Congratulations to Wise on their direct listing today! Ever since we first invested in Wise in 2017, we have been firm believers in the team and its approach to achieving its mission.
When investing in a company, we often wonder: what is a word or concept that summarizes what the company, the product, and the team uniquely embody and represent. In our historical investments, for example, we felt that Asana represents alignment. Auth0 represents trust.
These elements - like alignment and trust - are so rare and hard to achieve that these companies inspire and attract the world’s best talent to join their mission.
We think that Wise uniquely embodies and represents transparency.
Traditional international money transfer has been expensive (3-7% fees), slow (several days to receive money), inconvenient (cumbersome UX), and opaque (only 4% of bank respondents understand the actual costs of their money transfer since fees were hidden). Frustrated, Kristo, Taavet, and their team at Wise built an entirely new way that is cheap (0.7% average fees), fast (38% instant, 83% less than 24 hours), convenient (a few taps to complete transactions), and radically transparent (no hidden fees).
At Wise, transparency is integrated throughout their product, marketing, and every other aspect of the business. When there is nothing to hide -- that’s a sign of strength. Transparency requires courage, accountability, confidence, and commitment to excellence. And Wise achieved all of that, in flying colors. As a result, when consumers and businesses compare money transfer options transparently, they naturally arrive at the same conclusion: use Wise.
By offering a cheap, fast, convenient, and transparent alternative, Wise has built a high-growth, profitable, and durable business with £54B annual volume, £421M Revenue with FY19-FY21 revenue CAGR of 54%, and 26% Adjusted EBITDA margin. Since they have reimagined the entire money transfer experience and built new infrastructure from the ground up, they are set up to expand into new dimensions by leveraging their infrastructure and build a company for the long-term in a massive £18T cross-border payment market.
Through our journey with the team, we’ve traveled with founders Kristo and Taavet to Japan, met with local banks and regulators, and worked with the Wise team on partnership opportunities and market development. Every step of the way, their commitment to excellence and transparency shined through, further solidifying our conviction in the team.
To Kristo, Taavet, Matt, and the entire Wise team - congratulations on today’s milestone. Here is to a world in which transparency prevails!