Wise reports solid revenue growth and surging customers in first trading update since IPO
Wise, one of Britain’s biggest fintech firms, posted revenue in line with expectations of £123.5m in the first quarter of its financial year, up 43 per cent from a year earlier.
In the first trading update since its £8bn float on London’s stock exchange earlier this month, the payments group said it processed £16.4bn in cross border payments in the period, up 54 per cent year-on-year.
These payments were made by 3.7m customers who used Wise for transactions in the period, 3.4m of whom were personal customers – a 28 per cent growth from a year earlier.
Wise also reported strong growth in business customers who used the platform for transactions like paying and receiving funds from suppliers, vendors and customers, of 56 per cent from a year earlier.
The volume of payments per customer made through Wise grew by 54 per cent year-on-year to £16.4bn, faster than the growth in customers. But the fintech giant mainly attributed this to almost 20 per cent lower volumes of payments in the first quarter of last year due to the impact of initial coronavirus lockdowns on demand for international payments.
Wise said that payments quickly recovered and have been stable since, however, fuelling its expectations that the rest of the financial year will be in line with its previous guidance.
“We were pleased that in the first quarter of this financial year we were able to reduce pricing by 2bps to 0.67 per cent, dropping prices for 19 currencies while also delivering 38 per cent of all transfers instantly,” said co-founder & CEO Kristo Käärmann.
“As we enter the next phase of our growth to tackle the problem of the £150bn the world continues to pay in hidden fees each year, we’re focused on doing so reliably and sustainably, so our customers know they can count on us for the long term.”
Earlier in the month, Wise’s London Stock Exchange debut valuation of £8bn made it the city’s biggest ever tech float, marking a major boost for the capital’s tech scene.