The business story
Born in Tartu in 1981. Left university to become Skype’s first salaried employee (2002–2008, director of strategy); later took a business master’s at INSEAD. Co-founded TransferWise in January 2011 with Kristo Käärmann, building a peer-to-peer model that matched currency flows to skip bank FX markups. Rebranded to Wise in 2021 and direct-listed on the LSE in July 2021 at ~$11 billion, becoming among Estonia’s first billionaires. Stepped down as chair, sold down shares, and co-founded the VC firm Plural.
Hinrikus treats positioning as strategy.
Before Wise
Taavet Hinrikus was born on 2 June 1981 in Tartu, Estonia's university city, during the final decade of Soviet rule. He grew up as the newly independent republic made a national bet on digital infrastructure, and he attended the selective Miina Härma Gymnasium.
Rather than finish university, he joined a young startup called Skype as its first salaried employee. He worked there from around 2002 to 2008, ending as director of strategy. Skype, built largely by Estonian engineers and acquired by eBay in 2005, became the founding story of the country's tech scene. Its alumni, often called the Skype mafia, went on to fund and found many of the companies that followed. For Hinrikus, the experience was an education in building software for a global market from a very small country, and a source of the credibility and contacts he would later need. Afterwards he completed a business master's at INSEAD.
Building Wise
The idea for TransferWise came from a personal irritation. Living in London, Hinrikus was paid in euros but needed pounds; his fellow Estonian Kristo Käärmann had the reverse problem. Every bank transfer cost them a hidden markup between the real mid-market exchange rate and the rate the bank actually applied. So they swapped money privately, each paying into the other's local account at the real rate, and the bank's cut disappeared.
They co-founded TransferWise in January 2011 to turn that swap into a service. The principle was to match flows going in opposite directions so that most money never had to cross a border, then charge a small, visible fee at the real rate. As the company grew, simple matching gave way to managing currency pools in many countries, holding licences across numerous jurisdictions and adding multi-currency accounts, cards, business accounts and infrastructure for other firms.
The company became Wise on 22 February 2021. On 7 July 2021 it went public on the London Stock Exchange through a direct listing at a valuation of about $11 billion, making Hinrikus and Käärmann among Estonia's first billionaires.
