Kristo Käärmann

Kristo Käärmann
Birthplace	Estonia
Nationality	Estonian
Occupation	Business executive, entrepreneur
Title	Chief Executive Officer of Wise
Known for	Co-founding Wise (formerly TransferWise)

Kristo Käärmann is an Estonian entrepreneur and business executive who co-founded Wise (formerly known as TransferWise), a global financial technology company that provides international money transfer and multi-currency account services. Alongside co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, Käärmann built Wise into one of Europe's most prominent fintech companies, with a valuation that has reached approximately £10–11 billion. The company, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, became one of the United Kingdom's largest quoted financial technology firms. As CEO, Käärmann has overseen Wise's growth from a peer-to-peer currency exchange platform into a broad-based international financial services provider. In 2025, Käärmann became the subject of significant corporate governance debate when Wise proposed shifting its primary stock listing from London to New York while simultaneously extending his supervoting share rights, a proposal that drew both shareholder support and criticism, including public opposition from his own co-founder.

Early Life

Kristo Käärmann was born and raised in Estonia. The specific details of his early upbringing and family background are not extensively documented in available sources. As an Estonian national, Käärmann grew up during a period of significant political and economic transformation in the country following its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Estonia subsequently became known for its advanced digital infrastructure and as a breeding ground for technology startups, a context that would later inform Käärmann's entrepreneurial career.

Before founding Wise, Käärmann gained professional experience in the financial and technology sectors. The founding story of Wise, as it has been recounted publicly, originated from Käärmann's personal frustration with the high fees and poor exchange rates associated with traditional international money transfers. Working in London and receiving his salary in pounds sterling while needing to send money to Estonia in euros, Käärmann experienced firsthand the significant hidden costs embedded in cross-border currency transactions by traditional banks. This experience became the catalyst for what would eventually become one of Europe's most significant fintech ventures.

Career

Founding of TransferWise

Käärmann co-founded TransferWise in 2011 together with Taavet Hinrikus, a fellow Estonian entrepreneur who had been an early employee at Skype. The company was built on a relatively simple concept: matching people who needed to send money in opposite directions across borders, thereby avoiding the need for traditional international wire transfers and the associated costs. The peer-to-peer model allowed customers to transfer money internationally at the mid-market exchange rate, charging a small, transparent fee rather than the opaque markups commonly applied by banks.

The company was headquartered in London and quickly attracted attention from technology investors. TransferWise grew rapidly through the 2010s, expanding its service to cover an increasing number of currency corridors and countries. The company attracted venture capital funding from prominent investors and grew its customer base substantially.

As the company evolved, it expanded beyond simple money transfers to offer multi-currency accounts, debit cards, and business accounts, positioning itself as a broader alternative to traditional banking for international financial transactions. In February 2021, the company rebranded from TransferWise to Wise, reflecting its broader ambitions beyond simple money transfers.

London Stock Exchange Listing

In July 2021, Wise went public through a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, in what was seen as a significant moment for both the company and London's technology sector. The listing made Wise one of the largest technology companies quoted in London and was viewed as a vote of confidence in the city's ability to attract and retain major tech firms. The company's valuation at the time of listing was substantial, and it became a flagship name among London-listed fintech companies.

Käärmann served as CEO throughout the listing process and continued in that role afterward. The listing structure included dual-class shares that gave Käärmann enhanced voting rights — a "golden share" arrangement that provided him with supervoting power disproportionate to his economic ownership stake. Such structures, while common among technology companies listed in the United States (where firms like Meta Platforms, Alphabet Inc., and Snap Inc. employ similar mechanisms), are more unusual in the London market and would later become a point of contention.

Growth and Operations

Under Käärmann's leadership as CEO, Wise grew into a globally recognized financial services company. The Guardian described Wise's approximately £10 billion valuation as making it "a big fish in London's small pool of quoted financial technology" companies. The company processes billions of pounds in international transfers annually and serves millions of customers worldwide, including both individuals and businesses.

Käärmann's wealth grew substantially through his stake in Wise. The Wall Street Journal referred to him as a "fintech billionaire" in its coverage of the 2025 shareholder vote, reflecting the significant personal fortune he accumulated through his ownership of Wise shares.

2025 US Listing Proposal and Governance Controversy

In 2025, Käärmann and the Wise board proposed a significant corporate restructuring that would shift the company's primary stock listing from the London Stock Exchange to the United States, specifically to New York. The proposal was bundled together with a separate governance initiative: extending Käärmann's supervoting rights, which were the enhanced "golden share" voting structure that had been in place since the company's 2021 listing.

The decision to bundle these two proposals together — the US listing and the supervoting extension — proved controversial. The Guardian's editorial board argued that the company "deserves to lose" the vote, criticizing the tactic of combining the listing move with the governance change, which effectively forced shareholders who wanted the US listing to also approve the extension of Käärmann's enhanced voting power.

Bloomberg reported that the plan to shift the listing out of London had "gathered momentum after some existing shareholders rebuffed a proposal that would" have extended the dual-class share structure. According to Bloomberg's reporting, Wise had turned to the US listing partly as a response to investor pushback on the dual-share arrangement, suggesting that the American market's greater familiarity with and acceptance of such governance structures played a role in the decision.

