When Wise opened an Austin office in early 2022, it set an ambitious target to hire 100 people for its new location.
While a portion of the tech industry experienced layoffs, reduced valuations and limited venture funding over the remainder of the year, the London-based fintech company delivered on its promise. It grew a 100-person full-stack team including engineering, product development, operations and sales professionals.
Now, one year later, the company is re-upping its commitment to Austin with a plan to double its Silicon Hills team from 100 to 200 employees in 2023.
“What we want to focus on is building up a full-stack office where we can hire [customer support], operations, engineering, product and analytics,” Balazs Barna, Wise’s head of U.S. engineering, told Built In. “We are hiring for all these different functions to build a really diverse team in Austin.”
Wise, previously known as TransferWise, is a fintech company that can execute international money transfers eight times cheaper than a bank, according to its website. Half of its international transfers are executed in less than 20 seconds, while traditional banks take between three and five days. Wise users can hold more than 50 currencies in their digital wallet.
Wise’s growth has prompted its Austin team to upgrade from the Industrious coworking space at 823 Congress Ave. to the Expansive workspaces near The Domain in North Austin. As Wise continues its local expansion, it could either grow within its existing building or relocate to a bigger space, Barna said.
The company’s Austin growth plans are part of an overall push to expand its U.S. headcount, which has grown by over 75 percent to more than 600 employees this year.
Wise plans to hire an additional 250 employees next year across its offices in Austin, NYC and Tampa, Florida. At least 100 of those employees will be in Austin and another 90 will be in Tampa, an operational hub with 450 employees, the company told Built In. Wise does not hire remote workers, but it does offer a hybrid work model where employees can work from home two or three times a week, Barna said.
The fintech company said it is growing its U.S. team to meet increasing demand from U.S. consumers and businesses. Wise said it generated more than $104 million in North American revenue in the past six months, which is a 58 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
In addition to its growth among individual consumers, Barna said the company has seen strong interest from small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. that don’t have access to the same banking services as larger corporations.
“When you sign up for Wise as a small and medium-sized business, you are just as important to us as a large corporation,” Barna said. “When businesses get access to this new technology, and they can see that it takes 20 seconds to send it over to the other side of the world, it helps them build their brand and their reputation.”
Globally, Wise’s workforce has grown 49 percent in the past year to 4,300 employees across 18 offices. Wise has been profitable since 2017, Barna said, so the company has proven it is capable of sustainable growth.
“We’ve spent the last decade building a sustainable, profitable business model, and we look forward to welcoming new team members to help us build the best way for our U.S.-based customers to move money around the world,” Wise CTO Harsh Sinha said in a statement.
