Digital bank Revolut becomes London’s latest fintech unicorn
DIGITAL banking alternative Revolut has raised $250m (£179.3m) in new funding, taking its overall valuation to $1.7bn, or £1.22bn.
This makes the London-based platform one of the fastest fintech firms in Europe to reach unicorn status.
The digital bank, which offers peer-to-peer lending options alongside cryptocurrency investments and money management features, is now targeting 100m users over the next five years as it expands worldwide.
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“Our focus, since we launched, has been to do everything completely opposite to traditional banks,” said Nik Storonsky, founder and chief executive at Revolut.
“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.”
The latest funding round came courtesy of Hong Kong-based investment group DST Global, as well as a portfolio of new and existing investors which included Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital.
“To have DST Global on board is an incredible endorsement of our business strategy as we begin to expand Revolut around the world,” added Storonsky.
“Banking has historically avoided disruptions by technology, but that is all about to change on a big scale.”
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To date, Revolut has accumulated almost 2m customers, with between 6,000 and 8,000 new customers signing up every day.
The company’s expansion will see the platform move to the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia in 2018.
Revolut also expects to increase their workforce from 350 to around 800 employees by the end of the year, with a focus on attracting world class engineers and designers.
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