Today's business and finance round up 30th November 2022
Hiring spree at London fintech as sales jump
30th November 2022
Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond
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Today's stories
Hiring spree at London fintech as sales jump
Another crypto name bites the dust
TECHHiring spree at London fintech as sales jump
What happened?Yesterday payments firm Wise reported a 55% increase in revenue to £397m in the six months to September, amid soaring demand that’s led to the hiring of 1,000 recruits in the past year.How did we get here?Founded in London in 2011, Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) is known for its cheap and quick app-based money transfers across different currencies and has 13m users. Last year it debuted on the London stock market with a valuation of over £8bn making it the UK’s biggest ever tech float. It was a major win for the UK government and the City which desperately wants to make London the place to be for fast-growing tech companies going from private to public. In the past six months Wise transferred over £51bn for customers globally, up 50% than the year before. The company says that the rising cost of living and increase in global migration will help drive transaction volumes as customers move cash across borders to help friends and family. To support the growth Wise has increased headcount by 43% in the last twelve months and is recruiting another 300 roles with 100 in London.The strong numbers come amid regulatory woesIn June the financial watchdog announced it was launching an investigation into Wise’s founder and CEO, Kristo Kaarmann, over his failure to pay taxes. The probe comes after he was fined £366,000 by HMRC for not meeting his tax obligations. One outcome of the investigation could be that Kaarmann is ruled as not a ‘fit and proper person’ meaning he could lose his job as CEO.
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CRYPTOAnother crypto name bites the dust
What happened?On Monday crypto lender BlockFi filed for bankruptcy owing 100,000 companies and $1.2bn to its top 10 creditors alone. It follows this month's collapse of crypto exchange FTX.How did we get here?BlockFi, founded in 2017, started the year well raising $1bn in venture capital investment valuing the business at $4.8bn. Then came the so-called ‘crypto winter’ with valuations of cryptocurrencies falling as investors got more spooked over the state of the global economy with high inflation and rising interest rates.In the past year the value of the crypto market has dropped 60% with over $200bn wiped away this month alone.BlockFi’s finances were intertwined with that of FTX which imploded this month in what was described in bankruptcy proceedings as “one of the one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America.” BlockFi and FTX join competitors, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital to the list of 2022 crypto bankruptcies as fears grow that more collapses could follow amid market contagion.Nesxt steps: BlockFi says it will significantly reduce its headcount to cut costs as it navigates bankruptcy. As of last year, it employed around 850 people, though about 20% were already laid off this summer. And there’s no word on when its roughly 45,000 retail customers can take out their money.
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