TransferWise reveals new name

The money transfer fintech formerly known as TransferWise has rebranded as 'Wise'.

The firm, which is ten years old, has dropped the ‘Transfer’, despite handling £4.5bn in cross-border transactions every month. The reason? It wants its new name to better reflect its strategy of offering a growing array of financial services that moves it more and more towards the ‘super app’ category.

Co-founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, Wise launched in 2011 and has raised over $1bn in primary and secondary fundraises from the likes of Fidelity, Baillie Gifford and Vulcan Capital, the investment business of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Initially, Wise offered money transfers but is increasingly positioning a full suite of cross-border banking services for its 10 million personal and business customers.

In the UK Wise was last year awarded new FCA permissions to offer savings and investments products. These are widely expected to launch later in 2021.

Wise now has three main products with money transfers sitting at the core of each of them. With the core Wise account users can end and spend money internationally, hold money in 55 currencies and have account numbers in 10 currencies as well as use a debit card. Wise says 1.4 million people are currently using one.

Wise Business offers the same personal account features as well as bank feeds, mass payouts and multi-user access. Over 150,000 businesses joined Wise in the last 12 months.

Wise also has a busy platform business offering banks and companies like Monzo,GoCardless, and Xero its infrastructure. Wise Platform is live with banks in 10 countries.

Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder, Wise said:  “Today our name catches up with who we’re already building for - a community of people and businesses with multi-currency lives. That community now even includes the banks themselves. We’ve evolved to fix more than just money transfer, but the core experience of using Wise will remain faster, cheaper, and more convenient than anything else. Our mission remains the same. We’re still making — and always will be making — money work without borders.”