Wise registers steep growth in active customers in Q1 FY23
Wise Plc today provided a trading update for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023.
The company reports that 5 million customers transacted on Wise in Q1 FY23. The number of active personal customers grew by 37% year-on-year to 4.7 million.
Wise onboarded a million new customers, supported by continued strong progress in the US and excellent product-market fit in Brazil. The growth was also driven by increased adoption of the Wise Account and Wise Business products, where customers tend to transact more frequently.
Total volume grew by 49% from the equivalent quarter a year earlier and 14% from the preceding quarter to £24.4 billion. Volume growth was driven by a higher number of active customers that are increasingly using the Wise Account and Wise Business products, which in turn also leads to a higher average volume per customer (VPC).
The growth also reflects to a lesser extent, more variable drivers which include people and businesses responding to increased levels of FX volatility and the translation impact from FX movements which was a tailwind in the quarter, compared with a headwind in FY22. On a constant currency basis volume grew 45% from the year-ago quarter.
Revenue grew by 51% year-on-year and 21% quarter-on-quarter to £185.9 million, in line with Wise’s growth in volume. Total take rate increased 4bps quarter-on-quarter to 0.76%, reflecting the impact of price rises announced in March, alongside a pick-up in other revenues. Other revenues benefited from higher debit card spend and interchange fees as customers use the Wise Account.
Financial guidance for FY23 and the medium-term remains unchanged from the FY22 full year results update. This includes:
- Revenue growth of between 30-35% in FY23 and greater than 20% (CAGR) over the medium-term
- Adjusted EBITDA margin at or above 20% over the medium-term.
Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder said:
“In the three months to 30 June 2022 we helped 5 million active customers move more than £24 billion across borders, a 49% increase on last year. We also reached a key milestone in our mission, more than 50% of all cross-border transfers are now completed instantly.
Our Wise Account and Wise Business products got even better as we launched 2-step payment approvals and employee spending controls on mobile for our business customers. The average price that our customers paid for cross-border transactions reduced from 0.67% to 0.61% in Q1 FY23 compared with the same period last year and was unchanged compared with Q4 FY22.”