Early Revolut investor Balderton plots stake sale after value hits $33bn

One of the earliest investors in Revolut is plotting the sale of a stake that could net it a windfall running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sky News has learnt that Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s leading venture capital investors, has hired bankers to offload at least part of its holding in the digital bank.

UBS is said to have been appointed to oversee the sale, the precise size of which was unclear on Wednesday.

One source said the shares were expected to be sold at a modest discount to the $33bn (£24.5bn) valuation at which Revolut announced its Series E funding round in July.

Revolut became Britain’s most valuable ever start-up when it confirmed that round, led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund II and Tiger Global, the US hedge fund which has emerged as a prolific tech investor in the last year.

Balderton has backed the company since 2015, when it invested in a £1.5m seed round, and has invested in a number of subsequent fundraisings.

Revolut is thought to be one of the firm’s most lucrative investments.

In September, the technology news service Sifted reported that a number of former Revolut employees had complained that they were being forced to pay a surcharge in order to cash in their shareholdings.

News of Balderton’s plans to sell shares in Revolut comes as the investor announced that it had raised another $600m to fund early-stage investment opportunities.

Balderton and Revolut declined to comment on Wednesday.