Remittance major Wise launches money transfer feature from India to other markets

After rolling out support for money transfers to India in 2013, global fintech firm Wise has made international money transfer services available from the South Asian country to 44 markets worldwide starting today.

Wise’s head of Asia Pacific and Middle East expansion Venkatesh Saha / Photo credit: Saha’s LinkedIn profile

Venkatesh Saha, head of Asia Pacific and Middle East expansion at Wise, told Tech in Asia that the decision to expand the company’s service to India came after it received several requests from its customers to make the move.

“India has consistently ranked among the most demanded countries where residents are eagerly looking forward to having our service,” he said. “That’s how we think about expansion.”

Wise’s latest move comes less than a month after it announced the integration of its platform to Google Pay to allow its users in the US to send money to those in India and Singapore.

The London-based online remittance service provider also said that it has opened a local office based in Mumbai and appointed payments industry veteran Rashmi Satpute, who formerly lead Visa Direct in the country, as its expansion lead in India.

“When we expand, we want to make sure that the product is best in class,” Saha said. “So we’ve spent the last several months testing [the service] out and working out all the kinks, and now we truly believe it’s ready for launch [in India].”

According to a statement, Wise’s service is, on average, twice as cheap compared to banks and providers such as PayPal and 38% of transfers globally made through its platform are completed instantly.

Moving forward, Saha shared that Wise plans to work on bringing the rest of its product suite over to India. The company also aims to enter more markets across the region after it gets relevant regulatory licenses.

In addition to international money transfers, Wise offers multicurrency debit accounts to help travelers avoid high foreign exchange fees when abroad. A card is provided with the account and is available for both individual and business customers with no sign-up fees and annual fees.

Wise also provides businesses with accounts to help them save money while operating internationally. This allows clients to pay invoices in over 70 countries and receive overseas payments minus the high conversion fees.

According to Saha, Wise’s full product suite is available in markets such as Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. Meanwhile, markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong have some of the products Wise offers.