Hiring spree at London fintech as sales jump

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30th November 2022

Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond

Good morning Yesterday more data from the 2021 England and Wales census was released. Among the interesting takeaways were that: Romanian is the fastest growing language, Shamanism is the fastest growing religion and two-thirds of Londoners are ethnic minorities.

Today's stories

Hiring spree at London fintech as sales jump
Another crypto name bites the dust

TECH
Hiring spree at London fintech as sales jump

What happened?
Yesterday payments firm Wise reported a 55% increase in revenue to £397m in the six months to September, amid soaring demand that’s led to the hiring of 1,000 recruits in the past year.

How did we get here?
Founded in London in 2011, Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) is known for its cheap and quick app-based money transfers across different currencies and has 13m users.

Last year it debuted on the London stock market with a valuation of over £8bn making it the UK’s biggest ever tech float. It was a major win for the UK government and the City which desperately wants to make London the place to be for fast-growing tech companies going from private to public.

In the past six months Wise transferred over £51bn for customers globally, up 50% than the year before. The company says that the rising cost of living and increase in global migration will help drive transaction volumes as customers move cash across borders to help friends and family.

To support the growth Wise has increased headcount by 43% in the last twelve months and is recruiting another 300 roles with 100 in London.

The strong numbers come amid regulatory woes
In June the financial watchdog announced it was launching an investigation into Wise’s founder and CEO, Kristo Kaarmann, over his failure to pay taxes. The probe comes after he was fined £366,000 by HMRC for not meeting his tax obligations. One outcome of the investigation could be that Kaarmann is ruled as not a ‘fit and proper person’ meaning he could lose his job as CEO.

Other stories to keep you in the loop

Mastercard loses UK ruling on 3m dead claimants in $12bn case
HSBC sells Canadian business for £8.4bn
Free range turkey supplies hit by bird flu
Mortgage approvals hits lowest since June 2020 as property demand cools
EasyJet peak bookings return to pre-Covid levels as it cuts losses
Driving examiners across UK to stage strikes over pay
Credit Suisse shares tumble to record lows as sell-off continues
Wilko warns it could run out of cash if sales deteriorate

CRYPTO
Another crypto name bites the dust

What happened?
On Monday crypto lender BlockFi filed for bankruptcy owing 100,000 companies and $1.2bn to its top 10 creditors alone. It follows this month's collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

How did we get here?
BlockFi, founded in 2017, started the year well raising $1bn in venture capital investment valuing the business at $4.8bn. Then came the so-called ‘crypto winter’ with valuations of cryptocurrencies falling as investors got more spooked over the state of the global economy with high inflation and rising interest rates.

In the past year the value of the crypto market has dropped 60% with over $200bn wiped away this month alone.

BlockFi’s finances were intertwined with that of FTX which imploded this month in what was described in bankruptcy proceedings as “one of the one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America.”

BlockFi and FTX join competitors, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital to the list of 2022 crypto bankruptcies as fears grow that more collapses could follow amid market contagion.

Nesxt steps: BlockFi says it will significantly reduce its headcount to cut costs as it navigates bankruptcy. As of last year, it employed around 850 people, though about 20% were already laid off this summer. And there’s no word on when its roughly 45,000 retail customers can take out their money.

Stat of the day

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano — the world’s largest active volcano — is erupting for the first time since 1984

Interesting links from around the web

The rise of personality tests in job applications
222 gift ideas for £30 or under
How to clean a dirty keyboard

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Hiring spree at London fintech as sales jump

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