TRAILBLAZER
Telcos to get a better grasp on their data . It was an eye opening experience because Estonia ’ s new commerce community was still in its infancy because just 15 years had passed since the birth of democracy and western-style commerce in the region .
Käärmann saw that legacy systems were not a problem to be dealt with , because Estonian companies were simply not old enough to have them . He said of the experience : “ If you look at what consultants usually do in the old world , in Europe or in the US , they usually go to really old companies and help them deal with legacy and help them with change , either new processes or better ways to run the company . Back in the day in Estonia , all the companies were very young .” This experience saw him concentrate on innovation and organisation of data , rather than upgrades , deepening his interest in the space .
By 2007 , Käärmann had joined Deloitte as a manager . It was here that he honed his skills in implementations and delivering systems , actuarial modelling , tools and data environments for customer finance , actuarial departments , and risk . He also supervised Deloitte ’ s technology strategy to support customers with management information and systems architecture challenges as a reaction to Solvency II regulatory requirements .
“ If you look at what consultants usually do in the old world , in Europe or in the US , they usually go to really old companies and help them deal with legacy ”
It was this experience that put Käärmann in the path of insurers and western banks . He realised their systems were archaic and gave poor value to customers . The epiphany saw him form a business partnership with Taavet Hinrikus , who was , at that time , Skype ’ s director of strategy . The pair decided to create a new system geared towards cross-border money transfers .
TransferWise was launched in London in 2010 and swiftly established offices in Tallinn , New York and Singapore . The business took off - with much demand generated from migrant Estonians working in the UK and sending money back to their families abroad .
18 November 2022