TRAILBLAZER

Kristo Käärmann is the Co-founder and CEO of Wise – a leading peer-to-peer international money transfer fintech based in London

But despite heading up all the major industry leadership lists , this savvy businessman did not get a golden foothold in the industry as a result of his background .

Rather , he describes himself as a typical ‘ Soviet kid ’, who grew up under the shadow of the former Soviet Union ’ s draconian and backward-thinking business environment .

Describing that experience , he has told interviewers : “ For the first 10 years , I was growing up like all the Soviet kids did at the time . It wasn ’ t until 1991 when the country became independent again that it went to a pretty incredible growth story from nothing to then becoming part of the European Union , joined NATO , and now , generally , is doing pretty well .”

But despite the lack of technology influencing those early years , Käärmann soon caught up , and in the early 90s , had his first taste of personal computing . His first computer was a ZX Spectrum , which then graduated to a Commodore 2001 - a 1970s model on which Käärmann wrote his first piece of code .

Once bitten by the technology bug , there was no turning back , and by the time Käärmann was 19 , he ’ d launched his first business . It was an online investment tracking portal called Investor . ee .

Though Investor . ee was never profitable , it was nevertheless a popular product , and a few years later , Käärmann sold it for an undisclosed amount .

By now , technology and mathematics were what interested him most , and in 2002 , be gained a BSc , followed by an MSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from Tartu University .

He then applied for a number of jobs - and was accepted by PwC , where his role was to assist banks in Estonia as well as

16 November 2022