Welcoming Clare and Hooi Ling to the board

A decade in, we’ve grown into Wise; and are ready for the next phase of growth.

When Taavet and I started out 10 years ago, we wanted to build money without borders, and make moving money faster, easier and cheaper for everyone, without any of the hidden fees that collectively have been costing us billions. We started with money transfers.

We’ve made a lot of progress since then. We’ve created new ways for people and businesses to not just send money, but also to spend and receive it 一 all at the real exchange rate. Along the way we’ve built a global cross border payments network, which is replacing international banking for 10 million people and businesses globally.

Wise is building the world’s most international account, allowing our customers to send, spend and hold money in over 50 currencies, with real bank details and a debit card. Wise Business brings these same benefits to businesses, along with tools that make starting and scaling internationally a lot faster, easier and cheaper, while Wise Platform gives banks and other larger institutions the ability to offer the same Wise experience to their own customers.

As we look into the next decade (and beyond!), our journey is still just beginning. Over the next few years, we’ll be expanding our product around the world, continuing to innovate to lower the cost of cross-border transactions, and building more ways to help our customers solve their cross-border money needs.

So today, I’m thrilled to introduce our two new director designates to help us in this next chapter.

Tan Hooi Ling - Grab co-founder

• Companies with the ambition and execution of Grab are rare. It’s been incredible to see what Hooi Ling and her team have achieved in this past decade 一 expanding Grab from a ride-hailing service that started in Malaysia into a super app offering their customers services from food, grocery and parcel delivery to digital payment, insurance and other financial services across eight countries in Southeast Asia.
• This experience will help as we bring Wise to more and more diverse markets, especially in Asia Pacific. Wise is now live in seven markets in the region and we hope to expand this footprint meaningfully in the coming decade.

Clare Gilmartin - former Trainline CEO

• Trainline is a singular example of reinvention and technology-driven expansion. As its CEO, Clare engendered a fearless approach to new ideas and technology, all for the benefit of the customer. Under her leadership, the platform scaled from being UK only to one working with more than 270 carriers across 45 countries in just seven years.
• Clare’s experience will help as we scale our operations and services even further to meet the needs of our diversified product and global audiences.

In their own words:

"With its mission to make money borderless, Wise is striving to build a new global standard for the financial industry, and leveling the playing field for more people and businesses around the world. This is an ambition I share and one that’s particularly close to my heart as someone who lives and works in Southeast Asia where many are financially underserved. I’m excited to join the Wise Board and join them on their journey.” - Tan Hooi Ling

“Wise is a trailblazer 一 using technology to fundamentally reimagine how we manage our finances in an internet-driven, international world. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to come aboard and contribute to their mission to build a better global standard for the financial industry.” - Clare Gilmartin

Clare and Hooi Ling will bring a wealth of experience that will help us deliver on our mission as we continue to expand globally. I’m also excited about the diverse perspectives they’ll be bringing to the Board, to help us create a more inclusive work environment as well as more diverse and inclusive products.

This is not the first time we’ve expanded our board. In 2019, Ingo Uytdehaage, CFO at Adyen and David Wells, former Netflix CFO, joined my co-founder, Taavet, investors Alex Rampell from Andreessen Horowitz and Roger Ehrenberg from IA Ventures and me to help us accelerate our mission.

Please join me in welcoming Hooi Ling and Clare!

Kristo Käärmann