Wise is a publicly listed company owned by its shareholders, and its largest voting holder is cofounder and CEO Kristo Käärmann, who controls just under 50% of exercisable votes through a dual-class share structure. Wise Group plc trades on Nasdaq as WSE and on the London Stock Exchange as WISE, per its June 25, 2026 results release.
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The key detail is the gap between economic ownership and control. Käärmann's Class A and Class B shares together would give him more than half of all votes, but the company's articles cap his exercisable vote at one vote below 50% while he remains CEO, according to Wise's July 3, 2026 total voting rights notice. The sections below explain that cap, the share classes, and what changed with the US listing.
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Wise is owned by the holders of its roughly one billion Class A shares, which trade publicly, plus the holders of non-tradable Class B shares that carry extra votes. Kristo Käärmann is the single largest voting holder. Institutional funds and retail investors hold the rest of the listed Class A stock.
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As of July 3, 2026, Wise Group plc had 1,025,164,562 Class A shares and 204,338,749 Class B shares in issue, with no shares held in treasury, per its total voting rights notice. Class A shares carry one vote each and are the shares investors buy on Nasdaq or in London.
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The FY2025 annual report lists the voting interests above 3% that Wise had been notified of. As at the report's June 5, 2025 approval date, Kristo Käärmann held 1,868,079,459 voting rights, or 49.3% of total voting rights, and an entity named Notorious OÜ held 353,682,539 voting rights, or 13.1%, according to the Wise 2025 Annual Report and Accounts. The report does not name the person behind Notorious OÜ, so this page does not either.
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Wise has two share classes. Class A shares carry one vote each, pay dividends and trade on exchanges. Class B shares carry nine votes each, receive no ordinary dividends, and cannot be transferred or traded. The structure lets founding holders keep voting weight beyond their economic stake.
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The FY2025 annual report describes Class B Ordinary Shares as carrying nine votes each, with no rights to dividends except a return of nominal value on liquidation, and as strictly non-transferable and non-tradable. The July 2026 notice shows the scale of that multiplier: 204,338,749 Class B shares carried 1,839,048,741 voting rights, more than the 1,025,164,562 votes attached to all Class A shares combined, per the total voting rights notice.
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The result is that Class B holders, a small group, hold most of Wise's raw voting power. That is why the cap on Käärmann's votes, covered next, is the single most important governance rule for anyone asking who controls Wise.
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Kristo Käärmann's combined holdings would give him a majority of Wise's total votes, but the company's articles cap his exercisable vote just below half while he runs the company. If he steps back from the top job, the cap tightens further. He can heavily influence resolutions but cannot carry one alone.
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The cap language comes directly from Wise. The July 3, 2026 notice reads:
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Wise, July 3, 2026: "for so long as Kristo Käärmann remains Chief Executive Officer of the Company, his voting rights are capped by reducing the exercisable votes in respect of his Class B Share holding to one vote below 50% of the total votes eligible to be cast in respect of a shareholder resolution (reducing to one vote below 35% should he cease to be Chief Executive Officer of the Company)."

After applying the cap, total exercisable voting rights across both classes were 2,442,267,687, compared with 2,864,213,303 uncapped, per the same notice. The difference of roughly 422 million votes is the portion of Käärmann's Class B votes that cannot be cast.
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Wise Group plc is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker WSE and on the London Stock Exchange under WISE. It now reports to the US Securities and Exchange Commission as a foreign private issuer, filing an annual report on Form 20-F alongside its UK disclosures.
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The June 25, 2026 FY2026 results release was datelined New York, identified the company as Wise Group plc (Nasdaq: WSE; LSE: WISE), and said Wise filed its Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026 with the SEC that day. The listed entity name changed from Wise plc, used in the FY2025 annual report, to Wise Group plc in the 2026 filings.
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For ownership research, the US listing adds a new source. Holders crossing SEC thresholds may file Schedule 13G or 13D reports on EDGAR, and the 20-F carries a major shareholders section. This page relies on the Wise IR notices fetched for it rather than on 20-F tables it did not retrieve.
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The most detailed holder list Wise published predates the US listing and before the entity renamed. Voting totals are current to July 2026, but individual holder percentages may have moved since. Economic ownership, meaning Class A shares alone, is not broken out per holder here.

Yes. Wise Group plc trades on Nasdaq (WSE) and the London Stock Exchange (WISE), per its FY2026 results release.
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He is the largest voting holder, but his exercisable votes are capped at one vote below 50% while he is CEO, per the July 2026 notice.
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Nine, per the FY2025 annual report. Class A shares carry one.
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No. Class B shares are non-transferable and non-tradable. Investors buy Class A shares on Nasdaq or in London.
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His exercisable vote drops to one vote below 35% of votes cast, per the same notice.
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Share counts, voting figures and listing details come from Wise investor relations documents fetched September 30, 2026. Holder percentages are shown with their as-of dates.