Revolut booms to become Britain’s highest valued fintech firm

EVOLUT, the self-described financial superapp, today raised $800 million from investors in a deal that makes it the most valuable fintech business in Britain with a supposed worth of $33 billion.

That’s a fairly astonishing valuation for a business that has only just turned profitable, does not yet have a banking licence and was worth around $5 billion just a year ago.

The deal will be seen as a boon to London’s status as a tech centre, a status that has wobbled lately with big deals going to New York and certain floats, notably of Deliveroo, flopping.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak offered praise: “We want to see even more great British Fintech success stories like Revolut.”

The money was raised from Softbank and Tiger Global who have less than 5% between them. Other investors include Ribbit Capital, TCV, Balderton Capital, Index Ventures.

The company declined to say what management, including founder Nikolay Storonsky own, raising questions about disclosure and openness.

A spokeswoman said no one had ever asked.

Revolut does currency exchange, stock trading, Apple Pay and other services – it has 16 million customers worldwide.

Chief Financial Officer Mikko Salavaara said the raised money would be spent on marketing and product development. The fundraiser “does not affect the timeline for a listing” he said, which seems unlikely to be this year.

“Eventually we will be a public company, but there are no immediate plans to list,” he added. “The environment for raising funds is very strong and we had investor interest.”

Nikolay Storonsky, Founder & CEO of Revolut said, “SoftBank and Tiger Global’s investments are an endorsement of our mission to create a global financial superapp that enables customers to manage all their financial needs through a single platform. This funding round makes Revolut the UK’s most valuable fintech, demonstrating investors’ confidence that we can deliver products that raise the bar for customers’ expectations across the whole financial services industry.”

He founded the business in 2015 after becoming frustrated at what he was paying in fees on transactions while travelling.

At $33 billion, Revolut is valued more highly than NatWest. Its losses last year widened from £107 million to £168 million.

Scott Shleifer at Tiger Global said: “We believe Revolut’s superior customer experience and focus on rapid product development put the company in a strong position to continue scaling in both existing and new geographies.”