TransferWise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann in 2011 and is based in London, UK. In a November 2019 interview with Bloomberg, CEO Kristo Käärmann noted the company is in no hurry to go public. These comments should not be interpreted to mean that the company is formally pursuing or foregoing an IPO.
TransferWise operates a money transfer platform that allows users to send money internationally. As of September 2019, the company claims it processes $4 billion worth of transfers every month from its base of 6 million customers. TransferWise is currently supported in 59 countries. The company has raised nearly $400 million in Venture Capital funding from investors including BlackRock, Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital, Green Bay Ventures, IVP, Baillie Gifford, Andreessen Horowitz, Sapphire Ventures, SV Angel, Index Ventures, and Valar Ventures. It has been widely reported that the company last completed a $292 secondary round providing liquidity to existing shareholders in May 2019 resulting in a post-money valuation of $3.5 billion.
LSE: WISE.L