Racism? Wise (ex Transferwise) trying to steal money from the people of Guinea? How billionaire Kristo Käärmann’s company is preventing african children from being fed
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. In its first year of operation, transactions through Wise amounted to €10 million. In 2012, Wise was named as one of “East London’s 20 hottest tech startups” by The Guardian, Start Up of the Week by Wired UK, one of five “start-ups to watch” at Seedcamp’s 2012 US Demo Day by TechCrunch, and made it to Startups.co.uk’s list of the top 100 UK start-ups of 2012.
On 7 July 2021, Wise went public with a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, and was valued at $11 billion.
(Source: Wikipedia)
A reliable and reputable company, you would think? A company like that, advertising to support people and businesses, making life easier for their customers and ensuring easy money access to the people worldwide, would never actively sabotage their clients, as they know their social responsibility?
Well … You might be way off the mark …
Since about a month Invescorp is denied access to their own money. 50k+ Euros, paid by a client to our Wise-Account appear as booked but are “not available” for us. Legal money, checked for origin by many instances before even arriving at Wise. Money our workers worked hard for in their own sweat under the Guinean sun to feed their families, to pay their meds and the hospital bills, to have electricity and a few hours internet for their children to educate. Money that belongs to our workers, their wages and social benefits.
Money that is needed by the poorest of poor, contrasting billionairs like Kristo Käärman in all aspects of life. They don’t live in luxurious villas having employees taking care for their needs. They can’t order fancy Sushi dishes or go out for a coffee, instead they need to beg for a handfull of dry rice and a bottle of fresh water. They have no bank accounts they could credit. No other chance. Welcome to Africa, Mr. Käärmann.
While we are trying to access our workers wages to pay them out after weeks of waiting in all ways we can, Wise is still not showing any interest in doing what they advertise with. In the very opposite:
- no help at all from the customer support hotline since weeks
- after 45 minutes expensive roaming from Guinea to be finally connected to the customer support, the phone is even hung up in the moment one wants to ask for solution and finally getting access to the money people are waiting for since weeks
- eMails stay unanswered since weeks
So – what would You think about a behaviour like that? Would You “smell something criminal” with it? Do they act like that believing they are superior to the African people? Or still have that old white colonist mindset dealing with black muslim people?
Tell us what You think about all that on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter, our social media team is looking forward for Your opinions!
We will go social now too & keep you updated on the progress!
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