Wise plc
Cross-Border Payments and Financial TechnologyFounded 2011- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
Wise plc
Company History
Founded 2011 in London, United Kingdom
Last reviewed: 2025-07-15 · By Swet Parvadiya
$717.3 million in reported profit before tax in FY2025, up 17% year-on-year, makes Wise one of the few fintechs globally that combines high growth with sustained profitability at scale. The company processed $184.4 billion in cross-border volume for 15.6 million active customers, saved customers approximately $2.5 billion in fees compared to traditional banks, and held $27.3 billion in customer holdings. Yet the headline numbers mask a structural dependency: 78.6% of reported profit comes from interest income on customer balances, a source vulnerable to interest rate declines and regulatory mandates to increase customer pass-through. Wise's response is to accelerate infrastructure investment, reduce prices to capture market share, and pursue banking licenses that would secure direct access to payment rails and reduce reliance on intermediaries. The company is not merely growing; it is attempting to become the essential network for global money movement, handling trillions rather than billions.
Kristo Käärmann is the co-founder and CEO of Wise plc. Born in Estonia, he moved to London where he worked as a management consultant specializing in financial services modernization. His personal experience of losing approximately $635 in exchange rate markups on a $12,700 transfer to Estonia motivated him to build a transparent alternative to traditional banking. Käärmann's operational philosophy emphasizes doing unscalable things first—manually recording transfers in spreadsheets at launch—to validate demand before building automation. Under his leadership, Wise has grown from a six-person team processing $1 million in monthly volume to an 8,000-person organization moving $184.4 billion annually. He was selected as one of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers in 2015. In June 2022, the UK Financial Conduct Authority included Käärmann on its list of individuals receiving penalties for a deliberate tax default regarding $914,400 for the 2017-2018 tax year; he remained on the list for 12 months starting September 2021. Despite this controversy, he has retained the CEO position and led the company's 2025 announcement of a planned primary listing move to the United States.
Taavet Hinrikus is the co-founder of Wise plc and was its first CEO. An Estonian entrepreneur, he joined Skype as its first employee in 2003 and later served as director of strategy, giving him firsthand experience in building peer-to-peer infrastructure that undercuts incumbents. After leaving Skype, Hinrikus worked as an angel investor and advisor to multiple startups before co-founding TransferWise with Kristo Käärmann in January 2011. His personal need to convert euros to pounds for London living expenses—and Käärmann's opposite need—created the peer-to-peer matching concept that became Wise's core innovation. Hinrikus was widely cited as the initial draw for investors, with his Skype pedigree providing credibility in a market where European fintech disruption was unprecedented. He served as CEO until 2017, when he handed the role to Käärmann to focus on investing. He remained chair until July 2022. In 2023, Hinrikus was ranked 197th on The Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of $1,093 million, making him one of Estonia's first billionaires alongside Käärmann.
Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus founded TransferWise on January 26, 2011, with a $31,750 personal investment and a pre-seed round from Seedcamp, after experiencing personal frustration with bank fees on cross-border transfers between the UK and Estonia.
In February 2011, TransferWise raised a $1.3 million seed round led by IA Ventures and Index Ventures, with PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, former Betfair CEO David Yu, Wonga.com co-founder Errol Damelin, and Sir Richard Branson participating, giving the company runway to build its peer-to-peer matching platform.
By May 2013, TransferWise had processed over $318 million in transfers, saving customers approximately $13 million in hidden fees, and closed a $6 million Series A led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures to fund US and Australia expansion.
TransferWise launched in the United States in 2014, establishing regulatory compliance across state-level money transmitter licenses and beginning the multi-year process of building US payment infrastructure.
In January 2015, Wise raised a $58 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from existing investors, bringing total funding to $117 million and enabling expansion into Asia and deeper European penetration.
In 2016, TransferWise became the first technology company to gain access to the UK's Faster Payments Scheme through a partnership with Raphaels Bank, enabling instant domestic transfers and reducing reliance on correspondent banking.
TransferWise launched the Borderless account in 2017, allowing customers to hold balances in 40+ currencies with local account details, transforming the company from a remittance service into a multi-currency banking alternative.
The company launched its debit card in 2018 and reported its first full year of profitability, a rare achievement for a high-growth fintech, with four consecutive profitable years by 2020.
In May 2019, Wise raised a $292 million secondary investment round, reaching a valuation of $3.5 billion, more than double the $1.6 billion valuation achieved in its 2017 $280 million Series E round.
In July 2020, Wise disclosed a $319 million secondary investment round led by D1 Capital Partners and Lone Pine Capital, reaching a $5 billion valuation with new investor Vulcan Capital and additions from Baillie Gifford and Fidelity.
On February 22, 2021, TransferWise rebranded to Wise to reflect expanded services beyond transfers; on July 7, 2021, Wise went public via direct listing on the London Stock Exchange at an $11 billion valuation, the largest tech direct listing on the LSE.
In March 2024, Wise secured a Type 1 Funds Transfer Service Provider license in Japan, removing the $0.0067 million transaction limit; by FY2025, the company had established direct connections to 8 domestic payment systems globally.
In FY2025, Wise served 15.6 million customers, moved $184.4 billion in volume, generated $1.54 billion in revenue and $717.3 million in reported profit; in June 2025, the company announced plans to move its primary listing to the US and applied for a US national trust bank license.
Wise has grown primarily through organic expansion rather than acquisitions. The company's strategy focuses on building proprietary infrastructure and direct regulatory licenses rather than buying market share.