Tale of Two Wises

“Revolution is a tough business. You can’t make it wearing white gloves and with clean hands”

Lenin

Wise’s (ex-TransferWise) origins are often described as follows: Two Estonians, one a former Skype employee and the other a Deloitte consultant, became fed up with the exorbitant fees charged by banks for money transfers from the UK to Estonia. Fueled by their frustration, they had a stroke of brilliance – matching remittance senders and receivers within the same country. With a sauna in their office and a team unafraid to challenge the banking industry, TransferWise was born. The startup received backing from prominent investors such as Peter Thiel, Richard Branson, and Ben Horowitz, propelling it to the pinnacle of fintech consumer cross-border transfers, surpassing a valuation of $10 billion in 2021.