Story
Welcome to WeTransfer
Founded in 2009 as the simplest way to send big files around the world, WeTransfer has since grown into an ecosystem of creative productivity tools. The company’s suite of tools is specifically designed for creative professionals, enabling collaboration, co-creation and client management across their workflow process.
As a certified B Corporation™, WeTransfer has long been a champion of using business as a force for good. The company famously donates 30% of its advertising real estate to raise awareness for artists and creative work.
Responsible business
Good ideas deserve good company, and WeTransfer has built a business with empathy at its core. WeTransfer is driven by a sense of purpose and a belief that only sustainable and responsible businesses can stay relevant in the future.
This core value permeates throughout the organization and impacts every aspect of WeTransfer’s business practices. The company elected to have its social and environmental performance, as well as its focus on accountability and transparency, assessed against the proprietary criteria established by B Lab, an independent non-profit organization.
In March 2020, WeTransfer was designated as a Certified B Corporation, confirming its ambition to strengthen its values-driven approach to responsible technology and business.
Commitment to the creative community
WeTransfer believes creativity is the driving force behind humankind, and the company takes pride in supporting the global community of creatives who rely on its tools every single day.
Since the beginning WeTransfer has donated 30% of advertising real estate to raise awareness for artists, creative work, and some of the world’s most pressing issues. This has led to partnerships with artists and organizations like Björk, FKA twigs, Marina Abramović, Riz Ahmed, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the UN Development Program and Seatrees.
In 2016, WeTransfer helped launch the world’s first free Masters of the Arts in design thinking with the University of the Underground, as well as Worldwide FM, a global radio station run by legendary BBC broadcaster Gilles Peterson. In 2021 the company launched The Supporting Act, a foundation designed to support emerging creative talent.
Key stats
History
2009
Founder story
WeTransfer is founded in Amsterdam in 2009 by Dutch entrepreneurs Bas Beerens and Nalden. The pair build a file-sharing tool to solve the problems they frequently face as designers and creatives—being unable to send large, design-heavy files over the internet.
WeTransfer is built on a foundation of design-driven businesses including Oy, Bas Beerens’ creative studio, and Present Plus, founded by Damian Bradfield and Nalden (subsequently acquired by WeTransfer.) As a result, from day one, the business prioritizes user experience, making its features beautiful, frictionless, and unobtrusive.
To help fund their endeavor Bas and Nalden pioneer a non-intrusive advertising model for the platform in the form of brand safe, full-screen wallpapers. From inception, 30% of all advertising inventory is donated to promote the work of other creatives and charitable causes.
2010
Growth
Within three months of launch, WeTransfer is already being used in 187 countries around the world.
Damian Bradfield joins WeTransfer as Chief Strategic Officer, later becoming Chief Creative Officer.
2012
Launch of WeTransfer Plus
WeTransfer Plus (rebranded to WeTransfer Pro in 2019) —a premium service for bigger files, extra storage, and personalization features—launches, giving users the ability to password-protect files.
2013
Profitability
WeTransfer reaches the milestone of two million daily transfers and turns profitable.
2014-2015
Series A
WeTransfer raises a Series A funding round with Highland Europe investing approximately US$25 million of secondary and primary capital. At this point, the company handles over a billion transfers annually, or 30 transfers per second.
2016/2017
US expansion
WeTransfer acquires the digital design and innovation studio Present Plus, originally co-founded by Damian Bradfield and WeTransfer co-founder Nalden.
WeTransfer expands into the US, opening an office in Los Angeles and giving US students free access to WeTransfer Plus.
WeTransfer is named by Fast Company as one of the most innovative design companies in the world.
Bas Beerens steps back from day-to-day operations and becomes Executive Chairman with Gordon Willoughby joining WeTransfer to become the first external Chief Executive Officer leading the company on the next stage of its global growth.
2018
New tools, growth of US presence
WeTransfer adds two new tools to its portfolio by acquiring the popular creative apps Paper® and Paste® from FiftyThree, expanding its presence in the United States to New York City.
