Azimo, a London-based digital international wire transfer service, has closed a seed funding round worth over $1 million from German global technology investment firm e.ventures.

For the past year, Azimo has offered an international wire transfer service via web, mobile app or Facebook that can be used to send money to contacts in 190 countries. As a way to celebrate its first birthday and the successful closing of the seed funding round, Azimo will be offering free wire transfers through October.

At between 1 percent and 2 percent, the company says its usual charges are far lower than other transfer options.

'Our recent growth has been extraordinary,' said Azimo founder and CEO Michael Kent. 'Every year, people are wasting more than 50 million pounds by paying over-the-top remittance fees. That's something Azimo is addressing, making it simpler and cheaper than ever to transfer money.

eVentures, which has previously invested in Groupon and Pulse, made the investment out of its European office. The investment was backed by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and Tech City UK. Azimo has already received angel funding from financial services investors including CapitalOne founder Matt Cooper; those angels also participated in the latest investment round.

The World Bank has sized the online money transfer industry at a potential $500 billion annually. Kent and Azimo co-founder Ricky Knox have already been successful in the sector, having formed Small World Financial Services Group and grown it to $4.5 billion turnover.