Revolut's Rise to Global Financial Super App

Revolut was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, two former investment bankers.

The company's early success was fueled by its innovative approach to mobile banking and its ability to offer a range of financial services, including currency exchange and budgeting tools.

Revolut's user base grew rapidly, with over 1 million users in just two years.

This growth was driven by the company's focus on providing a seamless and user-friendly experience for its customers.

Revolut's expansion into new markets was also a key factor in its success, with the company launching services in over 30 countries worldwide.

This global reach has allowed Revolut to tap into new revenue streams and expand its customer base.

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Revolut was founded on July 1, 2015, by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko.

The company's initial goal was to offer individuals in the UK and European Economic Area a smartphone app linked to a pre-paid Mastercard to spend money abroad using interbank foreign exchange rates.

This allowed customers to spend their money across 90 countries while abroad, with the company claiming it provided the best possible exchange rates.

Revolut's vision was to build a payments platform that enabled customers and merchants to make low-cost instant payments and marketing platform.

The company raised £1.5 million during a seed funding round in the same month it was founded.

Revolut's success led to a Series A round the following year, where they raised over £6.75 million, putting them at a total valuation of about £42 million.

By that time, they had reached around 300,000 users, processing almost £1 billion in transactions.

Revolut launched a subscription-based app in June 2017, available to businesses across the UK and Europe, under the name "Revolut Business".

Revolut Business allowed businesses to create an account with a multi-currency IBAN to hold, exchange, and transfer money with 25 currencies.

The company raised $66 million during a Series B round in July 2017, with the goal to expand across Asia and the United States.

However, Revolut was also affected by a major outage with their card processor Global Processing Services in June 2017, causing card payments to fail.

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Revolut's growth has been nothing short of remarkable, with revenues rising 72% to $4 billion in a single year. This incredible growth has been fueled by the company's expansion into new markets.

The company's expansion plans were kickstarted after receiving its EU banking license in December 2018, which allowed it to accept deposits and offer consumer credits. It then expanded into 24 new markets across the United States, Asia, and other regions, supported by agreements with Visa and Mastercard.

Revolut's valuation has skyrocketed, reaching a staggering $33 billion in July 2021 after a Series E funding round. This valuation is a testament to the company's success and its potential for future growth.

Revolut's revenue grew by a whopping 72% last year, reaching $4bn (£3.1bn). This significant increase is a testament to the company's strong growth trajectory.

The pre-tax profit surged 149% to $1.4bn, and net profit topped $1bn. These impressive figures have put Revolut on a price-to-sales ratio of 16 and a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 65.

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Revolut's mobile app supports spending and ATM withdrawals in 120 currencies and transfers in 36 currencies directly from the app.

Revolut offers banking services including GBP and EUR bank accounts, debit cards, credit cards, and currency exchange with over 25 fiat currencies.

Users with a personal Revolut account have access to services including payments and cards, savings, credit, investment and trading, cryptocurrency trading, multi-currency accounts, shared accounts, premium lifestyle features, and donations.

Revolut's credit card is available in Poland, Lithuania, the United States, and Ireland, making it a convenient option for international transactions.

Crypto cannot be deposited or spent, only converted back to fiat inside Revolut, which is a notable limitation of their services.

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Revolut prioritizes security and compliance with international regulations. The company is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which ensures end-to-end security of information and protection of funds.

This means that Revolut has implemented robust security measures to safeguard cardholder data, giving users peace of mind when making transactions.

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Revolut is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), ensuring end-to-end security of information and protection of funds.

The company was granted a UK banking license in July 2024, after initially applying in 2021.

Revolut was not a bank and not a signatory to the Contingent Reimbursement Model Scheme prior to having a banking license, which means it was not obliged to reimburse many who would be eligible under the code.

In 2023, Revolut reported a 35% reduction to authorised push payments (APP) fraud.

However, the number of complaints of fraud reported to Action Fraud by Revolut customers rose from 567 in February 2023 to 1,086 for February 2024.

Action Fraud received 10,000 reports of fraud naming Revolut in 2023, 2,000 more than Barclays, one of the UK's largest banks.

Over 3,500 complaints about Revolut were made to the Financial Ombudsman in 2023, more than any other financial institution.

Consumer organization Which? did not recommend banking large sums of money with Revolut, citing its track record of not reimbursing people who fall victim to fraud.

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Revolut's attractive perks and card plans could potentially poach millions of Lloyds/Halifax customers in the future.

Lloyds' massive mortgage book, valued at £318bn, makes it highly unlikely for Revolut to compete with it on scale.

Stability matters more than flashy features for businesses, which is why most won't jump ship to a digital-only rival.

Lloyds has hundreds of branches across the UK, giving it an edge over digital-only banks like Revolut.

Business deposits are significantly larger and more valuable to banks than consumer deposits.

