Taavet Hinrikus

In July 2025, Taavet Hinrikus (holding 5.1% of Wise through Skaala Investments) publicly challenged the company he co-founded over its proposal to extend the dual-class share structure by ten years as it prepared to move its primary listing to the US. He accused Wise of misleading shareholders by embedding the voting rights extension into the US listing vote without allowing separate votes on each proposal. The matter is heading to court review.

In 2021, Hinrikus co-founded kood/Jõhvi, a free coding school in northeastern Estonia with no teachers, no classes, but 100% peer-to-peer coding education. The school raised €2.3 million from private and government funds. By 2025, 1,100 students had enrolled across six cohorts, with over 300 graduates and nearly two-thirds now working in tech. The school has expanded internationally to Ukraine, Kenya, and Finland. Hinrikus serves as chairman of the kood/Jõhvi council.

In May 2019, Taavet Hinrikus publicly criticized the Estonian government for including the far-right EKRE party, whose 'racist, xenophobic and homophobic rhetoric' was making it difficult for tech companies to recruit foreign workers. He said the damage was 'terrible' and 'catastrophic', citing a Guardian article calling Estonia's progress a 'U-turn'. He stated: 'If there are no people in Estonia, we do not hire them in Estonia. The countries that are more tolerant and attract talent, will win.'