Wise also received investment after being named one of Seedcamp 2011's winners. Wise received seed funding amounting to $1.3 million from a consortium including venture firms IA Ventures and Index Ventures, IJNR Ventures, NYPPE as well as individual investors such as PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, former Betfair CEO David Yu, and co-founder Errol Damelin. Wise Platform is a platform allowing "banks and businesses to offer their customers fast, cheap and transparent ways to manage their money across borders". Wise Business allows businesses to perform cross-border money transfers. ![]() 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. However, it offers accounts through Wise Account to customers to hold their money while sending, receiving, and spending. Wise is not a bank, as it states it does not lend out customer money to others. Wise offers three products: Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform. Käärmann, ranked as 156th, being worth £1.134 billion and Hinrikus ranked 197th with the net worth of £861 million. 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. He reportedly failed to pay £720,000 for the 2017–2018 tax year. He would remain on the list for 12 months from September 2021. 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. On 7 July 2021, Wise went public with a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, and was valued at $11 billion. It was also announced that David Wells would replace him in this position. 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. The company rebranded to reflect its expanded product offering beyond international money transfer. As part of this rebranding, the company also launched a new website domain. ![]() On 22 February 2021, the company rebranded from TransferWise to Wise. On 21 January 2021, Sky News reported that Wise had appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as joint global co-ordinators for its planned initial public offering. 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. In 2019, the company announced opening an office in Brussels. Also in April 2017, the company announced the opening of its APAC hub in Singapore. 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. 8 on CNBC's 2015 Disruptor 50 list, and in August 2015, the company was named a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer. 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 April 2013, Wise stopped letting users purchase Bitcoin, citing pressure from banking providers. ![]() In 2012, Wise was named as 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 .uk's list of the top 100 UK start-ups of 2012. In its first year of operation, transactions through Wise amounted to €10 million. The company's system has been compared to the hawala money transfer system. The banks try hard to make it extremely difficult to understand what you’re paying for. Claiming that "most of the charge was hidden in the exchange rate. Hinrikus experienced frustration whenever he made an international money transfer between Estonia and the UK. Hinrikus moved from Estonia to London around 2006. Wise was cofounded by Taavet Hinrikus ( Skype's first employee) and financial consultant Kristo Käärmann. History Regular money transfer versus peer-to-peer money transfer, as used by Wise As of 2023, it offers three main products: Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform. Wise specializes in cross-border payment transfer. Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a UK-based foreign exchange financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011.
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