WeTransfer relaunches its blog This Works as the bespoke editorial platform WePresent to tell unexpected stories about creativity.
2019
Funding round
WeTransfer raises a Series B funding round with HPE Growth leading EUR 35 million in an all-secondary round.
The company launches The Paper Store in its Paper app, rolls out video wallpapers for Pro users, and airs the first season of its Influence podcast.
2020
B Corp certification
WeTransfer becomes a certified B Corporation, verifying its track record of success in meeting the highest standards in balancing profit and purpose across social and environmental performance, transparency, governance, and accountability.
Senior appointments
Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of lastminute.com is appointed Chair of WeTransfer’s Supervisory Board.
The company announces two key additions to its executive leadership team with the appointment of Melissa Nussbaum as Chief Financial Officer and Alexandar Vassilev as Chief Product and Technology Officer.
2021
Strong growth
WeTransfer’s user base grows to more than 80 million monthly active users and the company surpasses €100m in revenue in 2021. WeTransfer hires over 130 people, bringing the total number of employees close to 300.
Product development
WeTransfer further expands its Pro offering by increasing file size limit to 200 GB and launching team functionality. Pro subscribers also get access to a beta rollout of portals and reviews, a new set of capabilities designed to streamline the workflow process between creative professionals and their clients.
Giving back
WeTransfer launches The Supporting Act Foundation, an independent charitable organization supporting emerging artists through grants and bursaries. The company also receives Climate Neutral Certification following a pledge to reduce emissions by 30% by 2025.
2022
Launch of WeTransfer Premium
WeTransfer launches the WeTransfer Premium tier, which combines its most comprehensive offering across its tools and capabilities in an integrated ecosystem. Premium customers will benefit from unlimited portals and reviews, unlimited transfer size, and unlimited storage.
Winning an Academy Award®️
The Long Goodbye, a short film by Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed commissioned by WePresent, the digital arts platform of WeTransfer, is awarded a 2022 Academy Award®️ for Best Live Action Short Film.
Leadership transition
WeTransfer announces that Alexandar Vassilev, Chief Product and Technology Officer, is appointed as CEO. Melissa Nussbaum becomes Chief Operating Officer, alongside her existing role as CFO.
Growing leadership bench
Across the year, WeTransfer makes four significant c-suite appointments to prepare the company for the next phase of product-led growth. New leaders span Product, Technology, Marketing and Legal teams.
2023
Reaching half a million paid subscribers
In January, the platform hit a milestone of reaching half a million people relying on WeTransfer paid subscription to share their ideas, work with peers and clients and collaborate on projects.
Our Products
WeTransfer has one core product offering and two complementary products:
WeTransfer is an integrated ecosystem for creatives to seamlessly ideate, collaborate and share their work with both clients and co-creators across the creative workflow.
WePresent, a digital arts platform featuring work from creators across the globe. Collaborating with emerging young talent to renowned artists such as Marina Abramovic, Riz Ahmed, FKA twigs, and David Sedaris, WePresent showcases the best in art, photography, film, music, literature and more, championing diversity in everything it does.
Paper allows users to sketch, collage, paint, and draw and bring their creative ideas to life.
The tools and key capabilities within the company’s core product offering, WeTransfer, include:
WeTransfer, the core file-sharing tool, enables users to send, store, and track large files simply and securely. It was built specifically for creatives to share work with clients and collaborators, throughout the creative process. Users simply drag and drop files or folders into the web interface or WeTransfer mobile application and share them via a unique link or email.
Teams allows users to collaborate across tools and helps teams to sync with one another, including for the delivery of creative ideas.
Portals and reviews enable creatives to organize and keep track of all the work they deliver, simplifying the client or collaborator review process. These capabilities allow creative professionals to manage multiple client projects and provide their clients with a single destination to view, share, and receive feedback on each iteration of creative work.
Collect enables users to save, store, and share rich and inspirational media content in a variety of formats including images, music, and videos. Designed for the creative professional, Collect enables users to visually organize their ideas into moodboards and share links with teams for review and editing. Collect is a powerful, easy-to-use mobile and web reference repository.