Wise plc (formerly Transferwise) reported a 63 percent increase in the total income for six months, between April and September, as the figure touched £416 million. It ended the period with a pre-tax profit of £51.3 million, which increased by 173 percent.
The company's revenue for the six-month period increased by 55 percent to £397 million. Further, The adjusted EBITDA increased by 52 percent to £92 million with a margin of 22 percent.
The London-headquartered fintech giant highlighted that active customers and increased total volumes boosted revenue growth. Indeed, the platform had 5.5 million active customers by the end of the second quarter of FY23 compared to 3.9 million in the same quarter of the previous year, representing a growth of 40 percent.
The platform moved over £51 billion worth of customer funds in six months. This figure jumped 49 percent from the previous year's first half.
"In the first half of this financial year, our payments got faster, hitting a key milestone with 50 percent of all transfers now instant. And while we had to increase prices on some routes, we were able to decrease fees on others, enabling us to limit the impact of more volatile markets," said Kristo Käärmann, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Wise.
Bullish Forecast
For the entire fiscal year, Wise is expecting its total income to increase between 55 percent and 60 percent. In addition, it aims to grow the total income by more than 20 percent CAGR 'over the medium-term', with the adjusted margin at or above 20 percent.
Earlier this year, the company paid $360,000 in penalties to the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) 's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) for lapses in anti-money laundering (AML) controls. Meanwhile, it gained an Estonian license for expanding European operations.
"But, we are still solving only a fraction of the problem, and the fight for transparency must go on," Käärmann added. "In the past months, we also joined the European Commission in calling on all providers to commit to full disclosure on all fees, including exchange rate markups, on all transfers to Ukraine – a significant step forward in the right direction for transparency in the industry."
