Taavet Hinrikus

Taavet Hinrikus
Birthplace	Estonia
Nationality	Estonian
Occupation	Entrepreneur, investor
Known for	Co-founding Wise (formerly TransferWise); first non-founding employee of Skype

Taavet Hinrikus is an Estonian technology entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Wise (formerly TransferWise), a global financial technology company specializing in international money transfers. Before launching Wise, Hinrikus gained prominence as the first non-founding employee of Skype, the internet communications platform that transformed global telecommunications. His career has spanned the formative years of Estonia's emergence as a technology hub, and he has remained a central figure in European technology and fintech circles. Hinrikus's trajectory from Skype to Wise placed him at the intersection of two of the most consequential technology companies to emerge from the Baltic states. As of 2025, Hinrikus continues to be active as a technology investor, backing early-stage European startups through various investment vehicles. He has also been at the center of a high-profile corporate governance dispute at Wise, publicly opposing proposals related to the company's planned relocation of its primary stock exchange listing from London to New York, citing concerns about the extension of enhanced voting rights for co-founder Kristo Käärmann.

Early Life

Taavet Hinrikus was born and raised in Estonia. He came of age during the period following Estonian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, a time during which the small Baltic nation rapidly embraced digital technology and internet infrastructure. Estonia's government-led push toward digitization in the 1990s and early 2000s fostered a generation of technology entrepreneurs, and Hinrikus was among those who entered the country's nascent technology industry at an early stage.

Details about Hinrikus's early family life and upbringing are not extensively documented in available sources. However, his career trajectory indicates that he was immersed in Estonia's technology ecosystem from a young age, entering the workforce at a time when Tallinn was beginning to establish itself as a center for software development and internet-based businesses.

Career

Skype

Hinrikus's professional career began with a role at Skype, where he served as the company's first non-founding employee. Skype, which was co-founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis with a development team based largely in Estonia, launched in 2003 as a peer-to-peer voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) service. The platform rapidly gained global adoption and fundamentally disrupted the traditional telecommunications industry by enabling free or low-cost voice and video calls over the internet.

As one of the earliest members of the Skype team, Hinrikus was involved in the company during its formative growth phase. Skype's success made it one of the most prominent technology companies to emerge from the Baltic region and helped establish Estonia's reputation as a hub for technology innovation. The company was acquired by eBay in 2005, and later by Microsoft in 2011. Hinrikus's experience at Skype provided him with firsthand knowledge of scaling a technology company from a small startup to a global platform, experience that would prove instrumental in his subsequent ventures.

Founding of Wise (TransferWise)

After his time at Skype, Hinrikus co-founded TransferWise (later rebranded as Wise) alongside Kristo Käärmann. The founding of the company was rooted in a personal frustration shared by both co-founders: the high cost and opacity of international money transfers through traditional banking channels. Hinrikus, who was earning money in euros while living in London and needing British pounds, and Käärmann, who had the opposite currency need, devised a peer-to-peer system to exchange currencies at the real mid-market exchange rate, avoiding the hidden markups typically charged by banks.

This peer-to-peer concept became the foundation of TransferWise, which was officially launched in 2011. The company's core proposition was to offer international money transfers at a fraction of the cost charged by traditional banks, with full transparency about fees. TransferWise positioned itself as a challenger to established financial institutions, marketing its services with a direct and sometimes provocative approach that highlighted the hidden costs embedded in conventional cross-border transfers.

The company grew rapidly, attracting significant venture capital investment and expanding its services to cover an increasing number of currency corridors and countries. TransferWise's model resonated with consumers and businesses that regularly made international payments, and the platform processed billions of dollars in transfers annually. The company rebranded from TransferWise to Wise in 2021, reflecting the broadening of its product offering beyond simple transfers to include multi-currency accounts and debit cards.

Wise went public in July 2021 through a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, a notable event in European fintech. The direct listing, rather than a traditional initial public offering, was consistent with the company's philosophy of reducing unnecessary costs and intermediaries. The listing made Wise one of the largest European fintech companies by market capitalization and was seen as a milestone for the London stock market's ability to attract major technology listings.

Role at Wise and Transition

Hinrikus served as chairman of Wise's board before stepping down from the role. While he transitioned away from day-to-day operational involvement in the company, he retained a significant shareholding through his investment vehicle, Skaala Investments OÜ, an Estonian-registered entity. This shareholding continued to give him a notable voice in corporate governance matters at Wise.

2025 Wise Governance Dispute

In mid-2025, Hinrikus became the central figure in a public corporate governance dispute at Wise. The conflict arose in connection with the company's proposal to move its primary stock exchange listing from the London Stock Exchange to the United States, specifically to New York. The proposal included provisions to extend enhanced voting rights — sometimes referred to as a "golden share" structure — for co-founder and CEO Kristo Käärmann.

On July 21, 2025, Skaala Investments OÜ, Hinrikus's investment vehicle, publicly urged fellow Wise shareholders to vote against the company's proposed US listing. The core of Hinrikus's objection was not necessarily the geographical relocation of the listing itself, but rather the governance changes that accompanied the proposal. Specifically, Hinrikus opposed plans to extend Käärmann's outsized voting rights as part of the move to the US market. US stock exchanges, particularly the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, have historically been more permissive of dual-class share structures that grant certain shareholders — typically founders — disproportionate voting power relative to their economic ownership.

