Wise

A London-founded company that makes sending money abroad cheaper and clearer. Wise runs apprenticeships in London and a graduate and internship programme.

About Wise

Wise makes it cheaper and more transparent to send, hold and spend money across borders. If you have ever paid a bank to send money abroad and wondered why you got a poor exchange rate, that frustration is the story behind Wise. Customers can send money to more than 160 countries, hold balances in different currencies and spend abroad with a card. Wise says it is not a bank and does not lend out customers' money.

Wise was founded in London in January 2011 by two Estonians, Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, who were tired of hidden fees. It was originally called TransferWise and rebranded to Wise in 2021. Wise is headquartered in London and opened new offices in London and Tallinn in 2025. Its main stock-market listing moved from London to the Nasdaq exchange in New York in 2026, but press coverage still describes it as London-based, and its own careers site lists London apprenticeships and shows graduate roles in Tallinn, so it operates across several hubs.

Its stated mission is "to build the best way to move and manage the world's money". In practice that means trying to make sending money cheap, fast and clear about its costs, so that people and small firms are not caught out by fees buried in exchange rates.

Wise's products are the Wise Account for individuals, Wise Business for companies and Wise Platform, which lets banks and other firms offer cross-border payments to their own customers. Behind these sit engineers, data scientists, designers, analysts, customer support and finance teams who keep payments moving between currencies and countries.

For young people, Wise runs a programme called WiseStart, and its careers site gives clear detail. Internships are 10 paid weeks over the summer for students in the penultimate year of a bachelor's or master's degree, in areas such as software engineering, data science, analytics and design. Graduate roles are for final-year students or those who graduated within the past year, with a global September start so graduates begin together, and engineering, data science, people and finance roles have been listed. Apprenticeships are London only, about 80% on the job and 20% in classroom training, with an apprenticeship coach, and applications go through Multiverse, a training partner. Wise describes a friendly environment where you find your own solutions and learn from mistakes; that is the company's own description. Graduate and apprentice pay and deadlines are not stated on the page.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Send, hold and spend money in different currencies.', 'title': 'Wise Account'}
• {'desc': 'International payments for companies.', 'title': 'Wise Business'}
• {'desc': 'Cross-border payments technology for banks and other firms.', 'title': 'Wise Platform'}
• {'desc': 'Paid summer internships, graduate roles and London apprenticeships.', 'title': 'Early careers (WiseStart)'}

Key facts

• Founded: 2011 in London by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann
• Formerly known as TransferWise (renamed 2021)
• Headquarters: London, UK
• Internships: 10 paid weeks over the summer for penultimate-year students (wise.jobs)
• Apprenticeships: London only, about 80% work and 20% study, via Multiverse (wise.jobs)

Website: wise.com