Revolut has claimed Unicorn status. The UK based digital challenger bank has raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion making it one of the fastest UK Fintechs to top the billion dollar mark ever. Launched in 2015, Revolut will next expand in the United States and challenge the dominion of august corporate entities such as Citi and Bank of America.
Nik Storonsky, Founder & CEO at Revolut said their focus since the beginning was to do everything completely the opposite of traditional banks;
“We build world class tech that puts people back in control of their finances, we speak to our customers like humans and we’re never afraid to challenge old thinking in order to innovate. To have DST Global on board is an incredible endorsement of our business strategy as we begin to expand Revolut around the world. Banking has historically avoided disruptions by technology, but that is all about to change on a big scale.”
This most recent funding round was lead by Hong Kong based DST Global. The Series C funding saw both new and existing investors participate including Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital. To date, Revolut has raised $340 million since the company launched three years ago including the multiple crowdfunding offerings that started on Crowdcube and most recently raised on Seedrs.
Revolut reports it is now processing $1.8 billion through the platform each month, while signing up between 6,000 and 8,000 new customers every day. Total customers now stand at around 2 million across Europe and Revolut has an ambitious goal of topping 100 million customers in the next five years – thus making it one of the largest banks in the world.
Revolut has espoused a mission to convince people to ditch their traditional brick and mortar banks – along with the excessive fees and poor service. This message has resonated with a sophisticated, global group of users as traditional banking declines. In the last few months alone, Revolut has launched features that allow customers to instantly buy and sell cryptocurrencies as well as a savings feature that lets customers round up their daily transactions and save their spare change in a digital Vault.
Starting with the United States, Revolut will next push into Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia – all during this year. Revolut also expects to increase their workforce from 350 to around 800 employees by the end of the year, with a focus on attracting world class engineers and designers.
Investor Tom Stafford, Managing Partner at DST Global, said the Revolut is developing tech that reduces both the complexity of banking services and the cost for consumers and businesses;
“We are delighted to support Nik and the Revolut team as they continue to innovate, roll out new services and expand geographically.”
