CROSS-BORDER: BUILDING SUCCESS
Getting Wise with the world’s financial data It’s been a landmark year for cross-border payments giant Wise, following a decade of impressive growth. We sat down with Matt Briers, Chief Financial Officer, to discuss the company’s evolution, its recent listing, and what’s coming next Like many of the world’s most disruptive companies, cross-border payments specialist Wise was born out of frustration with the status quo. Back in 2010, Estonian friends Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus shared a common problem. Hinrikus, who was the first employee at Skype, lived in London but got paid in euros. Käärmann worked for Deloitte, also lived in London, and got paid in pounds. But he had a mortgage in euros back in Estonia. They both moved their money around via their banks, which had expensive fees and bad exchange rates. They knew there had to be a better way. So they put their heads together and worked out a new way
to make cross-border transactions at the real exchange rate. They would informally transfer money between one another, by looking at the mid-market rate of a certain day each month. This allowed them to achieve a fair exchange rate without paying additional bank charges.
RAPID RISE TO UNICORN Following this discovery, the pair launched Wise in 2011 under its original name TransferWise. The company has gone on to enjoy a stellar rise, achieving unicorn status and launching an incredibly successful public listing earlier this year. Wise is now one of the world’s fastest-growing tech companies, having
raised over $1billion in primary and secondary transactions from some of the world’s leading investors. Currently, some 11 million people and businesses use its services. The Wise account enables users to transfer money internationally at a cheaper rate and allows the to hold money in more than 50 currencies and get real bank details in 10 currencies. “Today, we move more than £6billion a month,” says Matt Briers, CFO. “We move 40 per cent of that instantly, so it’s available in people’s accounts within 20 seconds, which is quite mind-blowing, and we’re typically the cheapest by quite a stretch, charging around eight-times less than a typical bank.”
Eyes-on cross-border: Wise is reaping its rewards for taking the pain out of international payments
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ThePaytechMagazine | Issue 10
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