The European online translation and digital payment company Wise, which until recently was called TransferWise, has just created the two newest billionaires on the Old Continent. The founders of the start-up, Christo Kaarman and Taavet Hinrikus, became the biggest winners since the company’s listing.
At the initial public offering (IPO) of shares in London on Wednesday, the company’s shares were sold for 800 pence. The company’s market capitalization reached 8 billion pounds or 11 billion dollars. According to the size of the shares of the two entrepreneurs in the start-up, their wealth is now estimated at about 2 and 1 billion dollars, respectively, writes Bloomberg.
Other big winners from Wise’s IPO include billionaire Peter Thiel’s investment firm Valar Ventures and British investor Bailey Gifford.
Europe has a new most expensive technology start-up
The company is already valued at $ 3.5 billion
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The Fintech sector in the UK has managed to create quite a few success stories in the last few years, as one of the leaders of Revolut, as well as OakNorth. However, Wise is one of the first start-ups in the sector to debut on the stock exchange.
Its founders Hinricus and Kaarman were born in History. The first of them is the first employee of one of the well-known technology companies in the country – Skype. Kaarman, for his part, was a financial consultant. The two created Wise nearly 10 years after settling on the Island.
Their idea for the company came in an attempt to avoid paying high fees for bank transfers from the UK to their homeland.
Since 2017, Wise has reported a profit. For fiscal 2021, the company has doubled its profit to 30.9 million pounds or 42.7 million dollars, and its revenues are up 39% to 421 million pounds.
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