be well used by large and small businesses, overseas workers, to
maintain mortgage payments in international countries, to buy property overseas, or by an
international student.

It was founded in 2009 by its key individuals, mainly its co-founders: David
Christian, Sean Barrett, Johnathan Potter, and Brett Meyers. Whereas, Paul Byrne currently is
the CEO and Richard Rose is the chairman of the company (CurrencyFair, 2019, n.p.d). This
technological entrepreneurship report will critically reflect upon the technology focus of the
company and its competitors. Further, it will portray the business model canvas (BMC) for
the company and will focus upon the organizational delivery and technology. Last but not
least, it will focus upon the digital presence of the company.

Technology Focus
If one looks and focus upon the business model of CurrencyFair, it is completely
apparent that the company is technology driven instead of technology centric. As, the entire
transaction model and system of the company is based online. The transfers of funds are also
electronically performed. In addition, CurrencyFair only have one ‘brick and mortar’
company that is the headquarter of it and is located in Dublin, Ireland. The throughout
exchange marketplace is completely driven by technology and really does not fit into the
picture of ‘technology centric’ model. However, it also means various disadvantages linked
with conventional ‘brick and mortar’ company can be avoided successfully by CurrencyFair.
Since special care is taken by the company to assure that all of the associated risks are
avoided by it, especially those related to online and in which online financial services are
being provided.

It is also important to note CurrencyFair have significant number of competitors that

are offering similar services and products in all of the biggest markets. In the United
Kingdom its key competitors are TransferWise, OFX (UK), TorFX (Europe/UK), WorldFirst,
and CurrenciesDirect. Whereas, its other main competitors throughout the United States and
other parts of the world are XE (Formerly HiFX), FC Exchange, and WorldRemit. As
iCompareFX (2018, n.p.d) indicated that these competitors and CurrencyFair specialise in
beating the big exchange rates of banks, in enhancing the speed of international trasnfers of
 BU7402-Technological Entrepreneurship 4

money, and decreasing the global fees for money transferring. Moreover, except for the USA
one of the unique alternative to TransferWise in most of the places is CurrencyFair. As
outbound transfers from the United States are not operated by CurrecnyFair. In addition, one
of the unique characteristics that make CurrencyFair better than its competitors is its market
differentiator through which preferred rates of currency can be bid by the individuals. It
eventually helps the people in beating the rate of the market.

Business Model Canvas

As Joyce and Paquin (2016, p. 1474) highlighted that a business model canvas (BMC)
involve nine different characteristics, that are its revenue, costs, customers, channels,
customer relations, value proposition, key resources, key activities, and partners. According
to Briod et al., (2018, n.p.d), the customer value proposition of CurrencyFair involve security
and safety, trust, world-class service, convenience and easiness. The marketplace is
completely regulated by the ASIC in Australia and the Central Bank of Ireland. Additionally,
it provides its customers a complete peace of mind regarding the safety of their money
(Enterprise-ireland.com, 2019, n.p.d). Along with this, it has transferred around 5.5 billion
euros over through hundred thousand customers.

Moreover, based on its over two thousand customer reviews, it has been rated as one
of the best exchange marketplace. Besides, it offers world-class service by answering all the
queries of its customers throughout seven days a week through its dedicated support team. It
also provides convenience and easiness to customers. Money can be transferred by customers
by sitting in their homes or walking to their offices through its online platform. In addition, it
is quite simple to set up an account on this marketplace. Last but not least, it provides
excellent exchange rates in comparison to banks. Till date, it has saved around 180 million
euros of customers by transferring the money around eight times cheaper in comparative to
banks.

Besides, in 2017, a rise of 42% was reported in terms of revenues by CurrencyFair as

additional business was preferred by the marketplace. This shows that exchange marketplace
is more focused towards acquisition of additional profitability and on growth of revenues
(The Irish Times., 2017, n.p.d). Whereas, when it comes to costs, a fixed fee has been
maintained by CurrecnyFair that is of 3 euros per transfer. In addition, for non-marketplace
exchanges it consider 0.4 to 0.6 percentage, whereas, for transfers using the marketplace, it
considers 0.25 to 0.3 percentage. In addition, most of its customers are large and small
businesses, overseas workers, to maintain mortgage payments in international countries, to
buy property overseas, or by an international student.

