Retail Banking Institute | The Skype-Teams-Wise cycle

The Skype-Teams-Wise cycle

Who still has Skype on their laptops? When it launched in 2005, it was revolutionary, offering far cheaper phone calls with its 'voice over internet protocol'. Microsoft acquired the business with its 150 million users for $8.5 billion in 2011, and will close it down this week after developing Teams, which now has over 300 million users. Microsoft said on Friday 'Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications'. But the first employee at Skype, Taavet Hinrikus, had an idea. Paid in Euros from Skype's Estonian headquarters, he needed sterling to pay his London rent, and was frustrated at the high exchange rates. His friend Kristo Käärmann was getting paid in pounds in London but needed euros for his mortgage back in Estonia. Taavet's idea? He called it the Skype of currency exchange, and created Transferwise on the same peer-to-peer principles of Skype. Now known as Wise, it's one of the UK's most valuable fintechs, and this week moves to a bigger office in Shoreditch in a vote of confidence in London's fintech quarter. "The payments company shifted around 1,000 staff to its new global headquarters in Worship Square, according to a statement on Thursday," reports Bloomberg. "The team is growing and we have created in Worship Square more collaboration spaces on every floor," Isabel Naidoo, Wise's chief people officer, said in an interview. The firm has an "in-person culture with flexibility," Naidoo said, with some staff expected to be in the office 12 days on average per calendar month. The relocation reinforces the firm's roots in the British capital, Naidoo added. Wise is also actively hiring globally, with 270 jobs listed on its website."