Wise's cost-focused approach: CTO Harsh Sinha and CFO Kingsley Kemish discuss financial year 2024 outcomes
Wise's Growth and Pricing Strategy Yields Robust Results
In the financial year 2024, Wise, the digital money transfer service, witnessed significant growth across various key metrics. The company's customer base expanded, its revenue surged, and its operational efficiency improved, all while maintaining a competitive edge in the cross-border payments market.
Wise's SME customer base grew by 30%, and the number of total consumers exceeded 10 million. The company's underlying income for the year reached £1.2bn, marking a 31% increase over the previous year. The average consumer transaction value was £750, a 10% increase, while SME transaction value stood at £12,500, a 20% rise.
The company's platform processed over 100 million transactions, a 25% increase, and non-cross-border revenue grew to 31% of the total revenue. Wise's pricing strategy, which focuses on gradually reducing cross-border transaction fees, contributed to this growth. The cross-border take rate was reduced by an average of 10% in FY 2024.
Wise's cost-efficiency and technology-driven operational model enabled it to maintain and even improve profitability despite these price decreases. The company exceeded its profit-before-tax margin target of 13-16%, achieving a 21% margin in Q1 2025.
The Wise Account, a multi-currency account, was launched and saw strong adoption, with over 500,000 active accounts in FY 2024. Wise also introduced new business accounts and payroll solutions for SMEs.
Looking ahead, Wise has identified opportunities for further cost reductions, including optimizing its foreign exchange operations and streamlining its operations. The company plans to expand its product offerings and geographical reach in the coming years.
However, Wise's share prices dropped more than 16% due to lower-than-expected top-line results and a revised outlook on pricing. Despite this, Wise's pricing strategy of targeted fee reductions paired with volume growth and operational efficiency is driving robust expansion while preserving margins. This approach leverages cost advantages and network effects as cost reduction levers, fueling continued growth in a highly fragmented cross-border payments market.
[1] Wise (2025). Wise Q1 2025 Trading Update. [Online]. Available: https://wise.com/about/investors/news/wise-q1-2025-trading-update
[2] Wise (2025). Wise Q4 2024 Earnings Release. [Online]. Available: https://wise.com/about/investors/news/wise-q4-2024-earnings-release
- Wise's robust expansion is a result of its pricing strategy that focuses on reducing cross-border transaction fees, as evidenced by the 30% growth in its SME customer base and the 10% increase in average consumer transaction value.
- In the business sector, Wise's growth strategy involves expanding product offerings and geographical reach, optimizing foreign exchange operations, and streamlining operations to achieve further cost reductions, driving growth in the highly fragmented cross-border payments market.