In addition, its trading channels are mobile app and website. Along with this, it has
maintained excellent customer relations through its support staff that is available throughout
the week to resolve customers’ queries. It is also important to note that money can be moved
internationally through CurrencyFair by businesses, international students and expats. Also in
comparison to traditional institutions it can move at much lower rate and can move without
limitations. It can be reached out through social media, API, affiliate program, social
networks, press, blog, news, help and support, Google Play, Apple store, website, and mobile
app. Along with this, it has excellent customer support, is based digitally, has on-demand
service, is real-time, is trusted throughout the globe, has 36.7222 independent reviews, and 5-
star rating. However, its key activities are maintenance of system, financial technology, and
international growth and its key resources are similar individuals that created Skype, more
than six hundred employees, over one million customers, investments from famous people
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like Richard Branson and Andressen Horowitz. Along with this, its key partners are
developers, partnerships and affiliates, strategic angels, and institutional investors. Its cost
structure involves marketing campaigns, legal, taxes, offices, maintenance, operations, IT
systems, employees, and affiliates commission.

Technology Organization & Delivery

The technical staff of CurrencyFair was looked up through LinkedIn. For example,
Eoin Greene who is the chief technical officer. Eoin has spent majority of his career in
guiding delivery driven and high energetic Fintech teams. The engineering team is mostly
looked after by Eoin. For quality user experiences, a passion has been maintained by Eoin
and he likes to work in results oriented and high pressure environments. Next is Anca Nicola
who is a software engineer at CurrencyFair. Then is Kamil Tunkiewics who is a senior
software developer. He is an individual with a huge spectrum of technical interests which he
develops actively. Moreover, he like exploring new techniques and challenges and is
experienced extensively in both desktop and mobile experience in mind, formulating
HTML5/JS apps by using modern methods, and JS and PHP programming. Moreover, he is
also skilled in Linux based server stack deployment and configuration and in MySQL
databases optimisation and design. At CurrencyFair, his JD involve to work in consistent
deployment environment, to develop react frontend app along with the surrounding tooling
for deployment and build and to develop Zend Framework 2 based Financial Application.

However, it is feasible if CurrencyFair can include and built up its technical staff as it
will involve those primary employees which will be first approached in case of any changes
required or issues, like email issues, viruses, or forgotten passwords. In addition, their tasks
can also involve resolving technical issues, either face to face or over the phone, diagnosing
of software/hardware faults, or configuration and installation of computer systems. Moreover,
they will also be tasked with maintenance and monitoring of networks and computer systems
of organisations. Besides, the technical employees will also coordinate and plan activities in
fields like engineering, information technology, and construction. Although the particular
duties of them will differentiate respect to their job roles, however, their main focus mostly
will be in assuring the efficient functioning of facilities and systems of the organisation.

Digital Presence
The Website
Yes, there is a direct and clear call to action on the homepage of CurrencyFair. The
organisational website guide customers through means of video how excessive bank fees can
be avoided by them and how through a better exchange rate they can send the money. Along
with this, it also highlights the difference between the company’s offerings and the bank’s
offerings. Next, it displays its customer reviews and rating in the marketplace to assure that
customers are on the right place. It also has customer videos where customer has shared their
experiences with CurrencyFair. Customer reviews and experiences have also been presented
through means of customers’ story available for other customers to read on the website.
Further, the website also gives the options and links of downloading the app. Above all, it
provides a brief list of countries where customers can send their money.

