Wise Platform Appoints Lauren Langbridge and Manuel Sandhofer to Accelerate Expansion Across EMEA, North America and Brazil

Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments infrastructure for banks, financial institutions and larger enterprises, today announced the appointment of Lauren Langbridge as Commercial Director for North America, and Manuel Sandhofer as its new General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Brazil. Bringing over 15 years of experience, respectively, in financial technology and payments, Langbridge and Sandhofer will oversee and scale Wise Platform’s strategic partnerships, growth, and commercial strategy across the regions, as demand for its solutions rapidly grows. Prior to joining Wise Platform, Sandhofer built out the European Commercial function at Nium and held senior roles at Payoneer and UniCredit. Langbridge joined from Currencycloud where she played a key role in transforming the company from a UK-centric startup into a global cross-border payments company. Most recently, Wise Platform has been selected by leading financial services firm, Morgan Stanley to offer fast, secure and cocst-effective foreign exchange services to corporate clients, delivering one of the fastest and operationally robust payment capabilities in the banking industry. Last year, Wise Platform also expanded to Latin America by launching its multi-currency accounts and debit cards solution with Nubank in Brazil, one of the world’s largest digital banks with over 100 million customers and Travelex Confidence, the world’s largest non-bank foreign currency supplier. Through these partnerships, Wise Platform enables fast, seamless and secure international transactions for Nubank’s premium Ultraviolet segment and Travelex Confidence’s customers directly from their own platform. In Europe, Wise Platform has added and grown partnerships as demand for its Correspondent Services solution continued to accelerate. This included:

• Launching nine additional currencies with one of its longest standing partnerships, Germany’s N26, to allow their customers to now send money in 44 currencies directly from the N26 app.
• A new partnership with leading global bank Standard Chartered to power cheaper international payments for the bank’s cross-border service, SC Remit across the Middle East and Asia.
• Launching with leading business finance solution, Qonto in France, to offer fast and low-cost international payments to over 500,000 SMEs and freelancers across Europe.

Wise Platform now has six direct connections to payment systems and 65+ licenses around the world, enabling industry-leading high-speed cross-border payments and certainty to 190+ countries and 350+ payment rails. Abid Mumtaz, Global Head of Commercial at Wise Platform said: “We’re delighted to have Lauren and Manuel join the Wise Platform team and our mission of making international money movement faster, cheaper, and more transparent. Their proven track record in driving growth and scaling teams will be invaluable as we look to deliver instant and compliant cross-border payments to more banks and institutions worldwide.” Lauren Langbridge said: "From the outset, I was drawn to Wise’s bold mission to make money borderless and their ability to bring transparency and fairness to a traditionally opaque industry. I’m looking forward to contributing to Wise Platform’s journey as we bring our consumer success into the enterprise space, shaping solutions for some of the biggest names in banking and fintech.” Manuel Sandhofer said: “Over the past decade, Wise has set a new standard for speed, efficiency and transparency in international payments and the demand for our services is only growing. I'm excited to expand Wise Platform’s reach, helping more financial institutions meet their customers’ needs for seamless, instant, and cost-effective cross-border transactions. Together, we’ll continue building a future where moving money globally is as easy as sending an email.”