Mission Zero - Global Money Movement Reimagined: Kristo Käärmann, co-Founder and CEO Wise (LON:WISE) [S10:E1]
episode
Scaling Up: Lessons From The World's Best CEOs and Founders
42 min
7 chapters
transcribed 18 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What problem in cross‑border payments sparked the creation of Wise?
I'm Ed Cowan and this is Scaling Up.
We had advice for some early investors of, hey, you should really have some like senior bankers on your board or in your management team. If we hire a large number of bankers, we're gonna get a bank. I know the bank is not a solution. We're building something new and we'll see what it's gonna look like, but we'll do it from the first principles.
This podcast aims to educate and inspire by telling the stories of great growth companies as told by their CEOs and founders. TDM is an Australian-based investment firm that invests globally in fast-growing public and private companies. For more insights, visit our website, TDM GrowthPartners.com.
My guest today is Christo Carmen, the co-founder and CEO WISE, the fintech powerhouse that's fixing one of the most broken systems in the global economy: how money moves across borders. WISE simply started as a personal workaround with Christo trying to move money between Estonia and the UK, where he soon realized that international payments weren't just slow and expensive by accident, they were structurally opaque. Riddled with hidden fees and built on systems that hadn't meaningfully changed in decades. From that experience emerged a very simple idea, and one that became WISE's mission. Money should not have borders. Unlike most mission statements, though, this one actually constrains how WISE operates.
It shapes pricing, product design, technology investment, culture, and even how the company Thinks about its bottom line, with WISE consistently using its scale not to expand margins, but to collapse prices for customers. Underneath the product though sits something much deeper: a global payments infrastructure built directly into domestic payment systems, sophisticated treasury and ledger technology, and long-term relationships with regulators that have become a significant competitive advantage rather than. Today, of course, WISE moves tens of billions of pounds around the world each quarter, operates critical financial infrastructure across dozens of countries, and is increasingly becoming the underlying platform that other banks and fintechs themselves rely on.
WISE is one of my favorite companies, both as a consumer in love with their product, but also as an admirer of the incredible scaling journey both Christo and WISE have been on. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Christo Carmen, the co-founder and CEO of WISE. Christo, welcome to Scaling Up. I'm incredibly excited to bring the WISE story to life simply because I love the business as a customer and that has set me up to get to appreciate the quality of the business that you run. I I think it's probably worth setting some context up front. And I'm sure the founding story will come out in more detail. But what really started as a personal workaround for you and your co founder, Tarvert, he lived in London.
And got paid in Euros, you worked in London but got paid in pounds and had a mortgage in Estonia. And so you needed to pay that in Euros and and you figured out a way to exchange money between yourselves fee free. Tarbut put Euros in your Estonian account and you topped up his UK account at a real exchange rate. And and I guess from this, very simply transfer wise at the time, now wise, was born as an idea. And a mission was sparked inside of you that money should have no borders. It should be instant, convenient, transparent, and ultimately it should be free. And so more than any company I've probably come across in my time, this maniacal focus on the mission has shaped how you think about the product and the culture and the operating principles.
And so maybe we start with this mission and I'm sure a lot of the conversation will flow from there. But where does where does this mission and purpose come from? And and I'm sure you'd love to give more context on the business as well.
Awesome. Fantastic to be on your show. So let me maybe even track back a little bit from the from the story as you as you told it. I have to say I wasn't smart from the outset.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What problem in cross‑border payments sparked the creation of Wise?
0:04–6:36
2
How did Kristo and his co‑founder turn a personal workaround into the Wise mission?
6:36–10:39
3
Why does Wise’s mission ‘money should have no borders’ shape every business decision?
10:39–16:58
4
What core technology and infrastructure enable Wise to move money instantly and cheaply?
16:58–26:14
5
How does Wise use scale economies to lower fees for customers and fuel growth?
26:14–34:40
6
What is the Wise Platform and how is Wise shifting from B2C to B2B partnerships with banks?
34:40–42:15
7
How does Wise build autonomous, cross‑functional teams to sustain rapid scaling?
42:15–42:25
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