With H1 profits and revenue on the rise, money movement firm Wise has set its ambitions on surpassing the billion-pound transaction processing threshold and facilitating the movement of trillions of pounds globally.
In its H1 report, Wise revealed a net interest income increase of 19.2%, totaling £215.8 million, alongside revenue growth of 18.8%, reaching £591.9 million year-on-year. The company also saw a 25% rise in active customers, with transaction volumes climbing 19% to £68.4 billion in the first half of the year.
Wise has been making significant investments in its infrastructure to secure direct access to payment rails in key markets. Recently, it announced the addition of its first Tier 1 global bank partner, Standard Chartered, to its platform business.
Kristo Kaarmann, co-founder and CEO, emphasized the potential for Wise to facilitate the transfer of trillions rather than just billions. He notes that the current system for moving and managing money internationally remains expensive, slow, inconvenient, and opaque, presenting a substantial opportunity for improvement. Currently, Wise holds less than 5% and 1% market share in the growing personal and Small-Medium Business (SMB) sectors, respectively. When including the large enterprise segment, the cross-border market across these three segments is estimated to exceed £27 trillion.
Kaarmann predicts that, in ten years, it will be possible for individuals to transfer $10,000 across currencies for a fee of just $10, as opposed to the current costs of $200 to $400 charged by banks. He envisions Wise being the leader in executing these transactions at such a competitive price point, with a goal to lower its operational costs to $5 or less.
While acknowledging that this level of efficiency won’t be achieved overnight and that customer responses may take time, Kaarmann is confident that the lowest-priced provider offering the best experience will eventually scale up to become one of the most valuable financial service providers in the world.