Revenue soars for fintech Wise thanks to price drop

Money transfer company Wise has reported a 25 per cent jump in revenue for the second quarter, compared to the same period last year.

In a trading update on Tuesday, the payment firm posted revenue of £132.8m in the second quarter.

Lower prices had enticed new customers, Wise said. Just under 4m customers transacted via the fintech in the second quarter, up 36 per cent from the previous year.

The number of active personal customers grew 22 percent year-on-year to 3.7m.

Co-founder & CEO, Kristo Käärmann (pictured), said the payment firm had made “strong progress” during the quarter.

“We dropped prices faster than hoped, our payments got faster, with more features for businesses, and we launched our exciting new ‘Assets’ feature for customers in the UK.

“So, we’re moving more of the world’s volume and operating at a lower cost, the benefit from which we’ve passed onto our customers, whilst maintaining a sound sustainable business model that’s investing even more for the long term.”

Wise reduced prices for 1.7m customers with prices now 0.62 per cent on average – five base points lower – than at the start of the quarter.

The firm expected its take rate for the second half to be marginally lower than the first half. Wise said it expected revenue growth for the year to March 2022 to be around 20 per cent over the previous year.