Wise

Wise, known as TransferWise until it rebranded in February 2021, is a financial technology company that moves money across borders for individuals and businesses. It was founded in London in January 2011 by Kristo Käärmann, a former Deloitte management consultant, and Taavet Hinrikus, one of Skype's first employees, after both ran into the hidden exchange rate markups banks charged on transfers between Estonia and the UK. The company now sells three products: the Wise Account for holding, sending and spending money in multiple currencies, Wise Business for cross-border business payments, and Wise Platform, which lets banks and other businesses offer Wise's transfer infrastructure to their own customers.

The company's seed round of about $1.3 million came from a group including IA Ventures, Index Ventures, IJNR Ventures and NYPPE, with angels including Max Levchin, David Yu and Errol Damelin, and it was also a Seedcamp 2011 winner. Valar Ventures led a $6 million round announced in May 2013, and a further $25 million followed in June 2014, adding Richard Branson as an investor. In January 2015 Andreessen Horowitz led a $58 million Series C, a deal reported at the time to value the company at about $1 billion, with Ben Horowitz joining the board. Baillie Gifford led a $26 million top-up in 2016 at a $1.1 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $117 million. In November 2017 Old Mutual Global Investors and Institutional Venture Partners led a $280 million Series E with Sapphire Ventures, Mitsui & Co. and World Innovation Lab. Secondary rounds followed: $292 million in May 2019 at a $3.5 billion valuation, and $319 million in July 2020 at $5 billion, led by D1 Capital Partners and Lone Pine Capital, with Vulcan Capital joining and Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Investments and LocalGlobe adding to their holdings.

Wise reported that it turned profitable in 2017, six years after founding. On 7 July 2021 it went public through a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of about $11 billion, with no new money raised in the listing. In June 2025 it announced plans to move its primary listing to the United States, and in May 2026 it began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker WSE while keeping a secondary London listing. In June 2026 the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that Wise had about 15 million customers, and that Belgian prosecutors were examining whether its accounts had been used for money laundering.

For venture investors, Wise is an example of a capital-light consumer fintech reaching a public listing after ten years. Early backers such as IA Ventures, Index Ventures and Valar Ventures entered at seed and early stage, before a profitable business allowed later rounds to be largely secondary. The direct listing gave existing holders liquidity without a primary raise, and the 2026 move to Nasdaq reflects the company's choice of US capital markets.