Mobile
CurrencyFair has an excellent mobile presence. The app can be download from both
the AppStore and GooglePlay. The App can be downloaded for free and provides enthusiastic
customer support. The app has a rating of 3.6 along with customer reviews. The app was last
updated on 5th February 2019. Through an account on the app, the customer can receive
 BU7402-Technological Entrepreneurship 6

payments from global clients and can pay its international invoices or overseas suppliers.
Moreover, through the app the customers can send money back home to save, can transfer
their pension to their respective international bank accounts, and can transfer money to
members of family abroad. They can also send monthly mortgage payments in another
currency, and can save their hidden cost of properties internationally. Moreover, convenient
touch is provided by the CurrencyFair app available on Android and Apple. As they allow
customers to check the status of the exchange made by them recently or management of their
funds.

Social Media
CurrencyFair has social media presence. It has its own Twitter and Facebook support
pages. On these pages’ assurance related to the services along with sufficient advices are
provided to the customers. The social media pages also have live advisors who are helping
customers willingly throughout all hours of the day. This means issues faced by any customer
will be resolved there and then. This eventually provides peace of mind to customers who
especially are dealing with huge global transactions. Along with this, as Backpacker Board
(2018) indicated the company is also providing social media content through its blog.

Improvements
Despite of excellent and unique characteristics, there are certain stances where
CurrentFair lacks and can make significant improvements. It can offer better value and more
faster transfers. For instance, it can launch a more cleaner and faster website that is
convenient to use. It can also introduce transaction update emails and can introduce
dashboards in German and French language. Moreover, it can also enable a beneficiary email
feature through which the beneficiary can be notified. Along with this, it must also consider
adding French and German-speaking customer support teams. Last but not least, it can also
refresh its blog with a more user-friendly layout and engaging content.

Conclusion
From the above information and analysis about CurrencyFair, it can be concluded that
there are certain areas where CurrencyFair must consider improvements. Despite of having
great ratings, CurrencyFair must renew its business model canvas so that it be ahead of its
competitors. It must work on becoming the first choice and priority of its customers.
 BU7402-Technological Entrepreneurship 7

References

Backpacker Board (2018). Cheapest way to send money to Australia? [CurrencyFair Review

2018]. [online] Backpacker Job Board Blog. Available at:
https://www.backpackerjobboard.com.au/job-news/currencyfair-review/ [Accessed 13
Feb. 2019].
Briod, P., S, C., Team, M., Team, M., Team, M., S, C. and Team, M. (2018). What do first-
time users think of CurrencyFair?. [online] Monito's blog. Available at:
https://www.monito.com/blog/currencyfair-tested-reviewed-first-time-users/
[Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
CurrencyFair (2015). How Does Our Service Work? | CurrencyFair. [online] CurrencyFair.
Available at: https://www.currencyfair.com/blog/how-does-currencyfair-work-faq-
video/ [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
CurrencyFair (2019). About Us |The Team And Our History | CurrencyFair. [online]
CurrencyFair. Available at: https://www.currencyfair.com/about-us/ [Accessed 13
Feb. 2019].
CurrencyFair (2019). International Currency Exchange for Business | CurrencyFair. [online]
CurrencyFair. Available at: https://www.currencyfair.com/business/ [Accessed 13
Feb. 2019].
Enterprise-ireland.com (2019). CURRENCYFAIR LTD - Enterprise Ireland. [online]
Enterprise-ireland.com. Available at: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Source-
a-Product-or-Service-from-Ireland/ClientProfileDetails/?Cid=96967 [Accessed 13
Feb. 2019].
iCompareFX (2018). CurrencyFair Competitors & Alternatives | Who Are They?. [online]
iCompareFX. Available at: https://www.icomparefx.com/currencyfair-competitors/
[Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
Joyce, A. and Paquin, R.L., 2016. The triple layered business model canvas: A tool to design
more sustainable business models. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, pp.1474-
1486.
The Irish Times (2017). CurrencyFair ‘scaling to profitability’ as full-year losses mount.
[online] The Irish Times. Available at:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/currencyfair-scaling-to-profitability-
as-full-year-losses-mount-1.3094390 [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].