Founder letter: a note from Kristo
Where we started
Ten years ago Taavet and I started Wise. We were both sick of losing money to our banks.
I was sending money home to Estonia every month with my bank and losing thousands to hidden exchange rate markups. I didn’t like this then and I still don’t today.
We came up with what we thought was a pretty clever solution. Every month, we looked up the actual exchange rate and then Taavet put his Estonian kroon into my bank account in Estonia and I topped up Taavet’s UK account with pounds. No fees, no bad exchange rates - it felt like we had outsmarted a system that was built to fleece us. It felt good.
We thought we might be able to help others save some money who’d been overcharged and underserved by banks. We built a simple website, crowdsourced a name from our friends, and Wise was born.
Where we are today
In the decade since, we’ve grown from a simple money transfer service into an international account that helps a community of over 10 million like-minded people and businesses manage and move their money across the world.
Wise now moves over £5 billion across borders every month, saving customers more than £1 billion in fees a year.
Our Wise Account and debit card is replacing traditional international banking for millions of people and businesses. We’ve issued more than 1.6 million debit cards and customers held £3.7 billion in deposits as at 31 March 2021 across 56 different currencies in Wise accounts, and many use their Wise account numbers to get paid like a local in 30 countries.
Businesses now use us to manage their cash flow, pay suppliers, and get paid all over the world. And by building this infrastructure for consumers and businesses, we’ve created a service over API that more than a dozen banks and enterprises use today.
Over the years we expanded to new countries, launched new features, and are still fighting as hard as ever against hidden fees. Throughout this, one thing has remained constant - our mission.
The Wise Mission
We are creating money without borders: instant, convenient, transparent and eventually free.
Money should move across borders instantly. Moving money across borders should be convenient. The fees should be transparent and not be hidden in exchange rates.
Eventually, we want to make money move across borders for free. We’re powering money for people and businesses: to pay, get paid, to spend, in any currency, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing.
In 2011, this had never been attempted. In 2021, it is still a huge leap from where we are. There remains a great deal of work to do. Moving money into another currency is still a maze of hidden exchange rate markups, high fees, delays, and small print for most people. Sending, spending, receiving, and holding money internationally doesn’t work like it should, because the international banking system was built for the past.
We’re still in the early stages of making our mission a reality, but we know what we need to do and we have a team of over 2,400 dedicated people working to make it happen.
Making our mission a reality
Today, moving money using Wise saves customers money, time, and hassle. It still mostly moves between bank accounts in different countries. Increasingly, people and businesses use Wise to replace international bank accounts and hold their money, move money between their Wise Account balances, and spend it with their Wise debit cards. Others are switching to banks, where cross-border transactions powered by Wise are built directly into their bank’s apps.
As the world gets more connected, the need for moving money globally is only accelerating. We are making money work for that connected future.
How are we going to do this? At its core, our plan revolves around:
- Building solutions to help personal customers manage their money internationally through the Wise Account
- Making our Wise Business account work for businesses of all sizes so they can manage their international finances
- Continuing to improve our infrastructure so that it can move money for anyone, anywhere and helping Wise Platform partners integrate Wise into their banks or apps
If we do these things right, we will make progress on our mission and save people and businesses much, much more than the £1 billion they currently save every year using Wise.
What you should expect if you join us
I like to tell our team that they haven’t signed up to work at a company - but on a mission. Our shareholders should have the same mindset. Whether you own a small or large piece of Wise, you are not just buying a part of the company, but you’re supporting our progress on creating money without borders.
The process of becoming a public company is a milestone on our journey, but is not a defining feature in and of itself. The work that remains is making Wise cheaper, faster, and easier to use - all around the world.
We’ve built Wise in a sustainable way to be financially independent - and will continue to do so. Our customers pay us enough fees - revenue - that lets us top up our balance sheet with profits for a rainy day. We are working on a difficult, structural problem that will take a long time to solve.
For generations, banks have been defined by borders. Traditional bank accounts trap our money in one country, making international lives more difficult and expensive than they need to be. We are building a better way, but it won’t happen overnight. Our mission has a long term horizon for success.
It can take years to increase the speed of payments and drop fees by integrating into a nation’s payment system. At the same time, we can create new features incredibly fast due to how our team and company is set up. Sometimes our progress may seem fast, but it requires patient, dedicated focus to make a lasting improvement in the fundamentals, such as the cost and speed.
Shareholders should understand that we prioritise our team’s efforts - and judge success - on the basis of mission progress. Revenue and returns are a function of our focus on our mission.
We are not a company that prioritises short term solutions. If you’re joining us as a shareholder, you should understand the long term nature of our mission and our focus on it. This is how we grew to help 10 million customers today and how we aim to help 100 million customers in the future.
Staying true to our values
Becoming a publicly traded company is something that we’ve considered for a long time. We are approaching this evolution in our own way that reflects our mission and values.
This moment in time is marked by three key characteristics.
- We are taking steps to align ownership and mission by bringing customers into our shareholder base. Doing this ensures we are solving their problems the best we can.
- We are taking steps to become public in a way that is transparent and fair. By doing a Direct Listing, we are ensuring everyone gets the same opportunity to own a part of Wise as large institutions. We’re allowing our existing shareholders to sell on their own terms and allowing the open market to set a price in a transparent way that’s fair for all.
- Keeping our long term focus. We are putting in place a voting structure that ensures our team can focus on our mission over the long term.
Join us
At the time of becoming a public company, it’s easy to get distracted by evaluating revenue and profits and debating a share price. But for us, this moment is about our customers finally being able to become owners of Wise.
Money is an important part of our lives. But thinking about how to get it from one place to another should never be an expensive or inconvenient worry. Many of our 10 million customers live away from home. The people who use Wise to move money around the world every day are individuals supporting their families, parents paying school fees, and business owners funding their entrepreneurial dreams.
When we talk about removing borders from money, what we’re actually talking about is saving them money and making their lives easier. It’s what we started doing 10 years ago and it’s what we’re going to be doing for a long time.
If you believe in that, we’re excited to have you join us on this mission. Onwards.
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