The above film centres on Kristo Käärmann who co-founded TransferWise.
Key Points from Kristo Käärmann | TransferWise:
- TransferWise makes international transfers super cheap by having reserves in both sides of the transaction rather than doing what institutions do;
- Banks can’t reduce their rates now in Kristo’s opinion because then those rate changing banks would have to admit that their international fees are bogus;
- TransferWise’s marketing is built on attacking banks. That plays well in London and elsewhere;
- Trying to raise money in London, UK is difficult. You should not spend too much time iterating in order to meet prospective investor demand. With one trip to New York, TransferWise got 1.3 million USD;
- During the Brexit, TransferWise dealt with the crisis professionally by being transparent. On June 24th, there was no service because of the fee fluctuation;
- BlockChain is interesting, BitCoin is not;
- Richard Branson likes sticking it to the man. He was interested in the idea and the approach but TransferWise was too small. Branson joined a significant round of funding. That endorsement was rather valuable as a marketing mechanism.
Background on Kristo Käärmann
Kristo is executive founder of TransferWise. TransferWise is backed by a team of smart investors who believe that there’s a dire need for innovation in financial services. In addition to the great institutional investors below, they are supported by private individuals who founded or are building Virgin, PayPal, Skype, Betfair, Simple.com and others.
Kristo lived and breathed the world of finance from the inside. At PwC and Deloitte, he helped banks and insurers bring their processes and systems into the 21st century. But stunned by the inefficiency of financial institutions, he wanted to do more. At TransferWise, he is in charge of all operations activities, technology, development, compliance and regulatory issues.
Did you know that Richard Branson also invested in TransferWise?
