UK-listed fintech firm Wise is strengthening its footprint in India, with plans to hire hundreds of employees over the coming years to meet the rising demand for cross-border payment solutions. As part of this expansion, the company is establishing a technology and operations hub in Hyderabad. It will be a full-stack centre for its product, engineering, and service teams.
Additionally, Wise is rolling out a new feature designed to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) and freelancers easily receive international payments in foreign currencies.
The Hyderabad hub will be led by Smrithi Ravi, Wise’s APAC Head of Engineering, who will relocate from Singapore to take on the role.
“We’ve spent a fair bit of time with a variety of customers in India, especially smaller businesses, and the need we’re talking about is how efficiently they can receive funds, how they can bill, how quickly they receive money and the cost involved. We still feel this is a pain point,” SK Saraogi, APAC head of expansion at Wise, said.
The newly introduced international account details feature enables Indian freelancers and businesses to receive payments in eight major currencies, including the US dollar, British pound, euro, and Australian dollar. This allows clients abroad to pay more conveniently, with transfers processed at the mid-market exchange rate.
According to Saraogi, 10% of the funds sent overseas to India flow through Wise’s platform. The company began offering outbound remittance services in 2021 under its own AD-II licence, allowing users to send up to $250,000 annually under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
This expansion comes as competition intensifies in India’s cross-border payments sector, with global and domestic players aiming to capture growing demand from freelancers, exporters, and remote workers. India’s increasing integration with the global digital economy—fueled by IT exports, e-commerce, and freelance services—has led to a notable rise in small-value inward remittances.
Wise, previously known as TransferWise, was founded in 2011 by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus to make international money transfers more affordable and transparent. The company achieves this by offering low upfront fees and using the mid-market exchange rate, eliminating hidden user costs.
Over the years, the fintech firm Wise has expanded into three core business segments. The Wise Account provides individuals with multi-currency accounts for seamless global transactions. Wise Business serves small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), offering enhanced tools like expense management and accounting platform integrations. Meanwhile, Wise Platform enables banks and fintech companies to directly embed Wise’s cross-border payment infrastructure into their own services.
The company’s ongoing expansion in India is part of a larger strategic focus on the Asia-Pacific region, where it aims to navigate complex regulatory requirements and diverse currency systems. As part of this push, Wise is establishing a technology and operations hub in Hyderabad while introducing new features that allow Indian freelancers and SMEs to receive payments in foreign currencies.
In the financial year 2023–24, Wise processed £118.5 billion in cross-border transactions and served 12.8 million customers globally. The company reported £1,052 million in revenue, a significant increase from £846.1 million the previous year, and posted a net profit of £354.6 million, up from £114 million. Wise is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The cross-border payments space in India is witnessing increasing competition, with several global fintech firms entering the market. Notably, Revolut, a UK-based fintech company, recently received final approval from the Reserve Bank of India to offer prepaid payment instruments, including prepaid cards and digital wallets integrated with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