The proposal generated a public split between Wise's two co-founders. Taavet Hinrikus, who had co-founded the company with Käärmann and had served as its first chairman before stepping back from an active role, publicly urged investors to vote against the proposal. According to the Financial Times, Hinrikus "condemned governance changes within the company's proposals to shift its primary listing," leading to what the newspaper described as a "shareholder rebellion." Yahoo Finance described the situation as the "founders split over plan to abandon Britain for US," characterizing Wise as a "fintech champion" of the UK market.

Banking Dive reported that Hinrikus specifically criticized the initiative to extend "golden share" voting rights to Käärmann, describing it as one of the co-founders criticizing the measure. The disagreement between the two co-founders was notable given their shared history of building the company together and represented a rare public fracture between founding partners of a major technology company.

Despite the opposition from Hinrikus and concerns raised by some institutional shareholders and governance commentators, the proposal ultimately passed. On July 28, 2025, Wise shareholders voted to approve both the move of the primary listing to the United States and the extension of Käärmann's supervoting rights. Bloomberg reported that "Wise Plc shareholders approved a proposal to shift its primary listing out of London, a move that will also allow Chief Executive Officer" Käärmann to retain his enhanced voting power.

The Wall Street Journal summarized the outcome with the headline "Fintech Billionaire Beats Co-Founder in Fight to Keep Voting Superpowers," noting that "shareholders in Wise, a rare U.K. tech success, voted in favor of moving its main stock listing to New York and extending dual-class shares." FinTech Weekly reported that the vote reflected "global shifts in tech" regarding corporate governance and listing preferences, noting the broader trend of technology companies seeking US listings for their perceived benefits in terms of valuation, liquidity, and investor familiarity with founder-friendly governance structures.

The decision to leave London was viewed by commentators as a significant blow to the London Stock Exchange's efforts to retain and attract major technology companies. Wise had been one of the highest-profile tech listings in London, and its departure underscored ongoing concerns about the competitiveness of the London market for technology firms relative to US exchanges.

Personal Life

Käärmann is an Estonian national who has been based in the United Kingdom for a significant portion of his career. Specific details regarding his personal life, including family matters, are not extensively documented in the available public sources.

Käärmann's personal financial standing has been the subject of public attention, particularly in the context of the governance debates surrounding Wise. The Wall Street Journal's characterization of him as a "fintech billionaire" reflects the substantial wealth he has accumulated through his founding stake in Wise.

Recognition

Wise, the company Käärmann co-founded, has been recognized as one of the most significant technology companies to emerge from Europe in recent years. The company's listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 was widely covered in the financial press as a landmark event for UK fintech.

Yahoo Finance described Wise as a "fintech champion" of the United Kingdom, reflecting the company's status as one of the country's most prominent technology success stories. The Wall Street Journal described Wise as "a rare U.K. tech success," underscoring both the company's achievements and the broader challenges facing the UK technology sector in retaining large-scale companies.

The Guardian noted that Wise's approximately £10 billion valuation made it "a big fish in London's small pool of quoted financial technology" companies, a description that simultaneously acknowledged the company's significance and the relative scarcity of comparable London-listed fintech firms.

The 2025 shareholder vote and the associated governance controversy brought additional attention to Käärmann's role and influence. While the debate highlighted concerns about corporate governance, it also underscored Käärmann's central importance to Wise and the degree to which shareholders were willing to support his continued enhanced control over the company's direction, even in the face of opposition from his co-founder and governance critics.

Legacy

Käärmann's legacy is closely intertwined with the company he co-founded. Wise fundamentally altered the international money transfer market by introducing transparency into currency conversion fees and challenging the practices of traditional banks. The company's model of offering the mid-market exchange rate with a small, clearly stated fee forced incumbent financial institutions to reconsider their own pricing structures and contributed to a broader trend of fintech-driven disruption in financial services.

As an Estonian entrepreneur who built a globally significant technology company, Käärmann is part of a cohort of founders from the Baltic state who have had outsized impact on the global technology industry. Estonia's reputation as a hub for technology innovation — often referred to as "e-Estonia" — has been reinforced by the success of companies like Wise and Skype, both of which were co-founded by Estonian nationals.

The 2025 decision to move Wise's primary listing from London to New York is likely to have lasting implications for the debate about where European technology companies choose to list. The move highlighted the ongoing tension between the appeal of US capital markets — with their larger pools of technology-focused investors, higher liquidity, and greater tolerance for dual-class share structures — and efforts by European exchanges to retain homegrown technology firms. Käärmann's successful campaign to retain his supervoting rights as part of the relisting also contributed to the broader corporate governance debate about the role of founder control in publicly traded technology companies.

Whether the US listing and the preservation of Käärmann's enhanced voting rights will prove beneficial or detrimental to Wise's long-term performance and shareholder value remains to be determined. The public disagreement with co-founder Hinrikus over these matters marked a significant chapter in the company's history and raised questions about the appropriate balance between founder vision and shareholder rights in publicly traded companies.