EXCLUSIVE: TransferWise poaches new finance director from Google

International money transfer company TransferWise has poached Google UK's head of sales finance to be its new finance director, Business Insider can reveal.

TransferWise confirmed to us that Matt Briers started yesterday at the company's East London offices after three years at Google. Before that, he helped run Lloyds' asset finance division, and has also worked at credit card company Capital One and management consultancy Bain & Company.

A spokesperson for TransferWise says Briers will help the company with its planned international expansion. The company is currently hiring a full-time country manager for Japan.

TransferWise is one of London's hottest startups, working in the booming area of fintech, or financial technology.

The 4-year-old company, which was founded by two Estonian immigrants, matches people looking to send currencies in different directions, cutting down on costs by cutting the actual transfer of money.

Instead, TransferWise pays out of or into large accounts in each country. The company currently lets people send money across 400 different currency routes, covering 51 countries.

At the start of the year, TransferWise became one of the few UK technology startups to be valued at $1 billion (£650 million) when Silicon Valley venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz invested $58 million (£37 million) in the company.

Other backers include Virgin billionaire Sir Richard Branson, renowned European VC fund Index Ventures (which has backed the likes of Just Eat, Etsy, and Sonos), and PayPal co-founder Peter Theil, through his fund Valar Ventures.

The company has grown rapidly since its last funding round, announcing in June that it is transferring around £500 million ($768 million) a month and has transferred £3 billion ($4.6 billion) to date.