Meta hires three OpenAI researchers, WSJ reports
June 25 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has hired three OpenAI researchers to join his superintelligence efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company hired Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, who were all working in OpenAI's Zurich office, the report said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
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Finextra
29 minutes ago
- Finextra
Deep Dive: Wise – Building a World of Money Without Borders: By Sam Boboev
Wise (formerly TransferWise) has quietly become one of fintech's biggest success stories, transforming how people and businesses send money across borders. From humble startup origins in 2011, Wise now moves over £145 billion internationally each year for 15+ million customers – at a fraction of the cost charged by banks. In doing so, Wise saved its users an estimated £2 billion in fees in FY2025 alone. It's a rare fintech that's both fast-growing and profitable, pursuing a bold mission encapsulated in its slogan: 'Money without borders – instant, convenient, transparent and eventually free.' This deep dive explores why Wise matters today – covering the massive market it's tackling, its journey and products, the technology and regulatory infrastructure under its hood, its recent financial performance, competitive landscape, and what customers and leadership are saying. A Massive Market Ripe for Disruption Moving money internationally has long been notorious for high costs and hassle. Over £22 trillion crosses borders each year, projected to reach £28 trillion by 2027 as globalization drives more migration, remote work, and global commerce. By Wise's own 2025 estimate, the number may be as high as £32 trillion annually. Historically, this market was dominated by big banks and legacy remittance providers relying on an antiquated correspondent banking network. International transfers often meant 'expensive, slow and inefficient service, reliant on outdated infrastructure,' as Wise's 2023 report bluntly puts it. Banks and incumbents like Western Union layered on fees and hidden exchange rate markups – profiting from customers' lack of transparency. The result: sending money abroad could cost 5-8% in fees (often not obvious upfront) and take days to arrive. Wise was founded to change this status quo. Its vision of 'Money Without Borders' is about making moving money 'as cheap, fast, and convenient as sending an email,' in the words of its co-founder. Wise's core innovation was using technology and clever account structures to eliminate intermediaries and hidden fees, giving users the real mid-market exchange rate and charging only a low upfront fee. As we'll see, this strategy is forcing the industry to evolve. Today, many fintechs and even banks are racing to offer cheaper, easier cross-border payments – yet traditional banks remain Wise's primary competitors, still handling the majority of cross-currency transactions. A growing field of digital challengers (from neobanks like Revolut to PayPal's Xoom and others) are also carving out niches. But Wise has a head start in scale, efficiency, and trust – built over a decade of singular focus on solving this problem. From Startup to Public Company Wise's origin story is a personal one. In 2011, two Estonian friends living in London – Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus – grew frustrated with the 'massive problem' of bank fees on international transfers. They started TransferWise that year to help people send money abroad at the true exchange rate. The concept resonated: by 2014, having raised a $58 million Series C to expand globally, TransferWise launched in the US and Australia. The company hit major milestones quickly. It reached its first £1 billion transferred (cumulative) in 2014, and by 2017 was profitable with over £1 billion being moved every month through its platform – a rarity in fintech. Importantly, Wise also became an innovator in financial infrastructure early on. In 2016 it gained direct access to the UK's Faster Payments network (the first tech company to do so), showing a knack for working with regulators to improve speed and cost. Over time, TransferWise broadened its offerings beyond person-to-person remittances. In 2016 it launched its first business accounts for SMEs to send money internationally on better terms. By 2018 it rolled out a borderless multi-currency account and debit Mastercard, enabling customers to hold money in multiple currencies and spend it via card in different countries with low fees. The company's global footprint also expanded: it opened offices around the world (10 offices by 2019, including a European hub in Belgium to navigate Brexit) and set up an Asia-Pacific hub in Singapore in 2017. In 2021, reflecting its broadened mission, TransferWise rebranded to 'Wise.' That same year, Wise went public via a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange – notably, London's largest tech listing ever at the time. The listing valued Wise at ~$11 billion, signaling its arrival as a major fintech player. Today, Wise is truly international: over 6,500 employees ('Wisers') across 20+ offices serve customers in 170+ countries. Yet the company insists it's 'still solving only a fraction of the problem'. As CEO Kristo Käärmann wrote, 'Twelve years ago we set out to solve the massive problem people and businesses face in sending money around the world… While we're nowhere near mission complete, 16 million people and businesses are now helping us get closer every day.' In the next sections, we'll examine how Wise is attempting to fulfill that mission through its products and underlying infrastructure. --------- Source: Wise Annual Reports FY2023–FY2025; product pages and blog; CEO and executive statements from Wise reports; and Wise investor reports highlighting key metrics. All data and quotes are from official Wise materials. Disclaimer: Fintech Wrap Up aggregates publicly available information for informational purposes only. Portions of the content may be reproduced verbatim from the original source, and full credit is provided with a "Source: [Name]" attribution. All copyrights and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Fintech Wrap Up does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the aggregated content; these are the responsibility of the original source providers. Links to the original sources may not always be included. For questions or concerns, please contact us at
Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How £120 airline luggage fees spiralled out of control
Have airline luggage fees gone too far? While anyone who's been within a mile of Stansted knows that budget airlines have steep baggage charges, the speed with which those fees have been escalating across Europe in recent years has been enough to give even experienced travellers a nasty surprise. At least that's the view of the European Commission, which is proposing new legislation to get the likes of Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air to standardise their baggage rules. The move is being cheered on by consumer rights groups who have spent years complaining that airline luggage fees are unfair. It's true that the red-tape enthusiasts in Brussels aren't known for their intelligent, pro-market approach. But on the other hand, there's no denying that the airlines have been taking liberties when it comes to their baggage charges – many of which have spiked several times since the pandemic. Look at Ryanair, which has tweaked at least one of its baggage charges every year for the past four summers. The end result is that the maximum charge for storing a 10kg suitcase has gone from £23.99 to £44.99 – an 88 per cent jump – and the maximum fee for a 20kg checked bag has risen from £39.99 to £59.99. Meanwhile, bringing a larger bag for hand luggage could cost you as much as £36 (up from £20 just four years ago). Given that the fees are per flight, you'll need to double those numbers if you want to bring the bag back with you. Because of how Ryanair's fees work – with the exact cost depending on the flight in question – it isn't easy to make a like-for-like comparison. But a quick search of some of the most popular routes this summer confirms that passengers are almost certainly paying more than they were before the pandemic. Looking at a flight from Stansted to Santorini on June 27, for example, a 10kg check-in bag will cost £28.99 one-way. But we can see from archived versions of Ryanair's website that the maximum fee for that service was £23.99 until just three years ago – so there's absolutely no way someone would be paying that much. Like the proverbial boiling frog, these bigger changes have happened bit by bit. In 2023, a 10kg bag was capped at £25 each way; in 2024, it increased to £29.99; this year, it jumped all the way to £44.99. In other words, if you've been thinking that your summer jaunt to Turkey has been going up in price in recent years, it probably isn't in your imagination.
Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Ocado borrowed its way to success. Now its debt addiction risks disaster
Tim Steiner likes to say he has had two jobs. First, he was a bond trader at Goldman Sachs. Seven years later – when it 'felt like a time to do something other than that' – he set up Ocado Group and became its chief executive. He has not moved roles since. The two careers may seem miles apart. But for Steiner, there have been some constants. One of them is a preoccupation with debt. Concerns over Ocado's debt pile are rapidly coming to the fore as the technology group becomes the latest to be burned by spiralling interest rates. A recent move to remortgage some of its debts has left it with higher borrowing rates than before, with Ocado's debt interest bill rocketing from an estimated £27.3m a year ago to almost £100m this year. The surge has thrown into sharp focus the ongoing struggle at Ocado, as it battles to shed its image as a business fuelled by debt to one that funds its own growth. Will Steiner and the company's addiction to debt be their undoing? Unlike most chief executives, Steiner did not inherit his position but used his Goldman trading know-how to establish Ocado from the ground up, growing it a valuation shy of £2bn. The company, which supplies robot warehouse technology, has established tie-ups with a swathe of businesses including US retail giant Kroger and Britain's