Skrill
Skrill is one of the leading global e-commerce brands, and provides an internet payment service for online purchases and monetary transfers. It currently rivals PayPal and Neteller as the number one provider of eWallet solutions. Skrill allows customers to make payments online without incurring substantial fees. Merchants can accept internet payments via the Skrill online payment system.
Skrill is a UK based company, with its headquarters in London, and as such is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Skrill has a license to operate within the EU.
Skrill history
Skrill was founded as "Moneybookers" in 2001 by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullman. The Moneybookers website went online in April 2002, offering an online payment system and becoming Europe's first FCA-regulated eMoney issuer. By the beginning of 2004 Skrill had almost two million registered users, and by 2008 claimed to operate in all countries of the world, handling five and a half million accounts all across the globe.
In early 2007, Moneybookers was bought by the investment company Investcorp Technology partners for €105 million, and after two years Moneybookers was put up for sale by Investcorp with an asking price of €365 million. No sale was forthcoming, but in 2010 Investcorp put Skrill up for sale again, this time for €500 million.
In 2010 in the UK, The Sunday Times newspaper ranked Moneybookers as the fastest-growing private equity backed firm in the UK, and by the middle of 2012 Moneybookers now could boast over 25 million customers and 120,000 merchant accounts, mainly boosted by the acceptance of Moneybookers as a payment service by such internet giants as eBay, Facebook and Skype.
In 2011 Moneybookers announced that it intended to rebrand itself as "Skrill", which is a slang term for money, an abbreviated version of the term "Skrilla". Between 2011 and 2013 the company was known as "Skrill Moneybookers", with the "Moneybookers" aspect of the brand name being dropped totally in October 2013, by which time Skrill had been bought from Investcorp by the UK and Luxembourg based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for €600 million. Also in 2013 Skrill acquired Paysafecard, Europe's leading online prepaid payment provider.
Skrill today
Skrill employs around 700 million people and has an annual revenue of €200 million. The company still has partnerships with Skype and eBay, as well as online bookmakers such as Bet365 and William Hill. Skrill has offices in the UK (London), Austria (Vienna), Sweden (Stockholm) and the USA (New York). There are over 36 million Skrill personal customers and 156,000 merchants all over the globe, and a Skrill account can be used in over 40 different currencies.
Since 2009 Skrill account holders have been able to apply for a Skrill Prepaid Mastercard, which allows them to pay for good and services at real-world outlets, and to withdraw money at nearly 2 million ATMs worldwide. The card is linked directly to a customer's Skrill account, and there are no overdraft facilities.
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