“Xoom…. think Western Union without the excessive fees…”

TechCrunch, Sep 28, 2007

Xoom’s fifteen-plus-years history is full of missed opportunities and second chances. The child of the so-called “PayPal Mafia” and protege of Sequoia Capital, Xoom was founded in 2001 to disrupt cross-border remittances. At that point, Western Union already had a website where customers could initiate and track money transfers, but it seemed clunky and wasn’t attracting much usage. The shift of remittances online was expected imminently, so creating an online-only provider with a better user experience was a no-brainer.