On 27 July 2001, Moneybookers Limited was incorporated in the United Kingdom. In March 2007, Moneybookers was bought by Investcorp for €105 million and, as of 9 March 2009, it was put up for sale by its owners for an estimated £365 million. In February 2010, The Sunday Times ranked Moneybookers as the fastest growing private equity backed firm in the United Kingdom based on profits. In 2011, the company's customer base reached 25 million, including 120,000 merchant accounts, its payment gateway being integrated by a number of global online brands, such as Facebook, Skype and eBay. In September 2011, Moneybookers announced that they would rebrand their service as Skrill. The rebranding of the product was completed in 2013. In February 2013, Skrill completed the acquisition of Austrian-based prepaid payment method paysafecard. In August 2013, CVC Capital Partners acquired Skrill for €600 million. As of 2014, Skrill has been approved by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement as the only sanctioned digital wallet for New Jerseyinternet gambling. In March 2015, Optimal Payments, the parent company of the Skrill's rival Neteller, announced its official proposal for acquisition of Skrill Group for €1.1 billion. The deal was finalized in the third quarter of 2015 according to the parties. In April 2015, Skrill Group announced that it had completed acquisition of Ukash, a UK-based competitor of paysafecard, which was merged during the same year. In June 2018, Skrill introduced crypto service that allows customers to buy cryptocurrencies using their balance in local fiat currency to hold an interest in them via Skrill wallet without being able to withdraw the bought cryptocurrencies to a native wallet or any other cryptocurrency exchange.
Service
Skrill accounts can be created in one of 40 supported currencies; users can then add more currencies to their account. Customers can purchase a Skrill-branded prepaid card, linked to the account in one of the four currencies: USD, EUR, PLN, and GBP. High-turnover customers are offered premium membership called "Skrill VIP" that includes additional features, such as a security token, multi-currency accounts and the ability to earn loyalty points.
In August 2010, Skrill blocked the account operated by WikiLeaks as a donation collection account, citing the organisation's addition to Australian blacklists and American watchlists.
