By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Revolut said on Monday it had completed a secondary share sale valuing it at $75 billion, a 66% jump from last year and underlining the rapid growth of Europe’s most valuable financial technology company.
London-based Revolut said the sale was led by investors Coatue, Greenoaks, Dragoneer and Fidelity, while other participants included venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Franklin Templeton, and Nvidia’s venture capital arm.
The valuation, albeit secured in private rather than public markets, makes the 10-year-old business worth more than many publicly listed banks including Britain’s Barclays, France’s Societe Generale and Germany’s Deutsche Bank.
Founded by CEO Nikolay Storonsky and chief technology officer Vlad Yatsenko, Revolut is the most successful of a handful of financial services apps, or “fintechs”, to have emerged across Europe in the last decade, amassing more than 65 million customers and a pretax profit that surged 149% to 1.1 billion pounds ($1.44 billion) last year.
Revolut’s valuation has soared. It was valued at $45 billion last year and $33 billion in 2021, minting a fortune for its early employees and investors.
In a statement, the company said this was the fifth time it had offered employees the opportunity to sell shares.
“I’d like to thank our team for their determination and energy, and for believing that it is possible to build a global financial and technology leader from Europe,” said Storonsky, a billionaire who last year moved his residence to Dubai from London.
Storonsky has said his number one priority is to get Revolut a full banking licence in the UK, which still eludes the company even after a multi-year effort.
Analysts say Revolut’s technology and brand has significant appeal, but note that it still makes much of its money from customers trading cryptocurrencies and from the income earned through higher interest rates. Average customer deposits are much lower than at traditional banks and executives acknowledge too few customers use it as their primary account.
Revolut now wants to compete with big traditional lenders in offering consumer credit, mortgages and eventually even business loans. It is also considering buying a U.S. bank to grow in that market.
($1 = 0.7640 pounds)
(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes in London; Additional reporting by Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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