Wise scoops £160m capital boost from Silicon Valley Bank as it joins Temenos marketplace

It’s a busy day in Wise’s world this morning. 

The cross-border payments fintech has scooped fresh capital from Silicon Valley Bank and been added to the Temenos marketplace to help bring its services to banks across the world.

SVB has provided Wise with a £160m capital facility to help the fintech refinance its existing line of credit.

“The revolving loan provided by Silicon Valley Bank will offer us flexible and efficient access to working capital, meaning we can continue bringing our service to as many customers as possible, regardless of where in the world they are,” Matt Briers, chief financial officer at Wise, said.

Wise will also use the cash for “ongoing working capital requirements,” perhaps for its rumoured upcoming London IPO...

“This financing builds on our long-term relationship with Wise and showcases how SVB collaborates with innovation companies throughout the journey. ”Thomas Easterby, director of corporate finance at SVB UK & EMEA, added.

Rumours of Wise’s imminent London listing have been floating around for the best part of half a year now, with the fintech still keeping schtum about the specifics.

Wise has reportedly appointed Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as coordinators of its IPO and will opt for a  dual-class share structure to keep the control of the company in the hands of its founders and early investors.

Last month the fintech also awarded 2,000 lucky customers the chance to win a ‘slice of the Wise pie’ gifting a single Wise share, or roughly 0.0000029 per cent of Wise to the winners.

As well as receiving a capital boost, Wise was also added to the Temenos marketplace and expanding its reach across the world.

Joining Temenos’ marketplace will see Wise connected with more than 3,000 banks and financial institutions around the world, allowing them to quickly and easily switch on Wise’s cross-border payments network with their digital banking platform.

Wise’s cross-border payments are up to eight times cheaper than traditional providers and over 38 per cent of transfers are delivered instantly, with the remaining 62 per cent hitting customers’ banks in less than an hour.

“Together with Wise, we are making banking better. Wise brings a truly borderless experience to international banking and payments,” Martin Bailey, product director at Temenos, said.

“We’re thrilled to offer Wise Platform on Temenos MarketPlace so that our clients can leverage Wise’s unique network and infrastructure to ultimately offer faster, fairer international banking experiences to their customers.”