Morrisons. It has a long-standing deal with Marks & Spencer to jointly own online grocer Ocado Retail, which is best known for its purple and green vans seen on Britain's street. Yet Ocado has used the debt markets to propel that growth more than most, leaving it vulnerable to an interest rates environment which has been less than favourable recently. In May, Ocado revealed that it was selling £300m of debt – so-called 'senior unsecured notes' repayable in 2030 – at a coupon of 11pc. It would use the funds to buy back bonds with yields of around 0.88pc and 3.88pc that were due this year and next – borrowing new money to pay off its old debt. The decision was taken 'to extend the maturity profile of Ocado's debt', the company said. Still, it has meant Ocado's debt interest bill has soared. One insider said: 'The thing is, what could Ocado do? It needed to refinance – but obviously debt is much more expensive now than it was a few years ago.' In its first 24 years, the company raised more than £4.5bn of equity and debt. At the end of December, its net debt stood at £1.2bn versus its equity value of around £1.9bn – a debt-to-equity ratio which can sometimes raise eyebrows. Since then, it has refinanced some of its bonds, but also drawn down on a $152m (£110m) letter of credit linked to its tie-up with US giant Kroger. Brittain Ladd, a consultant who advised Kroger on its deal with Ocado, says the company is known for its 'high-debt load compared with its market capitalisation'. Within Ocado, there have been steps to reverse this. Recently, bosses have stepped up efforts to finally turn the company cash-generative. Spiralling interest rates have only made it more important that Ocado stop relying on debt. 'If it could just get to cash-flow positivity, then life looks so much easier,' says one insider. For now, Ocado remains firmly in the red, recording a pre-tax loss of £375m in 2024 on revenues of £1.2bn. This compares with a £394m loss on revenues of £1.1bn a year earlier. In an attempt to turn profitable, Ocado made almost 1,000 job cuts last year. In February, it said it would have to axe more positions to try to make the business profitable, with roles in its research and development department to go. Steiner said it was 'not a fun position to be in but we are coming to the end of the cycle [of cuts]'. However, Ocado chiefs have claimed this will help them to become cash-flow positive by next year. Some in the City remain wary after years where Ocado has pushed back cash-flow targets. Fitch Ratings, the credit rating agency, gave Ocado's new £300m debt raise a rating of B-, only slightly better than the triple C bracket, which is deemed highly risky. It said this was because Ocado's 'execution risk on reaching scale and profitability remains high due to the slow deployment of the company's infrastructure by its partners, while its liquidity position is being eroded by high capex'. Clive Black, of Shore Capital Markets, says Ocado's problems have been long-running. 'From day one, this has been a business that has had to expend capital in order to generate sales.' As interest rates have risen, he says 'the financial corridors have been closing in on Ocado's options, so they've had to materially reduce their capital investment'. However, even last year, Ocado was still spending £392m on capital expenditure, compared with £520m in 2024. Ocado insists it has strong liquidity, with £772m of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year. However, Black says he believes 'there is a reasonable prospect that Ocado will have to come back to the market and raise more equity'. There are potential ways Ocado can avoid this. The opportunity in the US – where it is partnered with grocery giant Kroger – is significant. 'The US is a trillion-dollar grocery market, ' says one insider. 'Kroger is 20pc of that so it's absolutely huge.' If the US retailer were to move to take scores more robot warehouses – from eight currently – it would be 'completely transformational' for Ocado, they say. Ladd says others are waiting to see what Kroger will do, after years of concerns over the appetite for its warehouses. Ocado slowed its rollout of warehouses in the UK in 2022 amid weaker demand. 'The biggest challenge for Ocado is that they haven't been able to stabilise the relationship with Kroger,' he says. 'Ocado must get Kroger to announce they view Ocado as a long-term solution and partner. The failure to do this is why Ocado isn't signing other retailers.' City sources say it will be a major focus at Ocado's interim results in July, with bosses under pressure to get Kroger to sign up for more robot warehouses. Last December, The Telegraph revealed Ocado was parachuting staff into the existing US warehouses to help Kroger get the best out of its technology. In the meantime, all Ocado can do is cross its fingers – and cut its own costs. Its rising debt interest bill will be far from helpful. Steiner, though, has always maintained he is up for a challenge. It is something that has been engrained in him from the start of the career. 'I'm a problem-solver,' he said in 2022. It was something he learnt at Goldman Sachs. 'Anyone running a business is a problem-solver, right?' Everything hinges on how he solves this one.
