the cofounders of crossborder payments startup wise have become europe’s latest tech billionaires after its debut on the london stock exchange wednesday with prices set at 11 £8 per share through a directlisting auction process kristo käärmann’s nearly 188 stake in wise gives him an estimated net worth of 2 billion making him the first estonian to reach the billiondollar threshold on the forbes list his estonian cofounder taavet hinrikus has a nearly 109 stake worth 11 billion founded in 2011 the startup formerly known as transferwise offers lowcost money transfers across 56 different currencies käärmann and hinrikus started wise after having become they said “sick of losing money to our banks” in the fees they paid to send money between london—where they were working—and their native estonia today wise processes 6 billion in crossborder payments every month for 10 million customers claiming to save users around 15 billion a year in bank fees in comparison with western union’s international money transfer service for example wise claims that sending £1000 gbp to the us is us18 cheaper using wise today’s ipo makes wise the largest tech company—based on a market capitalization of 11 billion—to list on the london stock exchange wise’s ipo comes on the heels of rising revenues and valuations for a spate of fintech and payment companies during the global pandemic lockdown in europe alone investors have driven the value of online payment startup checkoutcom from 55 billion in june 2020 to 15 billion in january 2021 while paybyinstallment fintech klarna tripled its valuation in just six months from 11 billion to 31 billion in march wise has tapped into growing demand in the year through march 2019 the company posted revenues of £1779 million followed by £3026 million in revenues in the year through march 2020 and £421 million in the year through march 2021 a 136 increase in just two years in july 2020 wise hit a 5 billion investorled valuation—making it one of europe’s top fintechs the revenue growth was fueled by a steady increase in transactions in fiscal 2019 wise’s 6 million customers processed 37 billion in crosscurrency transfers business and personal while in fiscal 2020 that number grew to 8 million customers and 58 billion in crosscurrency transfers in fiscal 2021 wise hit 10 million customers and 74 billion in payment volume the story of how wise began is a parable on the value of smallscale personal financial problemsolving as the founders told forbes in 2016 wise grew out of a moneysaving arrangement hatched by the two londonbased estonians while käärmann worked at deloitte and hinrikus worked at skype the pair devised a system to avoid paying fees of anywhere between 10 and 12 on basic monthly transactions where one person needed estonian kroon and the other needed british pound sterling “we realized there is actually no need to move the money no need to make an international transfer because the money already exists where it needs to” hinrikus said in 2016 the estonian software engineers devised a simple solution hinrikus would transfer euros from his estonian bank account into käärmanns estonian account while käärmann would transfer pounds from his british hsbc account to hinrikus’ at lloyds this saved them the international transfer fees as well as on currency drag since they used the real exchange rate known as the midmarket rate the idea spread to other estonian expats via skype chat who saw big savings in exchanging money this way the skypelinked money exchange forum morphed into transferwise in 2011 the pair quit their jobs and selffunded for a year before landing a seed funding round of 13 million the startup gained global attention a year later when billionaire peter thiel led wise’s 6 million series c funding round in 2014 billionaire richard branson invested in a 26 million round for an undisclosed stake jeppe rindom founder of danish expense fintech pleo told forbes that wise was born during a “black swan event” during the financial crisis adding “it feels fitting that it would ipo following a second” on their success he says “wise challenged boundaries without making enemies worked with the media without spinning into hype and invested in their culture not just their product” the listing also comes as good news to wise’s 2400 employees worldwide who will benefit from an employee option share pool of 98 of total shares meanwhile wise has expanded beyond money transfer services to offer multicurrency bank accounts and business accounts designed for operating globally nudging into the space operated by traditional banks it’s issued 16 million debit cards