Wise - StartupWiki | AI Startup Research Directory

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Wise — Startup ProfileMoney without borders — the international account for people and businessesHQ: London, United Kingdom | Founded: 2011 | Employees: 5,500+ | Stage: Public (LSE: WISE) | Website: https://wise.comAboutWise (formerly TransferWise) was founded in January 2011 in London by Estonians Kristo Käärmann (ex-Deloitte) and Taavet Hinrikus (Skype's first employee) after they realized they were overpaying banks on EUR/GBP transfers by hacking a peer-to-peer workaround. The company uses the real mid-market exchange rate with transparent upfront fees, building direct local account infrastructure in lieu of correspondent banking. Headquartered in London with offices in Tallinn, New York, Singapore, Budapest and Austin, Wise is listed on the London Stock Exchange under ticker WISE and serves 160+ countries with 40+ currencies, holding £13.3B in customer balances and £2.9B in Assets Under Custody.Wise monetizes through a small transparent percentage fee per transfer plus interchange on its multi-curreKey Metrics

Valuation at IPO: $11B (Direct listing Jul 2021)

Revenue FY24: £1.05B (+24% YoY)

Profit FY24: £354.6M net / £241.8M underlying PBT (+226%)

Customers: 12.8M active (+29% YoY)

Volume FY24: £118.5B (+13% YoY)

Take Rate: 0.67% average fee

Funding Rounds

Round: $1.3M (2012-04-17) — IA Ventures, Index Ventures

Round: $6M (2013-05-13) — Valar Ventures

Round: $58M (2015-01-25) — Andreessen Horowitz

Round: $280M (2017-11-02) — Old Mutual Global Investors, IVP

Round: $292M (2019-05-22) — Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital, Vitruvian

Key People

Kristo Käärmann

Harsh Sinha

Emmanuel Thomassin

David Wells

Key Competitors

Revolut —

Remitly —

Airwallex —

Western Union / MoneyGram —

Timeline Highlights

2024-06-13: FY24 results: £1.05B revenue, 12.8M customers

2021-07-07: Direct listing on London Stock Exchange at $11B

2017-11-02: $280M Series E — unicorn at $1.6B

2015-01-25: $58M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz

2012-04-17: Seed $1.3M from Index & IA Ventures