Number of Portfolio Companies 1
Number of Founded Organizations 2
  • Primary Job Title Founder and CEO
  • Primary Organization 
    Wise
  • Investor Type  Individual/Angel

Kristo Kaarmann is the co-founder and CEO of TransferWise, a peer-to-peer international money transfer business. The business is the first of its kind: it allows regular people to access the real mid-market exchange rate by cutting out traditional banking fees altogether. It charges only a tiny, totally transparent service charge.

Prior to

starting TransferWise, Kristo was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He worked with European banks and insurers to modernise their processes and systems. Stunned by their inefficiency, he teamed up with Taavet Hinrikus, then Skype's director of strategy, to develop an entirely new system for moving money across borders.

Kristo started his first business, an online investments tracking portal Investor.ee in 1999, when he was 19. Although the service was popular at the time, it never turned a profit and was acquired a few years later for an undisclosed amount (read: very little).

Kristo is also involved in the organisation of Young Scholar Grant, where grants are given out to the brightest prospective university students of Estonia to study abroad in Europe’s best universities.

Number of Investments 1
Kristo Kaarmann invested in Printify on Dec 1, 2021. This investment - Series A - Printify - was valued at
$50M
.
Announced Date  
Organization Name  
Lead Investor  
Funding Round  
Money Raised  
Dec 1, 2021
Printify
Series A - Printify
$50M
Number of Current Jobs 1
Number of Past Jobs 3
Kristo Kaarmann is the Founder and CEO at Wise. Additionally, Kristo Kaarmann has had 3 past jobs including Founder at Investor.ee.
Organization Name  
Title At Company  
Start Date  
End Date  
Investor.ee
FounderAug 1999Aug 2002
PwC
Management Consultant
Deloitte
Management Consultant
Kristo Kaarmann studied at University of Tartu.