Two Estonians make Forbes world’s rich list again

Wise founders Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus. Source: Transferwise

Wise co-founders Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus, both from Estonia, have made the freshly published Forbes World’s Real-Time Billionaires list.

Käärmann, 45, was placed 1,913th at the time of writing, with a fortune of US$2.2 billion (around €1.9 billion).

Forbes notes he cofounded, with Hinrikus, cross-border payments startup TransferWise in 2011 and took it public as Wise in 2021 on the London Stock Exchange.

Käärmann and Hinrikus are Estonia’s first-ever billionaires, who met while working in London and found they had a shared dislike of losing money to their banks in fees charged for sending money back home to Estonia.

Hinrikus, 43, placed 3,066th on the Forbes list, with a net worth of US$1.2 billion (approximated €1 billion).

Read more: ERR.EE

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