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Revolut is a digital banking platform that offers a range of financial services to its customers.

The company was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, and it has since grown to become one of the largest fintech companies in the world.

Revolut's business model is based on a mobile app that allows users to manage their money, make payments, and exchange currencies.

Revolut has a strong focus on innovation, with a team of over 5,000 employees working on new products and features to improve the user experience.

Revolut has raised a significant amount of funding to support its growth and expansion. The company raised £6.5 million in a Series A funding round in 2016, with additional funding coming from an equity crowdfunding site.

An impressive £17 million was raised through an equity crowdfunding site, demonstrating the power of community-driven investment. Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, and Ribbit Capital all participated in the Series A funding round.

In 2017, Revolut secured $66 million in a Series B funding round, marking a significant milestone in the company's fundraising journey. This funding round helped Revolut accelerate its growth and expansion plans.

Revolut's valuation skyrocketed in 2018, reaching $1.7 billion after raising $250 million in Series C funding. This valuation made Revolut a unicorn, a term used to describe startups with valuations over $1 billion.

By 2020, Revolut's valuation had more than tripled, reaching £4.2 billion after completing a Series D funding round of $580 million. This funding round cemented Revolut's position as the United Kingdom's most valuable financial technology startup.

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In 2021, Revolut's valuation reached $33 billion after raising $800 million in Series E funding from investors, including SoftBank Group and Tiger Global Management. This made Revolut the leading European startup in terms of valuation.

As of June 2023, Revolut has raised a total of $1.7 billion in funding, a testament to the company's ability to attract significant investment.

Revolut's employment practices have been the subject of controversy. In March 2019, Wired published an exposé revealing unpaid work, high staff turnover, and employees feeling pressured to work weekends to meet performance indicators.

The company's work culture has been criticized for being demanding. A later article in December 2019 by Sifted noted that Revolut had a higher rating than its peers on Glassdoor, which may suggest some employees were satisfied with their jobs despite the challenges.

However, this positive rating was short-lived. In June 2020, Wired published a further exposé detailing Revolut's dismissal of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees, particularly in Kraków, were given the choice of termination for underperformance or a mutual agreement to leave the company voluntarily.

The company's handling of redundancies has been called into question. Current and former employees say staff were coerced into accepting terminations, even though Revolut had no legal grounds to fire them.

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Revolut's retail app offers a wide range of services to its users, including payments and cards, savings, credit, investment and trading, cryptocurrency trading, multi-currency accounts, shared accounts, premium lifestyle features, and donations.

One of the key features of the app is the ability to manage multiple currencies in a single account, making international transactions a breeze.

The app also allows users to trade cryptocurrencies, giving them more control over their investments.

Users can also access premium lifestyle features, which provide exclusive benefits and rewards.

Revolut's retail app is designed to be user-friendly and accessible, making it easy for anyone to manage their finances on the go.

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Revolut automated its deployment to support rapid growth and innovation.

The company chose Google Cloud for its new infrastructure, which integrated easily with its existing Google Workspace platform.

Revolut's engineers loved the simplicity and intuitiveness of Google Cloud, saying it didn't require them to "reinvent the wheel."

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Incremental snapshotting in Google Compute Engine reduced backup time from 20 hours to just 5 minutes.

Revolut built its core infrastructure with Google Compute Engine virtual machines, striking a perfect balance between ease of use and control over security.

Google Cloud Identity and Access Management allowed Revolut to set up highly secure, separate instances for its main infrastructure and application.

Revolut used Google Cloud APIs with a third-party automation tool to achieve fully automated infrastructure as code provisioning and management.

This automation enabled Revolut's engineers to speed up deployments and easily roll back if necessary.

Google Cloud Identity and Access Management also enabled Revolut to assign permissions to Google Cloud resources quickly and securely.

Revolut's new backup solution using incremental disk snapshots in Compute Engine minimized resource costs while keeping its multi-terabyte databases highly secure.

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Revolut offers a wide range of banking services, including GBP and EUR bank accounts, debit cards, credit cards, and currency exchange with over 25 fiat currencies.

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You can use Revolut's mobile app to support spending and ATM withdrawals in 120 currencies and transfers in 36 currencies directly from the app.

Revolut's credit card is available in Poland, Lithuania, the United States, and Ireland.

The app also allows for peer-to-peer payments, stock trading, and cryptocurrency exchange, but cryptocurrency can only be converted back to fiat inside Revolut.

Revolut banks with Metropolitan Commercial Bank of New York, which does not allow the transfer of fiat money to or from cryptocurrency exchanges.

Revolut already holds a UK banking licence, but with significant restrictions, making it hard for the company to become a fully-fledged bank.

This is due to the UK's financial regulators setting high barriers to entry for new banks to protect consumers and ensure financial stability.

Revolut has over 10 million UK customers and over 60 million worldwide, making the regulatory process even more complex.

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