bridge21 is a small fish in a very large pond of remittance companies

We do not have the name recognition or giant budgets of our larger competitors. We’re a small but passionate team trying our best to create a fantastic service with fair, transparent rates.

…but we can still stand out

We put a lot of love into what we do. It hasn’t gone unnoticed:

I’ve used every other money transfer service out there, I promise you, but bridge21 takes the cake.

–Ciara

Aside from our rates, the comment we see again and again is that our customer service sets us apart. When we set up Intercom, a live chat integration on our website, we never would have predicted that we’d see such a dramatic increase in messages to the team. We value our customers immensely, and making ourselves accessible to them for issues big and small is one way we can set ourselves apart.

…even if it seems to good to be true

One unexpected message category that has popped up a few times? Skepticism about rates and fees. Both of ours are clearly labeled and shown right in the quote calculator on our homepage (and of course in a pre-transfer confirmation). Transparency is an important value to bridge21, and we do not want any unexpected surprises or fees for our customers. Still, we’ve received a few messages asking about additional hidden fees or if the displayed exchange rate is really what customers receive. Luckily, with our service, what you see is what you get!

Our customers aren’t like the rest

Our CEO, Will Madden, formed bridge21 after working with big-name companies such as Western Union. He built payments, prepaid, and remittance products that operate in over 150 countries, and his experience in the industry gave him a few assumptions on who our customers would be, how they’d send money… and we quickly learned that some of them weren’t true for our company.

The pesos prevail

We expected to see peak transfers around specific holidays, but there’s another factor that leads to a lot of activity: large savings. Our customers are more price-sensitive than many others in the industry. We see the most transfers when our rates are dramatically better than our competition.

To make the most of this, we send out deal alerts when our rates have big savings against other companies. They’re available to our existing users as well as any visitors who may be waiting for a great rate.

They have unique needs

Plenty of our customers are sending money to friends and family, but we also see a lot of demand from customers with unique business needs. By allowing these customers to make larger transactions (we can transfer up to $25,000 per day if a transfer is funded via wire transfer!), we can help them place transfers with peak savings to maximize the amount of pesos received per dollar sent. For large transfers, those savings can make a huge difference.

We’ll soon feature some customer highlights talking about the ways that our service is used.

Mobile use is increasing

A little over half of our users access our service on mobile devices, and over 65% of our mobile users are using Android devices. This part isn’t truly a surprise, and it was paramount from the start that our service works well on everything from desktops to tablets and phones. Our design and development teams make sure that the experience is great for everyone. We’ve had to rearrange some of our content to make sure that the most important tasks are easily accessible on mobile, and we make registration more convenient by allowing social sign-ins as well as username/password accounts.

The best is yet to come

We originally began our service as Novauri, a decentralized bitcoin exchange. During our experience with Techstars Boulder 2016, we realized that our platform could pivot to reach more customers.

bridge21's CEO Will Madden explains how banks transfer money internationally in his presentation for Techstars Boulder 2016 Demo Day

Changing our company’s focus in the middle of such an intense startup incubator was no small task, but our connections to mentors and industry experts helped us reshape our service while maintaining the same core concepts: transparency, modern use of technology, and building the type of service that our team members would want to use.

By focusing on our customers’ needs, we’re confident that bridge21 can continue to grow while holding on to the values that make our company stand out from the competition.

Want to try out our service yourself? Visit us at bridge21.com