Fintech Startup Revolut Valued at $5.5 Billion Is Testing The Limits Of Finance

Valued at $5.5 billion, Revolut is currently one of the most promising companies in FinTech finding innovative new solutions on the path to building something revolutionary. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented movement in financial markets and varied on fintech companies. The COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest test Revolut has faced in its five-years of business. Revolut's Co-founders, CEO Nik Storonsky, CTO and Vladyslav Yatsenko, are forgoing their salaries for a year. Staff at Revolut have been offered shares in exchange for lower take-home pay. Revolut is a digital, cloud-based company with the flexibility to arrange for its team of 2,000+ to work remotely from home offering continued service to more than 10 million people worldwide. Revolut continues to show signs of high growth and market leadership. Revolut is the most highly valued FinTech in Europe along with Klarna.

Revolut raised a $500 million Series D round of funding in February of this year. Silicon Valley growth fund TCV led the $500 million round, valuing the company at $5.5 billion. Revolut investors include DST Global, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, Ribbit Capital, Lakestar, GP Bullhound and more.

In March of this year, Mastercard accelerated the global expansion of Revolut into America. Revolut partnered with Metropolitan Commercial Bank (New York) for the banking infrastructure in the USA. Last week Revolut launched to its first 300,000 customers in Lithuania. Revolut will be launching in other Central and Eastern European markets later in the year. A FinTech partnership with Visa will support Revolut's global expansion in 24 new markets including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Revolut’s next step is an acquisition of smaller FinTech companies that have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Revolut recently appointed Don H., a former Uber executive, to lead its negotiation and acquisition efforts. Nik Storonsky vision is to build on Revolut’s roots as a traveler’s card and boost targeting offers in areas such as travel aggregation. This would allow customers to book flights or even hire cars via the Revolut app when global travel restrictions are gone.

A lot of travel aggregators are in trouble at the moment — we could probably purchase one and sell flight tickets at cost and be 10 to 15 percent cheaper than everyone else. Nik Storonsky

Do you believe this is the way Revolut's going to make itself profitable for its investors? Revolut is testing the limits of finance. Nik Storonsky is racing to build what he calls the Uber of financial services in the highly regulated world of finance. Nik Storonsky spent seven years working as an equities derivatives trader at Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse before starting Revolut. He created the company, he says, because he was frustrated by the exorbitant fees credit cards charge customers while they travel. Nik Storonsky's solution was a pre-paid debit card with no foreign transaction fees. Nik Storonsky and Vladyslav Yatsenko launched Revolut as a fast growth company in 2015 at the Level39 tech accelerator in Canary Wharf. Today, Revolut which provides mobile app-based current accounts as an alternative to physical banks, has been referred by some as a "tech super star" and has more than ten million customers worldwide and has handled over 400 million transactions.

The market for financial technology firms offering an alternative to traditional banks is fiercely competitive with Revolut going up against other established rivals, such as N26, Starling Bank, and Monzo Bank.  Peter Thiel's-Backed FinTech N26 closed all its U.K. mobile banking accounts in April of this year citing the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union.

Revolut which now has over 2,000 employees worldwide, beefed up its senior management team last year with senior hires including the appointment of asset management veteran Martin Gilbert as Chairman. Martin Gilbert was the former Vice Chairman of Standard Life Aberdeen and the Co-founder and CEO of Aberdeen Standard Investments.

Listen to the exclusive interview of Nik Storonsky founder and CEO Revolut with Laurent Nizri at the Paris Fintech Forum (Alteir Event), sharing key insights on his journey from a startup to a unicorn and plans for finding innovative new solutions on the path to building something revolutionary. FinTech startup Revolut valued at $5.5 billion is being transformed into a company and industry leader that will shape the future by build the world’s first truly global bank.

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