Wednesday, 7 July 2021

Massive £8bn Valuation as Wise Hits the London Stock Market, Win for Valar and a16z, and Post Brexit London

Wise, formerly known as Transferwise, founded in 2010, did a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, in a move mimicking the approach used by Spotify in 2018. 

Nevertheless, Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Morgan Stanley were hired to advise on the listing. 

Estonian co-founders Kristo Kaarmann and Taveet Hinrikus have become paper billionaires. CNBC has described it as a "big win for post Brexit London".

Other winners include early investors like Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures (originally spun out of Thiel Capital) and Andreessen Horowitz (founded in 2009, a year before Wise, by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, both of Netscape fame).

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