Wise, formerly known as TransferWise, is an Estonian-British financial technology company focused on global money transfers and Business Finance. Headquartered in London, it was founded by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. As of 2023, it offers three main products: Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform.
History
Wise was cofounded in London by Taavet Hinrikus, one of the first employees of Skype, and Kristo Käärmann, a Deloitte management consultant. Hinrikus moved from Estonia to London around 2006, when he began experiencing the challenges of international money transfers. He became aware that when sending money between Estonia and the UK, banks would typically deduct at least a 5% fee, and also remarked that most of the charge is hidden in the exchange rate. According to him, banks try hard to make it extremely difficult to understand what the consumer is paying for, and there is no transparency in the market. In its first year of operation, transactions through Wise amounted to €10 million. In 2012, Wise was named one of "East London's 20 hottest tech startups" by The Guardian, Start-Up of the Week by Wired UK, one of five "start-ups to watch" at Seedcamp's 2012 US Demo Day by TechCrunch, and appeared in Startups.co.uk's list of the top 100 UK start-ups of 2012. In April 2013, Wise stopped letting users purchase Bitcoin, citing pressure from banking providers. Independent comparison site Monito reported that Wise was on average 83% cheaper than the big four UK banks on major currency "routes", but could be up to 90% cheaper in certain specific cases. In May 2015, Wise was ranked No. 8 on CNBC's 2015 Disruptor 50 list, and in August 2015, the company was named a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer. On 8 April 2017, an internal memo from British bank Santander claimed the bank would lose 84% of its revenue from its money transfer business if its charges were the same as Wise. Also in April 2017, the company announced the opening of its APAC hub in Singapore. In 2019, the company announced opening an office in Brussels. In May 2017, the company announced its customers were sending over £1 billion every month using the service, and that the company had turned profitable six years after being founded. On 21 January 2021, Sky News reported that Wise had appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as joint global coordinators for its planned initial public offering. On 22 February 2021, the company rebranded from TransferWise to Wise. As part of this rebranding, the company also launched a new website domain. The company rebranded to reflect its expanded product offering beyond international money transfer. On 2 July 2021, it was announced in a prospectus published by the company that co-founder Taavet Hinrikus would step down as chair within a year. It was also announced that David Wells would replace him in this position. On 7 July 2021, Wise went public with a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange and was valued at $11 billion. On 27 June 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority reported that the Wise CEO, Kristo Käärmann, was included on their list of individuals and businesses receiving penalties for a deliberate default regarding their tax affairs. He would remain on the list for 12 months, starting in September 2021. He reportedly failed to pay £720,000 for the 2017–2018 tax year. In 2023, the founders, Käärmann and Hinrikus, have improved their positions in The Sunday Times Rich List 2023 of the wealthiest people in the UK. Käärmann, ranked as 156th, being worth £1.134 billion and Hinrikus ranked 197th with a net worth of £861 million. In June 2024, the company announced that its customers may have been affected by a data breach at partner bank Evolve Bank & Trust. In March 2025, Wise continued its expansion journey by opening new offices in London and Tallinn. A new office in Singapore opened in April 2025. In June 2025, Wise announced that it planned to move its primary listing from London to the U.S. In June 2026, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that Wise platforms were suspected of being involved in around £432m worth of suspicious transactions spanning 30 European countries. Shortly after, Belgian prosecutors told French media that Wise was being investigated over suspicions criminals were using its accounts for money laundering.
Services
Wise offers three products: Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform. Wise is not a bank, as it states it does not lend out customer money to others.
Wise Account allows customers to hold their money while sending, receiving, and spending. Customers may opt-in to earn interest on the account and gain FDIC insurance on up to $250,000 of their deposit, relying on Wise's partnership with banks. Wise Business allows businesses to perform cross-border money transfers. Wise Platform is a platform allowing "banks and businesses to offer their customers fast, cheap and transparent ways to manage their money across borders". As of 2023, Wise partners with BlackRock for its interest bearing accounts.
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