Tell us about Wise

“Wise is a technology business that is revolutionising the entire self-employment experience within the logistics and last-mile delivery sector. Through our digital platform, delivery business owners are able to recruit, onboard and pay their self-employed drivers whilst protecting their business from a compliance perspective. 

“We founded Wise back in December 2019 and have been on an incredible journey since then, going from a team of a dozen or so to over 75 talented team members, all based in our headquarters in Solihull, Birmingham.” 

How did you come up with the idea for the company? OR what do you think makes the company unique?

“We came up for the idea for the company after previously working closely with the UK last-mile delivery sector and seeing first-hand just how many issues these businesses were facing around engaging self-employed delivery drivers. Whether it was getting bogged down in paperwork trying to onboard drivers, or endless admin around payroll and worries about compliance, we could see that so many businesses were experiencing the same issues.

“We wanted to alleviate these issues through innovation, allowing these business owners to spend more time growing their business. 

“However, what makes Wise unique is that from the very beginning we’ve been focused on improving the entire self-employment experience for both the company and the subcontractor. So, through the Wise app, the self-employed delivery drivers are able to save time when applying for jobs, have all of their invoicing and accountancy taken care of by experts and even get access to amazing high street discounts. 

“This focus on the industry as an entirety and commitment to continuous improvement through technology, as well as the fact that the platform is free for businesses, is what makes Wise completely unique.” 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

“Over the last couple of years, Wise has changed immeasurably – going from a small team to one of the Midlands’ fastest-growing scale-up businesses. 

“Clearly, over the last two years the parcel delivery sector has been absolutely integral to keeping the country on its feet and so we’ve been hard at work on new functionality that can help business owners continue to grow whilst getting real-time feedback from our clients on how we can continue to support them even more moving forwards.

“One key are of focus for the business was around digital talent recruitment and how we are able to not only bring some of the country’s best coding talent to Wise, but create a culture that makes them want to stay with us for a long time. At the end of October, we were unveiled as one of the UK’s Best Tech Workplaces by Great Place To Work™, which is testament to the hard work of every single person involved with the business.”

What can we hope to see from Wise in the future?

“In the coming years there are a couple of areas we’re focused on as a business and the most important of these is continuing to expand our functionality. There are so many areas of self-employment which could be vastly improved with the introduction of technology and we’re determined for Wise to be the industry leader for all of this.

“As we move forwards, the opportunity for the business to expand not only across new territories within Europe, but new industries and areas of working life is something we’re extremely excited about.”