Transferwise to rebrand to Wise in March this year
Over the weekend, London-based fintech unicorn TransferWise announced its rebranding to Wise. It also announced it is strengthening its Asia Pacific presence with its expansion in Singapore.
The company has expanded to build a cross-border payments network with a userbase of 10 million personal and business customers. The company was initially launched in 2011 as a money transfer service for people.
The final switchover for all customers to the Wise brand will take place by March 2021.
Wise will hire over 70 staff in Singapore for expansion. These roles include firstly engineering, secondly product and finally, operations. The company will be moving to a new larger office space. This figure will add to its current headcount of around 150. This news comes as Asia-Pacific is the fintech’s fastest-growing region.
Used by Singapore companies
The company is now home to three products, with money transfers being the account’s foundational feature.
The Wise personal account allows customers to send and spend money internationally, hold money in 55 currencies and get real account numbers in 9 currencies. Customers now hold over SGD 5 billion in Wise, with 1.4 million debit cards issued.
Wise Business is the business account for going global, which has all the personal account features plus extras like bank feeds, mass payouts and multi-user access. Over 150,000 businesses joined Wise in the last 12 months. Singapore companies like Electric8, Ksisters, Omnidesk and SLEEK use Wise.
Lastly, the Wise Platform allows platform banks and companies like Monzo, Xero, and Aspire to tap into the Wise infrastructure, giving their customers cheaper, faster payments and international banking features. For instance, the platform is live with banks in 10 countries across four continents.
Wise comments
Venkatesh Saha, Head of APAC Expansion, Wise, said, “We are excited to double down on our commitment to Singapore (our Asia Pacific hub). As well as the wider region, we mark our fourth anniversary in the country. Above all, the Asia Pacific is our fastest-growing region. Expanding our presence here is a strategic investment that reflects our commitment to building the best global cross-border payments network for our customers in the region and around the world.”
