Nikolay Storonsky, Founder and CEO of Revolut, on stage at the Web Summit 2019 technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Harry Murphy | Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images
LONDON – UK fintech company Revolut announced Thursday that it has raised $ 800 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank and Tiger Global.
Revolut, which offers banking and trading services through an app, is now valued at $ 33 billion, a six-fold increase from the $ 5.5 billion the company was worth last year.
The latest round of financing makes Revolut the second largest fintech unicorn – a private start-up valued at over $ 1 billion – in Europe behind the buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna, according to CB Insights. It’s also now the UK’s largest fintech, outperforming payment company Checkout.com.
The fresh cash comes from Vision Fund 2 of the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and the US hedge fund Tiger Global, which together hold less than 5% in the company.
Revolut will use the money to invest in marketing, product development and international expansion, CFO Mikko Salovaara told reporters on Thursday. The company has a strong focus on driving growth in the United States and India, he added.
Fintech startups have been on the funding spree lately, raising a record $ 33.7 billion in the second quarter of 2021, according to CB Insights. In Europe, companies like the German Trade Republic and the Dutch Mollie have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors.
Salovaara said Revolut has no immediate IPO plans as it has just raised a significant amount of funding. He didn’t rule out an IPO this year, but thought it was unlikely. Last week, money transfer giant Wise went public on London’s largest tech listing by market cap.
Revolut reported annual losses of £ 167.8 million ($ 231.9 million) in 2020, more than the £ 106.7 million the company lost the previous year. Last year the fintech had sales of £ 222.1 million. That means Revolut’s new market value is more than 100 times the 2020 sales.
Revolut managed to break even in the second half of 2020 and was “heavily profitable” in the first quarter of that year, Salovaara said.
The company is looking to expand into new services like crypto, stock trading and business accounts for long-term profitability, CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky said in a recent interview with CNBC.