Hinrikus's opposition was framed in terms of corporate governance principles and the company's founding values. He argued that the proposal to extend enhanced voting rights contradicted the principles of transparency and fairness on which Wise had been built. In an interview reported by The Times on July 26, 2025, Hinrikus stated that Wise's board had "betrayed" the fintech's "core values" by supporting Käärmann's bid to maintain and extend his outsized voting rights in connection with the US listing.

A report by FinTech Weekly on July 25, 2025, noted that Hinrikus accused Wise of "misleading investors" in connection with the governance proposals tied to the US listing, raising broader concerns about investor protection and the alignment of interests between management and shareholders.

Despite Hinrikus's public campaign against the measure, Wise shareholders ultimately voted in favor of the proposal to move the company's primary listing to the United States. Banking Dive reported on July 30, 2025, that shareholders approved the relocation, although Hinrikus's criticism of the attached governance changes — particularly the extension of "golden share" voting rights to Käärmann — had generated significant attention in financial media and among governance-focused investors.

The dispute highlighted a broader tension in the European technology sector regarding corporate governance standards, the relative attractiveness of US versus European stock exchanges for technology companies, and the role of dual-class share structures in enabling founder control of public companies. It also illustrated the complex dynamics that can emerge between co-founders of successful technology companies as their respective roles and interests evolve over time.

Investment Activities

Beyond his role at Wise, Hinrikus has been active as a technology investor, supporting early-stage European startups. His investment activities have spanned multiple sectors and geographies within Europe.

In May 2025, Hinrikus spoke at Goldman Sachs's "Talks at GS" series, where he discussed what he characterized as Europe's "tech renaissance." In the discussion, Hinrikus reflected on his career journey from being the first non-founding employee of Skype to co-founding Wise, and shared his perspective on the evolving European technology landscape.

In August 2025, Hinrikus was reported to be among the limited partners (LPs) in a new fund launched by Norrsken, a European impact-focused organization. The Norrsken fund, which closed at €57 million, was described as focused on backing early-stage European startups working on the "sustainability and resilience" of the European continent. Hinrikus's participation as an LP in the fund reflected his continued engagement with the European startup ecosystem and his interest in funding companies addressing long-term structural challenges.

Hinrikus's investment vehicle, Skaala Investments OÜ, serves as the primary entity through which he manages his investment portfolio and his continuing stake in Wise.

Personal Life

Hinrikus has maintained a relatively low public profile regarding his personal life. He is known to have strong ties to Estonia, where his investment entity Skaala Investments OÜ is registered. He has spent significant periods of his career based in London, where Wise is headquartered, while maintaining connections to Estonia's technology community.

Hinrikus has been a vocal advocate for the European technology sector, arguing that the continent has the talent, infrastructure, and regulatory environment to produce globally competitive technology companies. His public statements have frequently addressed themes of transparency, corporate governance, and the importance of aligning the interests of technology company founders with those of broader shareholders and customers.

Recognition

Hinrikus's role as co-founder of Wise and as one of the earliest employees of Skype has positioned him as one of the most prominent figures in European fintech. His invitation to speak at Goldman Sachs's "Talks at GS" series in May 2025 reflected his standing as a leading voice in European technology and financial services.

Wise's direct listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 was covered extensively by international financial media and was seen as a significant achievement for European fintech. As co-founder, Hinrikus was closely associated with the company's growth from a peer-to-peer currency exchange concept to a publicly listed fintech platform serving millions of customers globally.

His public opposition to the 2025 governance proposals at Wise attracted coverage from major international outlets including the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Times, further raising his profile in corporate governance and investor rights discussions.

Legacy

Hinrikus's career is closely intertwined with the development of Estonia's technology sector and the broader European fintech industry. As the first non-founding employee of Skype, he was part of a cohort of Estonian technology professionals who helped build one of the early 21st century's most transformative communications platforms. His subsequent co-founding of Wise extended this legacy into financial services, creating a company that challenged the established banking industry's approach to cross-border payments.

Wise's model of transparent, low-cost international money transfers influenced the broader financial services industry, prompting traditional banks and other fintech companies to re-examine their own pricing and transparency practices for cross-border payments. The company's growth from a startup to a publicly listed company with a multi-billion-dollar market capitalization represented one of the most significant success stories in European fintech history.

Hinrikus's 2025 governance dispute with Wise's board and co-founder Käärmann also contributed to broader conversations about the structure of technology company governance, the role of dual-class shares in public markets, and the tension between founder control and shareholder democracy. His public opposition to the extension of enhanced voting rights — despite being a co-founder himself — was notable for its emphasis on governance principles over personal loyalty or institutional convenience.

His continued investment in early-stage European startups, including participation as an LP in the Norrsken resilience-focused fund, signals an ongoing commitment to the development of the European technology ecosystem beyond his work at Wise.