File-Sharing Company WeTransfer Names First CFO
September 24 2020 - 12:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Nina Trentmann
WeTransfer BV hired its first chief financial officer, as the
European file-sharing company looks to expand its subscription
business and go carbon-neutral by the end of the year.
The Amsterdam-based company on Thursday named Melissa Nussbaum
as CFO, effective Sept. 21. Ms. Nussbaum joins from King Digital
Entertainment, the video and smartphone-game developer that was
acquired by Activision Blizzard Inc. in 2016. Ms. Nussbaum has
worked at the maker of Candy Crush for the past seven years,
including most recently as head of finance. She previously held
several roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers, including a stint as
director of capital markets.
Ms. Nussbaum is joining privately owned WeTransfer as it looks
to increase its base of paid subscribers. The company says about 65
million to 70 million people use its data- and document-sharing
product a month. It doesn't disclose its revenue, but says it
generates about half of it from subscription fees. The other half
comes from advertising and allows the company to offer a basic
version of its file-sharing tool for free. WeTransfer displays
advertisements to nonsubscribers while their files are
transferring.
The focus will be on providing a value-added proposition to
convert users of the free product to paying subscribers, Ms.
Nussbaum said.
The pandemic has led to an increase in usage of WeTransfer's
services in recent months, Chief Executive Gordon Willoughby said.
Many of WeTransfer's customers are freelancers and work in creative
industries, he said. WeTransfer also offers other products, for
example a digital scrapbook and a sketching app.
The company, founded in 2009, has been profitable since 2014,
Mr. Willoughby said. That sets it apart from other companies
offering software-as-a-service, many of which haven't reported a
profit, including public companies such as Slack Technologies Inc.,
the corporate communications platform.
WeTransfer has raised money through two funding rounds, most
recently a $40 million Series B round in 2019, adding to $25
million in Series A-money dating back to 2014. Highland Capital
Partners Europe, a venture-capital firm, currently is WeTransfer's
largest shareholder.
An initial public offering isn't on the cards, at least not now,
Mr. Willoughby said. "We don't need to raise money," he said.
WeTransfer earlier this year registered as a public-benefit
corporation, a type of company that pursues the dual goals of doing
good for society while generating a profit for its shareholders.
Such a designation has gained currency in recent years as investors
focus more on environmental, social and governance factors. The
status is granted by B Lab, an organization which tracks and assess
corporate sustainability efforts.
As a benefit corporation, WeTransfer allocates about 30% of
advertising space on its sharing platform to charitable
organizations for free. It also plans to become carbon-neutral by
the end of the year and have an equal number of men and women in
its workforce, Mr. Willoughby said.
Ms. Nussbaum will be involved in managing the company's ESG
efforts, including evaluating the company's carbon footprint and
working with its suppliers to curtail its footprint. For instance,
WeTransfer plans to work with Amazon Web Services, which it uses
for the file-sharing service, to make sure that its data is
transferred only through renewable-energy powered AWS data
centers.
She also will grow the finance team, currently consisting of six
people. WeTransfer employs about 200 people.
Write to Nina Trentmann at Nina.Trentmann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 24, 2020 12:14 ET (16:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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