London banking startup Revolut is now worth $1.7 billion — just 33 months after launching

pulse

April 26, 2018 12:22 PM

Revolut began as a no fees FX card linked to an app but has expanded into everything from travel insurance, property investment, and cryptocurrency.

Fintech Revolut raised $250 million at $1.7 billion valuation.
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global led the funding round.
Funding will fuel international expansion and hiring.
Revolut started as a no-fee foreign exchange app but has expanded into banking and insurance.

LONDON — Financial technology startup Revolut has raised $250 million in a blockbuster "Series C" funding round.

The investment, one of the largest-ever in European fintech, values Revolut at $1.7 billion. It means the 33-month-old company has grown its valuation by more than five times in a year. Revolut says the funding round make it one of the fastest European tech companies to become a "unicorn." A "unicorn" is a tech industry term for a private company valued at over $1 billion.

London-headquartered Revolut began as a no-fee foreign exchange card, linked to an app, but has rapidly expanded to offer everything from travel insurance and property investment to cryptocurrency trading. It is currently applying for a banking license in Lithuania.

The app has 2 million users globally and claims to have 250,000 daily active users. Revolut is currently processing $1.8 billion of transactions per month and says it is signing up as many as 8,000 new users per day.

The funding round was led by DST Global, the investment vehicle of Russian billionaire Yuri Milner who was an early investor of Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and Airbnb, among others. Revolut's existing investors Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital also took part in the round.

CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky said in a statement: "Our focus, since we launched, has been to do everything completely opposite to 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."

DST Global's Tom Stafford said: "Revolut is developing and delivering technology that reduces the complexity and cost of financial services for consumers and small businesses." He added, "We are delighted to support Nik and the Revolut team as they continue to innovate, roll out new services and expand geographically."

The fresh cash injection will be used to boost hiring and fuel expansion. The startup wants to be in the US, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia by the end of the year. It also expects to increase its workforce from 350 to around 800 employees. Revolut said it wants to reach 100 million customers globally within five years.

The funding takes the total raised by Revolut to $340 million and comes amid a wave of huge investment into app-only banks in Europe. In March, Germany's N26 raised $160 million and Britain's Atom raised £149 million.

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